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I have an opportunity to get a large quantity of old-growth walnut, and the guy will cut the chunks for me. I want to order chunks long, thick, and deep enough to cover any of the lever guns with some extra (an inch?) for good measure. Can anyone recommend dimensions I should give him? Thanks for any help.
Take a look at this video of Turnbull from the “How its made” TV show. It shows them cutting a stock out of a blank and you can see they have a lot of extra wood to start with.
Bob
WACA Life Member--- NRA Life Member---- Cody Firearms member since 1991 Researching the Winchester 1873's
Email: [email protected]
Huck Riley said
I have an opportunity to get a large quantity of old-growth walnut, and the guy will cut the chunks for me. I want to order chunks long, thick, and deep enough to cover any of the lever guns with some extra (an inch?) for good measure. Can anyone recommend dimensions I should give him? Thanks for any help.
I will dig through my left over pieces and see if I can get some rough dimensions. It is also nice to have enough wood to make the forend out of the same piece. When laying out the stock the grain at the wrist area needs to be as straight as practical. If you use fancy grain in this area it may crack. Remember this when cutting the rough pieces.
Nice video Bob.
Here are a couple pictures of left over wood pieces. 2 show length and layout, 1 is a forend and the last one shows the thickness. 
All of this, from all of you has been a real help. Thank you! I’m going to go look and cherry pick this week sometime. I will be armed with your comments. 
November 7, 2015
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I may be wrong (and probably am!) but I believe you want to have your blanks quarter sawn. This changes the character of the wood and may minimize warping.
Mike
Mike could be right? I don’t know. Maybe a question for Turnbull. I don’t buy the black walnut I just get the scraps for my projects. Now if we were talking about white oak then quartersawn for sure.
No joy. 
Most had been cut up to board dimensions, warped and cupped from sitting out for 6 years. I did pull a chunk that would be large enough, but the outside looks dry, split and cracked. It’s big enough that it might be okay inside but I doubt it. I’ll whittle it down with my chain saw and see what the inside looks like.
Funny, the guy told me they cut it down and let it sit five years. When they cut it up, water literally poured out of it. So, they hold water for a long time whole, but once they are opened up, they dry out like anything else.
Anyway, every thing you guys said was educational and schooled me for the next time. Thanks.
Huck Riley said
No joy.Funny, the guy told me they cut it down and let it sit five years. When they cut it up, water literally poured out of it. So, they hold water for a long time whole, but once they are opened up, they dry out like anything else.
Anyway, every thing you guys said was educational and schooled me for the next time. Thanks.
I had a similar experience some years ago. Went to look at a 1000’s of pieces of wood that had been used around the shipyards for cribbing. Most pieces were large enough for stocks or furniture but dried out and cracked like crazy.
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