Like the man said when someone asked him on the street in Manhattan, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall? He replied simply. "Practice"...Hindsii is really what is called Claro walnut almost always from California grove trees- bright, lots of banding, often lots of fiddleback, reddish mineral line (not black), colorful and a bit soft with rather open pores, Western black is really just claro (hindsii) specimen grown in the NW often hard to tell from nigra. Eastern Black (nigra) is dark, harder than hindsii and rarely as colorful and almost always comes from east of the Great Plains. (I am looking at hundreds of them out my window now), "English walnut" juglans regia is usually from California, Turkey and "other". Turkish is the finest walnut in the world for gun stocks. California is often a bit softer and brighter with lots of dark mineral lines. It grows all over however. I've had great blanks from even here in Pa. Franquette is just a type of grove grown regia from California that usually evidences a lot of straight parallel tightly packed mineral lines.
If you think of nice classic Winchesters you usually see good examples of feather crotch nigra at its best. For Turkish regia, think high grade Perazzis. For old European regia like the classic Teyssier supplied to the London trade, think Purdey, Holland and Boss guns from the early 20th century. Parker Ds and above (except late Remington nigra stocked guns) have a distinctive look that says I am regia grown west of the Urals. Claro is very easy to spot (think late Browning Superposed)it is the bling covered gangsta of the walnut world. Western black is easy to confuse sometimes with nigra but if someone from CA, WA or OR is selling it as "black walnut" it is almost always hindsii. Bottomline, look at a lot of wood and buy from reliable suppliers if you don't know what you are doing.
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