On Sun, 31 Jul 2005 19:15:45 -0400, "George" George@least wrote:

English walnut is more expensive because it's a different species and
inherently a more valuable timber. It's cheaper to buy it in the UK than
it is in the USA.

Once again, Andy, it's grafted on good black walnut roots over here, and
grows the same.

So why does it look so awful ? It's dull stripey stuff, with uneven
colour and negligible attractive figure.

I see this stuff in FWW or even in Krenov, and I see the timber itself
as turning blanks. I admit I don't get to see US imported walnut as
boards, because I don't buy high-end timber from the place that does
imports. The imported walnut I do see is European - French (cheap) or
South Eastern European (the really good stuff). Both of those look like
the English walnut, not the American.

AIUI, our stuff is J. regia and the US stuff in J. nigra. They don't
look the same, and no-one else claims they're the same species. Even the
guy in Oxford with the huge experimental plots of collected worldwide
walnuts is pushing J. regia as the fine cabinetry wood, rather than J.
nigra.

Only in your imagination is the homegrown stuff "superior."

Of course English walnut isn't "superior". It's barely adequate, because
the _really_ good stuff is the Turkish or Armenian. But it's still
better than the American black walnut.

I also know a couple of American gunsmiths who do stocking work. Both
will use US black walnut for stocking, but regard the best stuff as
being European. Now being firearms (especially shotgun) related, this is
probably tradition talking as much as anything, but clearly there's a
visible difference between the two timbers. It's obviously subjective to
claim that one is "better", but at the same time they're distinctive
enough to be told apart.