It's Australia Day, and like most of the warmer months I was up and out the door before 6 in the morning, making use of the best part of the day. 

Late yesterday, I washed and rinsed the detritus from just 42 blanks I cut in 2008. I've done a lot of that lately, and the numbers soon add up. The seasoning and storage conditions which ACRS blanks are subjected to are very deliberate. So far as I have witnessed and discussed the process is probably unique nowadays. One consequence of the process is an accumulation of muck on the outside of the blanks. At some stage after a decade or two, the blanks must be cleaned up to present for sale. This layer on muck is best washed off, gently but thoroughly, or the planer and thicknesser blades don't stay sharp long. Too, if this is not done, the cast iron in-feed and out-feed tables will be wallowed out soon enough. Like most of my blank production process, it could be done quicker, easier, more efficiently - but quality would suffer.

In the warmer months, blanks are washed in the late afternoon as the sun goes down, and left standing overnight. Drying of the blanks is best done fairly slowly. If it's windy the blanks are covered with a layer or three of hessian, as is deemed necessary, to slow the drying right down. The blanks have been through hell and back over many years during seasoning, but at this late stage, even with a wash literally with water from the mighty River Styx, one does not want to go looking for trouble. In cooler weather, the blanks can take a full day or more to dry out - but done right it does them no harm except for the near-freezing water temperature affecting the hands for hours on end! Whilst that little detail is hardly a vital step contributing to the production of these blanks, it is a small insight into the work involved.

Up and about this morning, the latest washed and dried blanks were yet again double handled into a neat pile next to the planer and thicknesser and dressed off. It's an interesting time, seeing each blank full dressed after all this time. The operation is not without some skill, particularly because one side must be planed flat first, and if this is not done with consideration, precious wood can be lost in a few moments which ought to have been left. Ditto the thicknessing. It all took a long time to grow, cut and season and yet the wood can be lost forever in an instant.

Like any morning, the majority of these blanks made my machines growl. Fresh, sharp blades are needed (and expensive) and you'd think a blank that is only 8" or 9" deep on average at it's deepest end would be a joke to a good 20" capacity machine - but no! - not even 40 thou at a time with many blanks. Some need half that per pass, and the slowest feed position selected in the feed gearbox. This walnut cuts freely enough, generally to an exceptional finish - but yet it is deceptively resilient to sharp steel. It still surprises me today, but it also makes me smile. The reasons for such resilient walnut are the deliberate choice of walnut trees milled, and the myriad of production techniques that profoundly influence the quality of the wood.

Australian-grown European walnut is much celebrated, and the best of it is generally regarded as some of the best stock wood ever cut. However, much of it I won't touch. Walnut trees often grow too fast in mainland Australia (I'm talking seedling trees, not irrigated orchards). Where they grow commonly, I find a combination of vigourous genetics, enough water and reasonable soil. On top of that, crucially most areas have a too-long growing season and if all of these factors combine, a walnut tree will grow like a weed. I don't like to see that, unless I'm looking for the nuts and not the wood. Many trees lay down a LOT of wood each year, but my experience is that much of the wood laid down by walnut trees in Oz tends to be on the "hard, brittle and porous side of the spectrum of acceptable for stock wood". Irregular seasons produce wood of irregular texture, which is also not a good thing for the stocker. That too, is a problem in Oz in some areas. No matter how pretty it be, I walk from such trees and look for something closer to what I know is ideal. Stock wood needs to be resilient. Workable, but tough and yet not too heavy. In some areas, the genetics, soils and climate collide in such a way that more ideal trees grow for stock wood. Such trees are very rare in Australia, and the  vagaries of distance and economy in Australia preclude any notions of competing with nearly all suppliers w.r.t. price. Value, on the other hand, is a more relative term. What are you really buying for the price?

The trick is to only cut those walnut trees that are best for stock blanks, and then process them to best advantage. The production process, which also profoundly affects the quality of blanks, is an equally profound input cost. It is ruinous of time, money and body - but it's been strongly reinforced to me through repetative experience that the rewards are worth the heavy price paid. Corners just cannot be cut without sacrificing too much. The blanks might seem expensive, but considering what goes into them, and the quality, I honestly reckon they are a standout bargain.

I for one am very happy that the few pioneers who planted the majority of trees I've milled, did what they did so well. Without them, I'd have been without the raw resource from which to cut my supply of blanks. We have some fine native timbers in this country, but my own experiences tell me that they (sadly) just don't begin to compare with the best walnut on gun and rifle stock applications I was going to take a few photos of some prime blanks to promote them a bit - but decided it was not a worthwhile thing to do. Why? A stocker cannot tell much from a photograph about the way a blank will work, or how stable it will be. Photos can promote an obsession with appearance over more important aspects of a stock blank, so I decided against photos for this post. I feel that too often, photos bait folk into buying pretty blanks based on appearances alone. That has become a main focus of most traders, buyers and stock makers. Photos like that are easy to do. Walnut that works well and is stable is however, the best bait for accomplished stockers and discerning shooters who demand more than skin-deep aesthetic thrills. Good walnut with excellent texture and working qualities is difficult to obtain, so that is not often a focus for suppliers and buyers have been conditioned against any strong focus on such. That's what I see, anyhow.

Stock blanks are nowadays much harder to market locally. It's true that the market is awash with rival offerings, though in reality it always has been and diversity in itself ought never to be discouraged. What has changed, in my honest opinion, is that folk who are able to accomplish high quality work and who really know good walnut and how to work it to advantage, well they are getting increasingly less common - and they have always been rare anywhere. 

I'm looking forward to working as much of this walnut as I can. It's character is distinctive, and it's working qualities are profoundly good. It appears I'm likely the last bloke left standing in the trade who is stalwart to the grand nature of the best Aussie walnut blanks, no matter the cost. A newcomer in the scene who does good work, and predominately in high quality local walnut blanks, would be a fine thing to see and a long time coming.