My dad spent his retirement years making handgun grips from fancy walnut. After he made a set for his handguns, he made a set for mine. Then another set for his. Then he asked me if I had any buddies who would like a set. Here's just a couple:
$20 bought an unused chunk of fancy walnut that went into some $3500 walnut rifle stock blank. The left and right block are California black walnut, while the middle is French walnut.
This walnut is so hard and dense that my dad didn't carve them, he machined them on his milling machine. For that, he made all sorts of tooling for each type of grip, which just added to the enjoyment he got out of making these grips.
Some were scrapped, and some he never lived to finish. I was privileged to handle the checkering, if any, and the final oil finish. No matter how fancy the block looks, when the final shaping and finishing is done, the grips look like brown wood. It was a special occasion for both of us as I applied the first coat of finish, "wetting down" the wood, and giving us the first look at how much beauty G-d can hide inside a simple block of wood.
