I am starting a thread to show how I do it. Right or Wrong. Pointers will be welcome. Anyway, We were cleaning out an old barn and found some rough sawn lumber in the loft.. The lady who now owns the property said her Dad had an old walnut grove cut down sometime in the 70's and had the lumber stored. Her Dad has since passed away and she wants the barn cleaned out for deomoliton and eventual sale of the property. There was one 6 foot length that is about 2 to 2 1/2 inches thick. The board is so dirty and covered in dust I had no idea what it would look like. So I spent a little time with a hand planer and block sander to see what lied beneath the crud. It turns out it is a nice chunk of sawed walnut. Nothing spectacular, but nice enough to make some nice stock sets. I should get a couple of complete stocks out of it and some end and grip cap blocks to boot. I'll post some pics of the partially cleaned up lumber and show progress. The 8mm Mauser will wear one of em some day. Mannlicher I should think with a ebony grip cap.