fancy USGI walnut stocks

Relative to an interesting article in GCA Journal and photos of some high grade stocks presumed to have come from Winchester's custom shop inventory--

That could be the case, but I have encountered a number of highly figured stocks on random rifles over the years.

Also, when I was working in depot level rebuild we were installing all new wood on the M1's and quite a few fancy pieces showed up. All of us in the small arms repair shop had the guys in the stock department setting aside select grade stocks and handguards. We all put a fine finish on them to make our rifles really gleam during parades and inspection. That was quite a bunch of spectacular M1's. We reserved those stocks for those purposes and installed the ordinary stocks for training and field use.

When walnut is harvested all the trees are cut, then if any grading is done it is done as individual blanks are cut. On government contracts presentation grade walnut was lumped right in with plain figured wood and with wood containing sapwood and all that was acceptable was routinely processed into M1 stocks. I once spoke with a man in Missouri who had such contracts for producing rifle stock blanks during WWII and he told me that when the govt. cancelled the contracts at wars end trainload quantities of stock blanks of all grades were sold by the contractors as fire wood. (sob)