WALNUT   (Juglans nigra) is commonly available, reasonably inexpensive high quality wood that can be rather plain but can also have great beauty, and always has high dimensional stability, the combination of those properties making it a prized wood for architectural mill work and high grade furniture such as breakfronts. It is also widely used for low end rifle stocks because in addition to its handsome looks in that use, it has an unusually high shock resistance, giving it an excellent ability to withstand recoil. High end rifle stocks are more frequently made from other walnuts, such as Claro, that have similar physical properties but even greater beauty (and correspondingly higher cost). 
   The sapwood is not particularly attractive in color but is otherwise pretty much identical in properties to the heartwood, so the wood is sometimes boiled or steamed to leach the heartwood color into the sapwood but this slightly degrades the color quality of the heartwood. 
A moderate sized tree reaching about 100 feet and producing a trunk up to 60'' in diameter.
   Black Walnut is now a popular lumber worldwide for furniture and cabinetmaking, specialist work on clocks, carvings, gun stocks and flooring.
   Walnut other names are Brown Oak or American Black Walnut.  When kiln-dried it feels remarkably light weight for a hardwood (40 lb./cu. ft). Walnut can be found in U.S. and Canada