The most obvious and noticeable component of a custom rifle is its stock. The stock is so important that it is almost always the defining feature of a custom rifle. In fact, many custom rifles are not true custom rifles at all--they are custom-stocked rifles.

Factories, at least most of them, turn out stocks with "one-size fits all" dimensions. What that means is that a factory stock can be made to work pretty well by just about anyone but actually fits very few, a real tribute to the adaptability of Mr. Average.

And depending on the maker, factories also generally fashion their stocks almost completely by machine and from the plainest (meaning cheapest) wood available. Some use American black walnut, while others substitute different hardwoods that are sometimes stained to look like walnut.

Roy Weatherby recognized the importance of a nicely figured stock to the consumer, and he usually used California claro walnut for his standard-grade stocks. These often displayed attractive figure. Bill Ruger also understood the tastes of his customer base, and some Ruger models have come with pretty nicely figured stocks.

Most of Kimber's wood-stocked rifles exhibit good wood, and so do select models from a number of other companies but, by and large, if you want a stock that's a cut above, a custom job is the way to go.

When commissioning a custom stock, you get to select the figure, color and even type of wood. In that case, about the only limit is how much you're willing to pay for the chosen blank. Really good wood is not cheap.

Though a few custom rifle fanciers choose maple, mesquite, claro, bastogne or American black walnut for their stocks, the vast majority choose one of the several varieties of thin-shelled walnut, scientific name Juglans regia. From this point on, this is the only stock wood we'll talk about.

Four blanks of west Asian-grown thin-shelled walnut show nice figure, but if the rifle is going to be used, the key is to examine the grain structure in several critical areas.

Juglans regia goes by many different names. English walnut is a common one, particularly here in the United States. Our English walnut is almost all grown in California, and most of it comes from orchards where the trees are cultivated for nut production.

Much of it is from grafted stock. Some very nice wood comes from grafted trees out of orchards, but, alas, some pretty sorry wood comes from there as well. Old seedling trees, when they can be found, generally produce much better wood.

Other names for thin-shelled walnut are French walnut, Turkish walnut, New Zealand walnut, Australian walnut, Circassian walnut, along with a few others. The wood is generally named after the country or region where the tree grew to maturity, but regardless of what it's called, all are genetically the same tree. However, the growing conditions in the various areas differ widely, and the quality of the wood does as well.

With the thaw in the Cold War and the disappearance of the Iron Curtain, international wood merchants--including a few American dealers--have tapped several sources of walnut grown in eastern Europe and western Asian. It is the most similar of all the various forms of thin-shelled walnut to the original Circassian walnut, and most of it that I have seen is very good indeed.