European walnut (Juglans regia) grows in nearly whole middle- and southeast Europe, although being a rather scarce wood: only few of the mature trees have the beautiful dark brown heartwood, that is priced very high- often as high as exotic tropical woods. Walnut heartwood varies from grayish to dark chocolate brown colour with swirls, almost black dark wavy streaks form an impressive figure. It polishes excellent, having high natural durability. Walnut burls mostly come from Caucasia and Turkey, these countries have a long tradition of growing walnut for their fruits. The burls are quite rare, only 5 % of all trees develop these and so beautiful burls are prized very high, the wood is used for gun stocks and for exclusive British car dashboards!
