None of the above suppliers sell Claro Walnut and this isn’t surprising since the above dealers are all located in the eastern United States, home to most of the nation’s hardwood species that are commonly used in wood working, but not home to Claro Walnut. That said, Claro Walnut isn’t especially hard to find. A simple Internet search will reveal numerous small dealers located in the range of Claro Walnut, most selling old orchard stock. These dealers often sell specific individual pieces so you’ll know exactly what you are getting. If you are in the area in which Claro Walnut grows it is worth the time to visit dealers in person to choose exactly the piece you want considering the prices you are likely to pay.
If all else fails, Rockler does sell Claro Walnut turning blanks of unknown quality, color, or figure.
Beware of buying Claro Walnut that is not dried. Claro Walnut often has pockets of moisture that can create problems of warp and cracking even when the material seems dry. Reputable dealers should have a good idea about the relative dryness of the material they sell.
Woodfinder is an excellent website that is dedicated to advertising wood dealers. In your search for Claro Walnut, this can be an invaluable resource provided you use multiple search terms to capture all the possible listings. I can’t speak to the quality of any of the listed dealers, but Woodfinder does have the advantage of allowing searches to be performed based on location which might allow an interested buyer to visit a listed wood dealer in person to hand pick pieces at a comfortable price.
A significant problem with using Woodfinder is that many vendors are listed for woods that, upon further investigation, they do not offer. I don’t know if perhaps once they did and they didn’t update their listings or if some vendors use a standardized list of woods that include most everything conceivable with the idea that once you land on their page you will find something you want to buy even if you didn’t know it beforehand. It happens to me all the time!
Uses
Claro Walnut is most commonly used in the making of furniture, cabinetry, gunstocks, musical instruments (especially guitars), veneer, turned items, and other small wooden objects and novelties.
Sustainability
Claro Walnut is not listed as being endangered by the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendices BUT it does appear on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as Vulnerable and it is listed as Seriously Endangered on the California Native Plant Society Rare Plant Inventory.
Thus far the IUCN listing has not resulted in controls on the sale and distribution of Claro, and to the best of my knowledge, Claro Walnut is not subject to any additional special restrictions by any United States government agency.
It is worthwhile to consider why the IUCN has listed Claro Walnut as Vulnerable. The IUCN is classifying the NATURALLY occurring and NATIVE stocks of Claro Walnut, in both northern and southern California to be Vulnerable to extinction. In fact, it is believed that there is only one native stand of Claro Walnut left in all of northern California although there are specimen trees both in the wild and in home gardens. Claro Walnut might be vulnerable in the wild but it is widely cultivated by nurseries specializing in California native plants and it is widely used, as noted before, as the root stock on to which English Walnut is grafted for commercial nut production. This grafting is done because using a native root stock naturally adapted to the soils and weathers of the area results in a much stronger and productive tree than would be the case for an un-grafted English Walnut.