According to Franklin B. Mallory, "The Krag Rifle Story", page #75, the N.Y.C. firm of Louis Windmuller and Roelker furnished 13,000 stocks of Italian walnut in June, 1899.  "They were given a contract for 20,000 additional stocks in July, 1899".  (I do not know, but suspect, they were actually providing stock blanks to be finished at Springfield).  Attached photos show '1900' Italian stock above an '1899' American black walnut stock.

That's pretty interesting.  I've never had the opportunity to compare two Krags together at the same time, though it seems to me the one my dad had was much darker than mine, which would go along with your comment about my stock.

Any info or thoughts re: matching/mismatching stocks and hand-guards from the two wood species?  Were they usually the same when new or not necessarily?  I'm guessing they wouldn't have paid attention after that when they were repaired or rebuilt but have no idea.