Pecan wood stocks?

[MaryB]

Sand the blank and see what kind of figure it has. Do all 4 sides to see what would look best for the stock sides. If really plain well you can use it or not, I think the cool factor of saying this wood came from my farm is priceless if the rifle gets handed down!

I had a walnut end table made form a tree off my grandparents farm. Grandpa gave me ownership of the 12 walnut trees in the grove and when they matured the money went to my college fund and I got to keep some of the lumber. One of my nieces who was old enough to remember Grandpa Alby now has it and she has plans to pass it on to her kids and tell the story of how it came to be. Grandpa helped me build it, taught me how to use the lathe for the legs, and my niece was 4 or 5 so she helped with handing us stuff, adding glue etc. The table isn't fancy, I got some of the second grade lumber(top grade was way to pricey to keep) so the figure is so-so, the cool factor is the story behind it!

[samari46]

I have about 6 pecan trees on my property.One is the small hard shell and the tree is probably over 100yrs old. two I planted about 20 years ago different varieties but are large shell. The last it can be safely said one never knows wether it will bear nuts. Two by the house had really large nuts. I had one really huge pecan tree and that one was a monster. We had a hurricane come through and down she went. Was rotted away at the base. Asked around if anyone wanted the wood. No takers. Sure did smell nice while I was burning it. Spent the better part of a week with chainsaw chopping it up. Since the rotting was only at the base what was left was good wood. Called a lumber yard and was told I would have to cut it before bringing any wood in for appraisal. Yeah 60 years old no trailer and only me doing the work. Told them they could have it all just come down for a look see. Never showed up. Some of the limbs were easily over 36" thick. And me with a 20" bar on the saw. Had to make two cuts one on each side. Frank

[Texas by God]

Mary, that's a great story. Your neice adores that end table I'm sure.
Frank, everyone wants free wood unless they have to work for it!
Good, bad or ugly- here are the blanks after I rinsed them off. They have some lines and swirls but nothing that would pass for figure.
A retirement project perhaps. I have 2 more trees to bring down but recovering from shoulder surgery has put that WAY dowm the list.

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[Der Gebirgsjager]

Not bad at all! I think I see a couple of attractive blanks in there.

[sparky45]

Where you're at T by G , I'd of thought you'd search out some Mesquite.

[richhodg66]

I grew up in S.c. and between the two houses we lived in, there were a lot of big, mature pecan trees. Maybe six at the first house and the second one we moved into when I was a senior in high school had a back yard that was about an acre which was the last of a big orchard of them at one time, maybe 30 big mature trees. My folks sold the place about 18 years ago and I haven't been back. I kind of wish I had kept some wood from them now. We always had a lot of pecans. They don't seem to grow here like they do in the deep south.

[Texas by God]

Where you're at T by G , I'd of thought you'd search out some Mesquite.

It seems like we have millions of them but big ones are rare. My second favorite cooking wood!

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[Der Gebirgsjager]

You need to borrow or acquire one of those stock patterns made out of clear plastic used to draw the rough out line of a stock, and move it about on those planks until you see something you like. Then draw around the pattern with a magic marker and start cutting.

I know this is about pecan, but I have some large white oak slabs as large or larger than the ones in your photo that except for being a lighter color look quite similar. Not a good wood for gunstocks that I'm aware of, but would make great coffee tables and such. If you don't want to make them into stock blanks, then there's another idea for you. I've also got
a stack of slabs from a maple burl suitable for making wall clocks, etc. Destroyed what had been a good chainsaw chain cutting through it, as it had some small rocks inside the wood the tree had grown around. I dedicated one of these slabs to making fancy contrasting grain and color fore end tips for stocks, and although I made several I've got half of that slab left over. Lots of tips in one chunk. More ideas for you.

[texasnative46]

Texas by God,

Fwiw, my cousin Robby has "limited out" on bushytails many times in less than 2 hours & sitting under the same "hicker-nut" tree.
I once asked him HOW he could consistently do that "slick trick" & he said, "It's easy. You just pick a likely looking tree, make yourself comfortable & then 'make a noise like a nut'."
(I must admit that I have a pair of cousins, who are BETTER SHOTS & BETTER HUNTERS than I ever was or ever will be.)

yours, tex

[ulav8r]

Ideally. a stock blank should be quartersawn wood with no sapwood or center core. To get a 7 inch wide blank would require a log diameter of 20 inches or more, depending on how thick the sapwood is. Have no idea what it would be on a pecan.

[bdicki]

Pay attention to the grain through the wrist as you layout the blank.