rather odd request

[jballs918]

hey guys i know alot of you all deal with hardwoods. well i want to one day redo a rifle. not sure which one yet. but i would love to see all the varibg woods out there. i know that there is a of patterns and some like that im kust interested in what you all have

jason

[357maximum]

Thought I would beat carpetman to the punch--line...

seriously proably the "prettiest" wood stock I have ever seen was mrytle with osage tips and cap... There should be a pic somewhere online if you do the search thing a few places... I have personally fell in love with "plywood" stocks...thats what my dad calls my laminates...they are available ina plethora of colors,,,I do not have nothing real outlandish yet....and that is yet... The greens and yellows fire something in me I do not quite understand.... I have seen a few over on specialty pistols made by a fella called GeoriaJim...simply gorgeous...someday my TC pistols will wear something like that......

Michael

[1Shirt]

Have never been that interested in the "pretty stocks", and now that there are so many blacks stocks, pretty stocks are almost a moot point from the shooting and cost standpoint. However, in my druthers section of likes and dislikes, don't think that there is anything more pleasing to my eye, than a very nicely grained piece of walnut that is nicely, but not overly done with hand checkering. Had a couple of laminates over the years, but even though they shot well, they looked gaudy to me. Kind of like the comparison between a classy well dressed lady, and a hooker on the street corner. Bet I get flamed for that statement. Just my opinion anyway. Born conservative, live conservative, and will die conservative!
1Shirt!:coffee: :coffee:

[Bass Ackward]

well i want to one day redo a rifle. jason


Jason,

My comment to you would be not to worry about specific wood until that day arrives, because your tastes will change over time. And you need to see (and purchase) that specific piece when you find it.

[44man]

I would look around for someone that has some wood stored away. I see sales in the paper a lot. Also look for local hardwood dealers. My friend makes furniture and gets walnut cheap and some is right nice. I store wood for my furniture in the basement after I cut it close and it dries perfect with the de-humidifier going.
You don't need super fancy to get a nice stock. Here is my Swede with the stock I made from a cherry tree that fell in my woods. I slabbed it up with a chainsaw and had it in the barn for a few years.

[MT Gianni]

44, Nice looking stock on theat sweede. Gianni.

[piwo]

Being a front stuffer enthusiast, I'm quite partial to hard maples: curly or otherwise. They take a nice finish, and are hard enough for any artwork you have it mind....

[kywoodwrkr]

jason,
Given my druthers, I'd like to be able to dig a walnut stump out of the ground and get some of the wood from the lower portion of the tree where the roots curve and go into the ground.
This provides a natural curve to the wood and I think lends to stability and strength.
This does require a good chain saw!
Second to this would be crotch wood where an upper limb(fairly large) grows outward. Getting the buttstock material from the trunk area and the forearm from the limb.
I say fairly large as you want the sap wood to be eliminated in your selection.
I also think you are wise to try and gather your wood now.
I have some wood(walnut,cherry, rosewood and others) which has been in the loft of a small barn for maybe twenty years.
The longer it's there, the better as far as I am concerned.
It does not eat anything so upkeep is great.
Just my opinion.
DaveP kywoodwrkr
ps: 1shirt, looks like I agree with you to a large extent.
D.

[NVcurmudgeon]

If you want a very special rifle, start with being open-minded. Eight years ago, with retirement looming, I decided to get myself what I considered a state of the art rifle. As nearly all my rifles had dark walnut stocks, were of medium to heavy weight, all scopes were fixed power, and all rifles were blued, I started with a clean sheet of paper. I thought it would be nice to have a rifle that a geezer could easily carry to the top of the mountain. Accordingly I commissioned a gunsmith on the old Shooter's board (alas, out of business now) to start with a Remington Stainless Laminated Mountain Rifle. He ordered the rifle, test fired it to be sure it was a good one, then set to work. It is pillar bedded, barrel free floated, trigger to my specification, action slicked, and has what was then the top of Leupold's line variable scope and matching Burris mount, lapped and marked. I consider it to be my best looking and most portable big game capable rifle. It weighs well under eight lbs. complete and can put three of its preferred jacketed bullets into half an inch at 100 yds. when I do my part. None of the above is a recommendation, just an example of what considering all possibilities can bring about.

[BruceB]

I will testify to the success and beauty of Curmudgeon's project rifle.

In a word, it is SWEEEET.

I've handled and fired the much-revamped Remington, and it's truly difficult to do it justice in a description on the Internet. One minor detail Bill omitted was the caliber, .260 Remington. As a long-time fan of 6.5s in general, I applaud the choice. I watched Bill cleanly drop a big Alberta white-tail with this rifle, and it was curtains right on the spot.

[felix]

Everybody needs that custom gun that continually lurks in the darkest part of every shooter's mind. The soul never will be satisfied until satisfied. Mine was a true BR gun after I found that an old Colt SSA was not the gun of my dreams, but a throwback to old movies. I found out that I really did not want emulate the cowboys of the past after I was "mature" enough to realize these guys did not really do quick draws, but were back shooters for the most part. ... felix

[Bass Ackward]

Everybody needs that custom gun that continually lurks in the darkest part of every shooter's mind. The soul never will be satisfied until satisfied. Mine was a true BR gun after I found that an old Colt SSA was not the gun of my dreams, but a throwback to old movies. I found out that I really did not want emulate the cowboys of the past after I was "mature" enough to realize these guys did not really do quick draws, but were back shooters for the most part. ... felix


F ... e ... l ... i ... x!

Oh right!

Next you will be telling me there is no Santa Clause. I just got the Westerns Channel too. Bah Humbug. :grin:

[Ricochet]

357maximum, I've come to appreciate the plywood stocks, too. I like the beefy chunk of ply on my Savage Model 12BVSS (typical of a Boyd's stock), and recently bought a pulloff Boyd's stock that came on a Howa and put it on my Weatherby Vanguard. These are conservative brown things, I think they call it "cinammon" or some such. But they do have some wild color patterns available!

(Guitars are often made of some stuff they uppitily call "laminate," too. Seems to bother some people to play something made of "plywood," but that's what it is and it works fine.)

[44man]

My old 1919 Swede with a pitted barrel will hold under 1/2" at 100 yd's with the 129 and 140 gr Hornady's. I killed a bunch of deer with it until I decided that revolvers were the only way I wanted to hunt. Even though it has taken a little beating while hunting, it is still a thing of beauty and it will be mine until I am gone. There is nothing as nice as a piece of wood. All of the plastic stuff has it's place but to just sit and look at a fine gun, wood can't be beat. If done right, it is as accurate as any other material. Even a stainless rifle looks better with fine wood.
When I make anything out of wood, I stain the bare wood. I do not like to seal wood before staining so the color is even. I want to see it the way it grew. I don't fill the grain dead smooth on oak furniture either, it grew with the large pores.
Wood is wonderful, no plastic or laminated stuff will ever take it's place for beauty.
Even the cheap beech stocks can look better without that coating they put on to make it look like cheap walnut. Why they have to hide what is in the wood is beyond me. You can color it without losing the grain.
Jballs has the right idea for what he wants and none of us will talk him out of a nice piece of wood. I am hoping he is lucky and finds a great piece without spending tons of money.
I love what DaveP does and wish I had some of his wood.

[Pepe Ray]

. I found out that I really did not want emulate the cowboys of the past after I was "mature" enough to realize these guys did not really do quick draws, but were back shooters for the most part. ... felix
__________________





Felix, it's OK old pal,
I understand.
This morning you stubbed your toe on the way to the "Library"
Then dribbled on your jammies. Go ahead and vent pal. :-D
Pepe Ray

[Ricochet]

Even the cheap beech stocks can look better without that coating they put on to make it look like cheap walnut. Why they have to hide what is in the wood is beyond me. You can color it without losing the grain.
For sure!

I have a Stevens 511A side-by-side shotgun. (Not a 311, it's rather different.) Bought new at a Woolco store for $119.95, I think, in December 1978. Came with a "hardwood" stock painted brown. I finally stripped that junk off, stained it dark reddish brown with Dixie Gunstock Stain and oil finished it. Looks tons better than when it came! That "hardwood" has some very nice grain in it, though it looked quite plain and white when stripped.

[felix]

Yep, Pepe, it is a great let-down to see your heroes as another set of folks who had to walk the same walk as anyone else. Yes, indeed, hanging low on the return trip to the library. ... felix

[Linstrum]

As far as what kind of wood to use goes, I like avocado wood for both rifle stocks and pistol grips. It is a platinum blonde wood, light, strong, and close fine grained. It doesn't warp or split and it stains well if a dark color is wanted. Best is its light weight while still being strong and fairly hard.

Its down points are it is hard to find and is a bland-looking wood if you want any grain or other features like bird's eye, curly, fiddle back or tiger - it just ain't got it. It is a wood of choice for a utility gun that has to be carried up and down mountains and banged about and have other things done to it that would make a rifleman hesitant to take his prized work of art into a "rock crusher" environment.

I first used avocado in 1973 on a muzzle loading pistol for its 15-inch long grip and it is still in fine shape today, although a bit darker as would be expected on a charcoal burner.

[TDB9901]

For sure!

I have a Stevens 511A side-by-side shotgun. (Not a 311, it's rather different.) Bought new at a Woolco store for $119.95, I think, in December 1978. Came with a "hardwood" stock painted brown. I finally stripped that junk off, stained it dark reddish brown with Dixie Gunstock Stain and oil finished it. Looks tons better than when it came! That "hardwood" has some very nice grain in it, though it looked quite plain and white when stripped.


Yes........ I did the same thing with my old Rem.788. .....Stripped the brownish painted on finish off, and stained it with some cherry stain I had laying around. Really turned out nice with some interesting grain patterns coming out of that white non descript "hardwood".

[44man]

The ugliest guns in the world are the painted Chinese things and even they can be made nicer. China must make that red paint by the millions of gallons. Maybe it's the only color they have.

[drinks]

Some more woods to consider are , mesquite, both common and screwbean, color is much like mahogany, wood is hard, heavy and very stable.
Any of the tupelos, black, swamp or water.
I have a cutting board I made of it over 25 years ago that has never cracked and still has not needed to be sanded down.
Maclura pomifera, called bois'd'arc, osage orange, hedge apple and several other names, yellow, very dense, very stable, but very heavy and a pain to work.
Sweet gum, a light, fairly soft wood that is almost totally immune to splitting and the heart wood is a very good looking, near walnut brown.
It is a warping varmit, but if completely sealed after through drying, it remains stable.
I am sure there are many other woods that have promise, my Grandpa made a replacement stock for his 16 sxs from hickory.

[Ricochet]

I've got some of Linstrum's avocado wood, that I'm going to build a lap steel guitar out of. It is good sturdy, light, attractive wood (not fancy grained), and rings like a bell when tapped. Reminds me of mahogany.

[Jetwrench]

I have a Romanian 22 trainer. Ishaved down the 4x6 stock on it, refinished with oil and found a fine peice of wood. No idea what type but it sure is pretty. Same with an old Marlin 22 Mag, just not as strong in the grain. JETWRENCH

[Ben]

Here is a stock that I refinished for a customer of mine about 5 yrs. ago.
Quilted Maple , 98' Mauser:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/Mod.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/98-Mauser-Quilted-Maple.jpg