gun stocks

armakiller said:

I don't think that would work down here. It would get so humid under that tarp it would be dripping with water.

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We have a small profesional solar kiln operation not far from me. He uses clear visquine and says the inside temp. stays 75 degrees warmer than outside during daylight hours. A fan is used to move air through the kiln area and remove excess moisture. A neighbor has a kiln that is heated with a small portable heater but he also has an inlet and outlet for air and a fan. The fan is a necessity. Personally, I have just stacked and stickered in my big garage but still use a fan to blow air through the wood.

I just stick my lumber & forget about it. Allot of it ends up being firewood anyway, as I am too da.. picky ! :redface: A few years later I plane it, cut out what I want, sort it & burn the rest at the deer camp.
I can tell you in the long run, it is a heck of a lot cheaper & less hassle to just buy your stocks & SEE immediately what you have & if it is what you need.

Keith Lisle

Great examples in the photos - thanks very much. We do have that grain flow - especially on the lower stump planks. And there is a kiln nearby. When tracing out stock patterns on these planks I will prioritize that grain flow. Could cause some waste but perhaps is worth it. Guess I should cut out the patterns before hauling to the kiln? Or should I dry the best planks whole and then cut out patterns after?

Get your boards "done" and then lay out your pattern.

Yes, on a (standard) board there is a lot of waste.

That is why a stock blank from one of the suppliers initially may look expensive - because there is potentially so much waste.

So you are paying that premium to have someone else select the wood from a pile of boards, then orient the blank outline to produce a desirable stock with suitable grain, then cut it out using the leftover for the fireplace.

I buy "boards" and do end up with quite a bit of waste. I might pay for 10 board feet and only get 1 stock - two if I spend significant time picking through the pile to find one with suitable grain orientation.

But for me that is "part of the process" of the build - I enjoy it.

You always dry the plank. Reason being, if you should incur a split, you have the option of the plank area to move your pattern on. May need to move it only 1/2"..... :idunno: well you have the whole plank & that is not a issue at all. But if you have already limited yourself by cutting it the blank out first, you removed the area of the entire plank option & useability of it.

Keith Lisle

Gentlemen, very helpful advice and much needed and appreciated. I have three bundles - approx 550 bd. ft. to haul to the kiln. Will keep you posted on the progress. Thanks. Hopefully, I can trade some of these for some cash to offset some of the cost. I am glad I joined this site but my wife is quite concerned as she quickly noticed my eagerness to 'log-on'.

Ain't that the truth! Think about it. Here's another set of math that will dig you. I'm just finishing up a Lehigh stock that will weigh about 1.6 pounds without all the metal. Maple weighs about 44 pounds per cubic foot, so I'm using .0363 cubic feet, or .444 board feet of lumber in the stock I paid $300 for. That's $675 per bf of wood that actually gets in to the gun!

I found the nicest grain on a tree that grew from the SIDE of the creekbank, the tree came out, then right angle up to the light....dug out around it and cut.
Also, a large cherry tree hand a huge fork 3rd log up....that crotch made the nicest burl on my blanks.... :bow:
Tip saw the blank and wanted it....but was designed for MY southern rifle :grin: :blah:

Wood.....ahhhhh.......

In my work I have seen most of the good crotches get pushed into a pile to rot. And most of the curly maple, being in rougher logs, has gone to our pallet mills. I am on a crusade to change all that - though I am not at all set up to accomplish it, yet. Yessirree, there is inspiration in fine wood and I hope to salvage it.

Troy Sweeney said:

In my work I have seen most of the good crotches get pushed into a pile to rot.

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You wouldn't happen to be a gynecologist would you?

Troy Sweeney said:

In my work I have seen most of the good crotches get pushed into a pile to rot. And most of the curly maple, being in rougher logs, has gone to our pallet mills. I am on a crusade to change all that - though I am not at all set up to accomplish it, yet. Yessirree, there is inspiration in fine wood and I hope to salvage it.

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In the 1970s there were a couple brothers who cut and sold maple blanks. They sold to my friend, Don Davis at Fort Davis in Friendship. They could tell a tree would produce good figure just by looking at the tree but they could not (or would not) describe how they could make that judgement.
There is a lot of good old growth maple in your area. Like anywhere, finding it and getting permission to cut are the biggest problems.

Indeed interesting. Sure would like to know their secret. I have heard of a few who can spot it. Since I do much of the timber marking on our crew, I recently started chopping into the wood on the standing hard maples marked for harvest. So far, out of over one hundred maple trees only two have revealed curl beneath the bark(which I am told is about average). But they were very big and this first one has milled quite well. The other is still standing and I have yet to dig down and expose the root flanges before we drop it. I did observe both of these trees had similar unique characteristics - very lumpy trunks, light, mottled bark, but that difference could just be unique to this specific area/county. It will certainly help me as long as we are cutting in this locale.

Awesome wood!
You do have a good supplier.
Fred

Rifleman1776, My grandfather showed me how to tell if white oak would split good or not just by looking at the bark. He used the splits for oak baskets of which I still have several. If the bark has a straight grained texture it will split, if it's mingled it won't.
The brother probably saw something in the bark.

Jack

You are just biased Fred, because you know that first blank I posted is the one for your Hawken :rotf:

I'm sure those brothers are long gone. There was a story they had a barn full of stacked and stickered maple and walnut. Virtual treasure in there
A story about them and Fort Davis:
Don's wife was Addie a/k/a Viper Lady. Don was a friend, Addie wasn't.
Enneyhow, one day the brothers brought in a new shipment of blanks. One was not up to Addie's liking. She took that blank and chased the brothers around the store slamming their feet with the butt end of it. She hit them hard several times, near crippled them. A real lady. Not. :td:

Col. Batguano said:

Ain't that the truth! Think about it. Here's another set of math that will dig you. I'm just finishing up a Lehigh stock that will weigh about 1.6 pounds without all the metal. Maple weighs about 44 pounds per cubic foot, so I'm using .0363 cubic feet, or .444 board feet of lumber in the stock I paid $300 for. That's $675 per bf of wood that actually gets in to the gun!

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darn ... I wish he hadn't don't that ... just when I thought I was doing so good ...

Some of my co-workers think I should let these planks air dry for ninety days before putting in the kiln. But I have also heard they can go in immediately. The tree was dropped in March, bucked up in early April and milled April 24. Any advice? I am eager to start my next build and would like to dry asap.

My Amish friends want their trees cut at Christmas time....they don't like summer wood....to much drying time they say is needed, and will split more. :idunno:
Jacob ( wagon builder) usually has 10 stacks outside drying at any given time. Mostly white oak and poplar. His stacks are 10ft tall by 12ft wide....and, he is the only OCD Amish guy I know ......but his planer can do a 30" board :shocked2: and has it's own diesel and building.....he covers his wood top layer with a tarp, and slopes the wood ends slightly. Then when boards are dry, he puts them in the barn, once again w/ spacers....
Dunlaps.......way easier for me to just ask for a #4 please.....
Marc

Guess I enjoy the process - finding a curly maple gives me the same thrill as finding a mess of mushrooms or a patch of ginseng, rare stuff, and much more than just financial value with all three. That tree will be become both functional and artistic - lasting indefinitely.