In the early 1970's when modern m/l gunstocking got going , John Bivens was one of the folks chosen to make the famous "Bicentenial " series of American longrifles. John made the statement that the perfect longrifle stock blank should be "quarter sawed" , so as to evenly display the vertical striping in the finished gun. And so started the search for figured maple wood , quarter sawed. The quarter sawed stock blank might not be the most practical of blank selections for a couple reasons. In thin wristed highly figured stocks , there is the least amount of strength in a "vulnerable to breakage" application , the wrist. Quarter sawing leaves wood grain running flat to the longitudinal axis of the rifle. A lot of highly figured wood is hard , and also brittle making the finished rifle vulnerable to wrist breakage from shock , such as dropping the gun , etc.. Some would counter that a $4000+ rifle from the 1970's was made to look at and not be mistreated , so what , if the wood was mechanically a poor choice.
In the utilitarian sense, any stock blank sawed w/grain running vertically to the long axis of the rifle will be stronger than the quarter sawed blank. Does this also indicate the non quarter sawed blank gun will be ugly ??? Not so in the least. Over the years , many stocks passed through my hands , of very fancy closely striped wood. The one pictured above is an excellent example of a fine piece of wood. My complements. I'll walk from a Quarter sawed blank any day for the other choice. w/o a doubt , hands down , free wood is the best.
Looking at old original rifles , the old timers were not as selective in , how ran the grain through the wrist. They seem to have been more interested in simply having a piece of wood to make a gun.. Luck to ya. ....oldwood