Wormwood

Good afternoon,

As I’ve stated before most of my experience has been with production guns. Something I did not see before coming to this site was the term “wormwood stocks”. In a couple of posts, it is referred to in relation to stocks made by a Jackie Brown. In looking at the pictures the stock look like it has termite tracks through it or like the bottom of a worm-infested wooden sea dory. So, are the worm holes done artificially to obtain an antique look or does the wood used have actual worm holes in it? Is this look something that’s desired in custom guns or is it something you see a lot of in real antique guns? If there are actual worms that do this, can you come across their damage in modern guns? I did a search on site and with the exception of Jackie Brown only came up with the wormwood bush used to distill absinthe.

Thanks for any info,
R

If nobody has any info on wormwood you can still send me the absinthe.

His wormwood is done with actual beetles, I’m not sure where he gets it at, but seems to have a plentiful supply. I seen one he built that had so many wormholes that I’m certain it had more holes than wood.. lol
It’s not very attractive to my eye so I normally scroll on by.

Worm hole in my Lancaster smooth bore. Would have preferred them not there but they don’t rattle my cage, maybe if I was better at making guns I would find it unacceptable, would certainly hate it on a two grand plus gun

Resolve said:

If there are actual worms that do this, can you come across their damage in modern guns?

Click to expand...

Yes. A friend has an otherwise very nice original Browning shotgun that the powder post beetles did a job on in storage.

Thanks for all the info folks, I have a good understanding of it now.

Have Fun!
R

I'm not a fan of worm holes in gun stocks some do like it. I feel that it is a cheap low-cost wood that some builders pass off as "patina" and charge extra for it. To each his own !