Cutting stock blanks out of a plank

I've had this cherry plank sitting here and another shop since 08' . I'm laying it out to see how many trade gun stocks I can get out of it . Working around the heart wood cracks , knots , sap wood and such ...Seems kinda neat to me . I remember cuttin this ole cherry tree down ... The start of some builds down the line a bit ... Oh yeah ....I was told I dont make scratch built guns because I dont make the barrel or the lock so I guess I should have titled this thread .... " Starting another kit gun "

Something gratifying about using wood from a tree that you personally cut down.

Dandy chunk of wood! I got one like that years ago and drew lines all over it trying to get the most out of it. After considerable flipping and figuring I decided to cut for the best rather than the most and got two long stocks. Very happy with the results.

64Springer said:

Something gratifying about using wood from a tree that you personally cut down.

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It IS neat ! I was gonna mention that but omitted it ...didn't think anyone would agree or understand . See it standing for years , build with it , hunt with it ...its pretty d@mn cool ....

Phil Coffins said:

Dandy chunk of wood! I got one like that years ago and drew lines all over it trying to get the most out of it. After considerable flipping and figuring I decided to cut for the best rather than the most and got two long stocks. Very happy with the results.

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Yeah , thats very true . Dont want to ruin two good stocks trying to eek out three crappy ones . At the beginning I though I was only gonna get two stocks outta this one ....and thats fine but .... Hard as it is for folks to believe , this plank is too darn small . Inside the sap wood is only 12" ....heart wood in the middle . With these English guns there ain't much drop , they're pretty straight ...so after trying this and that I finally decided to keep em straight and low and behold I got 3 good ones and one problem child ....pretty cool . Ain't got nothing but tractor and chain saw gas in it so ....I'm happy with it ... Still fighting me though ! It dont want to be four guns ! It wants to be a tree again ! Just like all of em ! LOL

I did alot of that back in the day. The last two walnut logs I bought came from a bluff I used to hunt squirrels on when I was a kid. A lot of good times under those trees.

I have hauled a walnut blank all over this continent, beginning in 1979 or 80. it was a blank from an Oregon walnut tree my father and i removed from a sidewalk in an apartment complex. My father at the time was closing in on 80 years old when we built that last mill.
I have a pistol stocked with that blank and have no desire to ever part with it. I have another in .45 half done. maybe i will finish it by my dads birthday of January.
there is really something special about using such a piece of wood.

Comfortably_Numb said:

I did alot of that back in the day. The last two walnut logs I bought came from a bluff I used to hunt squirrels on when I was a kid. A lot of good times under those trees.

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See ! Thats really cool ...

deerstalkert said:

I have hauled a walnut blank all over this continent, beginning in 1979 or 80. it was a blank from an Oregon walnut tree my father and i removed from a sidewalk in an apartment complex. My father at the time was closing in on 80 years old when we built that last mill.
I have a pistol stocked with that blank and have no desire to ever part with it. I have another in .45 half done. maybe i will finish it by my dads birthday of January.
there is really something special about using such a piece of wood.

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Thats very cool that you guys have also cut down some trees and then built from said wood . Very interesting . Back in 94 is when I cut down a few cherry and walnut for planks , my first time doing that . A guy named Frank Rhineheart and his buddy Cecil Stevens helped me out tremendously , loading the logs , milling them , etc. and I became friends with them after that ...always bugging them about lumber for gunstocks , LOL ... Both guys are long dead now ... Sure wish I could have one of those planks to make a trade gun with , I'd cherish it now because of them

The planks I've been getting lately from my Amish buddy down the road is pretty neat too since they've been cut down with hand tools and drug out with horses . Probably cant tell the difference between a plank cut down with a handsaw compared to one cut down with a Stihl. BUT .....it is pretty neat , nostalgic though.

about 10 years ago i still had a mill, and i milled some local birch for a neighbor. he used most of it for cabinet's in his kitchen and the 2.5 inch stuff for stair treads.
a couple months ago i finished a fowler and needed a project. i have a old zulu shotgun i have dragged around for 40 years that was gifted to me by a friend long past on.
the stock on the zulu was butchered, the forearm was only about 6 inches long.
long story short i got a plank of that birch from my neighbor and built a replacement just for giggles. good maple and walnut is getting hard for me to get. still have enough plank for a couple more stocks.

I have 2 pieces of white ash cut from my parents property. The tree had to go according to the work crew cutting for the power company. Always wanted an ash stocked gun, and with the emerald ash borer now in the picture, ash trees may be headed the way of the dodo around here.

I have some ash boards air drying and want to do a pistol with it. I also have some maple cut from a really old tree that got damaged in a tornado-ish storm. I am thinking of trying a long gun with it in a few years…. After I retire and have all of my other projects done and should have a Miller trade gun in my hands!

Rawhide67 said:

I have 2 pieces of white ash cut from my parents property. The tree had to go according to the work crew cutting for the power company. Always wanted an ash stocked gun, and with the emerald ash borer now in the picture, ash trees may be headed the way of the dodo around here.

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Driving around I see stands of dead or dying ash. Also dead hemlocks courtesy of the wooly adelgid. Yet another gift from Asia.

deerstalkert said:

I have hauled a walnut blank all over this continent, beginning in 1979 or 80. it was a blank from an Oregon walnut tree my father and i removed from a sidewalk in an apartment complex. My father at the time was closing in on 80 years old when we built that last mill.
I have a pistol stocked with that blank and have no desire to ever part with it. I have another in .45 half done. maybe i will finish it by my dads birthday of January.
there is really something special about using such a piece of wood.

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Kept mine as well but only a small piece as it was neighbors tree. I used it to make decorative rings on handle of a spinning rod I made for my Dad -- it's mine now

We had a tornado go through the local walking exercise trail area a month or so ago, there is a 30"+ cherry on the ground, they cut the part out that crossed the hiking trail, the rest is just sitting there. This drives me nuts to see so many nice gunstock blanks on the ground, from the up-rooted root ball to the huge section of crotch wood 50 ft down the trunk as well as a slightly bent section of trunk that would have the perfect grain flow through the wrist.

This is a federal recreation area, tightly regulated with a lot of civil war redoubts and history, going through the downed trees with a chainsaw clandestinely would result in some serious jail time. I could probably get a permit to slice up the cherry if I went to the right office but my 75-year-old body can't handle a tree that big, I know it because I have done this kind of stuff in the past when I was much younger and know how difficult it is.

It is terrible being a wood guy and seeing so many huge cherry, maple and walnut trees left to rot after such a storm.

Bnewberry said:

I have some ash boards air drying and want to do a pistol with it. I also have some maple cut from a really old tree that got damaged in a tornado-ish storm. I am thinking of trying a long gun with it in a few years…. After I retire and have all of my other projects done and should have a Miller trade gun in my hands!

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Use caution with the retirement expectations. I retired last October, but I think I had more spare time when I was working. Everyone seems to have a project for you once you retire, why not, you've got all the time in the world now.

Your cherry log looks big and heavy. I think you are cramming the stock blanks together and I would stay farther back from the ends. My wood plank stash came from two sources at two different times. My maple came from a saw mill in NJ where I picked out the log and told the sawer how I wanted it cut (3" thickness). That was in 1974 and I have some left. The walnut came from a friend's fathers farm in Easton PA in 1996 and he cut it to my dimensions (2-1/2" thickness) and kiln dried it also. It's a real chore to move these planks around to cut out stock profiles because of their size and weight. I profile out my stocks on a 16" Grizzle Tool bandsaw with a 1/2" 4 hook tooth blade which does a good job of it it's just a "bear" to move the plank around to saw it.

Rawhide67 said:

Use caution with the retirement expectations. I retired last October, but I think I had more spare time when I was working. Everyone seems to have a project for you once you retire, why not, you've got all the time in the world now.

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We've all seen those joke license plates on guys' car that say, "I'm retired, don't ask me to do a darn thing!" It does require adjustment, retiring does...you often lose co-workers' company, etc.

ZUG said:

Your cherry log looks big and heavy. I think you are cramming the stock blanks together and I would stay farther back from the ends. View attachment 222871My wood plank stash came from two sources at two different times. My maple came from a saw mill in NJ where I picked out the log and told the sawer how I wanted it cut (3" thickness). That was in 1974 and I have some left. The walnut came from a friend's fathers farm in Easton PA in 1996 and he cut it to my dimensions (2-1/2" thickness) and kiln dried it also. It's a real chore to move these planks around to cut out stock profiles because of their size and weight. I profile out my stocks on a 16" Grizzle Tool bandsaw with a 1/2" 4 hook tooth blade which does a good job of it it's just a "bear" to move the plank around to saw it.

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Sure appreciate you telling me . is there any way of making them lighter to work ? This log ? This is all so new and so confusing for me ...