Curly ash

[JamesT]

Curly ash sure does make a unique rifle stock. Here are a couple photos of my family squirrel rifle. Made in NE Tennessee around Watauga lake.

 

[oldwood]

Kjake........The last ash plank I had stored in my stock shaper buddies cow barn fell pray to an invasion of carpenter ants. The first of the three stocks had about three through and through 3mm tunnels. I dutifully taper inlet , epoxied and drove some ash matching grain patches in place. After the gun was finished the patches were invisible w/o knowing where they were. I dutifully pointed out all but one obvious one and asked the guy to find the patch. He failed , and bought the rifle. Had one ash stock left w/ a number of tunnels. I've used termite wood many times , and used plain black epoxie to fill the tunnels , as it fills and can easily be sanded flush w/no dimples. Will build the gun w/o matching anything and it will go w/o any problem. Back in the 1980.s out At NMLRA spring shoot there was a Jager rifle on display w/some unusual faux antiquing. The builder took an old time quill pen loaded w/ india ink and applied a splash pattern using the loaded pen and his index finger as a stop , while tapping the pen across his finger. The ink droplets were between 1 and 3 mm just as they randomly landed. It was a striking effect. I love unusual effects as the affect immediately engenders an unanswerable question , "what happened here?" The mind races back trying to envision all the incidents which could cause a blemish like this on a very stylishly made rifle. Just can't get enough of possibilities to enhance rifle art..........oldwood

 

[mooman76]

I've never heard of curly ash before. Sure is purty though.

 

[hanshi]

Ash can make very beautiful stocks that challenge the best maple.

 

[Saxtonyoung]

I spent the last dozen years cutting Ash on mine and neighbors property mostly for firewood. What I noticed was that although probably 95% of the mature trees were lost to the Ash borer there is a lot of saplings coming up from seeds that were dropped. Ash is a pretty fast growing tree , in fact the one in my front yard was never effected and happens to one I transplant from my woods prior to the borer maybe 15 years ago and is approximately 8" at chest high so I'm hoping the next generation can enjoy these trees again.

 

[FlinterNick]

Ash is a fantastic wood for rifles or hi recoil guns.

A lot of folks tend to want the ‘hardest’ wood when they really should be just concerned with a good even grained ‘tough’ wood that can take stain and is durable. This is where Cherry, Walnut and Maple is very popular, its hard yet very tough and often will absorb recoil pressure.

Beech is one of the hardest woods to use for gunstocks but its not the most attractive.

Birch is a cheaper choice but tends to be on the too delicate side.

Woods that are often considered too hard and brittle for gunstock use are rosewoods, mahoganies, and some exotic woods like teak.

Too tight of a grain will be difficult to stain.

 

[GANGGREEN]

Man, some pretty guns here. I happen to have a couple of curly ash stocks in my barn, but unfortunately, they're both for halfstocks, I just didn't have the length for a fullstock blank.