Gunstock prices....

[GANGGREEN]

I know we recently had a thread here about barrel prices, but let's talk gunstock blank prices. I saw video of a really nice quilted maple log being milled on social media this morning and because the supplier that was doing the milling is very near my wife's family, I thought I'd reach out and see if they had anything reasonable for a gunstock and what the cost would be. I got a very quick email response and was told that for what I was asking (an 8/4" or preferably 9/4" or 10/4" 8-9" wide by 60" long blank) would be $100/board foot or $1400 total. Geez Louise! To be honest, it was nice wood, but I don't know that it was jaw dropping and suspect that I have a few blanks in my own shop that are very nearly as nice (maybe nicer, who knows, photos can mislead). I recently sold a few of them, albeit to friends, and it seems that I'm not charging enough.

 

[EC121]

Maybe the prices were meant for furniture makers.

 

[GANGGREEN]

Honestly, it's a piece of wood and whether intended for furniture or guns, I'm not sure why there would be a difference. The gentleman that responded to me actually said that they had sold most of it to guitar builders. I know that they use some really beautiful wood, but damn, $100/board foot? And like I said, this was nice wood, but from my perspective it wasn't completely jaw-dropping.

 

[ZUG]

In 1981 I purchased a maple log from a sawmill that was 12 feet long and about 30" in diameter. I had the saw mill cut it into 3"thick planks then cut it into 6 foot lengths -- total price was $54 and it was 75% very figured curly maple

 

[Bob McBride]

I buy my stocks from Allen Martin whenever he posts some for sale on ALR or at the Longrifle shows when Nathan from Harrison Gunstocks (731)4149757 is usually there. A few hundred bucks each or a bit less or more for really nice curly maple or Walnut stocks.

 

[user 48679]

It sounds like they were a lot farther from your wife's family than you thought...…….

 

[Ames]

I would expect $300 for anything I would care to work on. Bowl blanks can run $50 or more fore a 8X8 square of 8/4.

 

[billraby]

Try shopping around for high end European walnut. It will make that piece of maple seem like a bargain.

 

[Bob McBride]

Try shopping around for high end European walnut. It will make that piece of maple seem like a bargain.

I knew when I saw you were the last post on this thread exactly what your post was. That piece you bought for the hand howitzer was crazy nice.

BTW, did that jig ever arrive?

 

[billraby]

I knew when I saw you were the last post on this thread exactly what your post was. That piece you bought for the hand howitzer was crazy nice.

BTW, did that jig ever arrive?

At $1000 that piece of wood I got was a cheapo. Nicest piece I could find that was straight grain through the wrist. Eventually I will have to dump the big money on one of those blow your mind incredible stock blanks and build a slightly more normal English rifle.

No jig yet. Mail is pretty slow this time of year. Hopefully it shows up soon. I got some time off work and I am putting in some time on the rifle.

 

[kje54]

One thing I have noticed recently when doing some pricing for stock blanks is that walnut tends to run $30 - $40 more than 30 - 60% curly maple.

 

[LawrenceA]

European walnut is prohibitive to say the least.
Cheapest chunk i could find for a 46" blank was usd160 with nice bits well over usd1500.
I think 2 to 300 is rude for a piece of dead tree but i also appreciate that every craftsman in wood wants it and it cannot be manufactured.
You pay once for good wood but appreciate it every time you see it.

Further we do not have "plant husbandry" as we do "animal husbandry" so good wood is plumb luck.

 

[GANGGREEN]

I've been very, very fortunate to have purchased some nice, hard, curly maple "right", so I don't really have the need and don't think I will need any stock wood anytime soon. The place that had this quilted maple also has some Black walnut burl that would knock your socks off. It's not cheap either, but given that I'd probably only use it for turkey calls or small boxes, I may actually spring for some of it.

 

[Col. Batguano]

I think he was just trying to find out if you would pay it.

If you are the high end gunmakers like Holland and Holland, Purdey, or Boss, your guns sell for 100,000 pounds or more. Putting a $600-$800 piece of wood on that gun (mighty nice, but not jaw dropping), would not be fitting of a gun of that price range. They (the manufacturers) travel to Turkey to do their buying (it's actually English Walnut) and typically spend 1300-1800 pounds per blank, and that's buying in volume, like 50-80 at a time.

Custom suppository gun makers stock almost exclusively in walnut, which keeps the demand up. Maple for gun blanks is almost the exclusive province of custom muzzle loader builders, and there are a LOT fewer of them.

Check out places like Dunlaps, Tiger Hunt and see what they have. I spent $850 on a stunning blank from Dunlaps that was something of a deal in that it had an area of it that angled (from proximity to the bark).

My view is that you really don't NEED that level of figure though. If you are planning on extensive inlays or carving the stunning figure will actually compete with the workmanship of the carving and detract from the aesthetics of both.

I also understand the concept of adding a multiplier factor to the finished product by using premium materials with no additional labor. Theoretical example;

You build an architecturally nice gun with moderate carving and a $300 stock. Finished product is a $3500 gun.
You build that SAME gun with a $800 stock and the gun is a $5000 gun. That $500 additional investment in materials has a 3-fold increase in the finished product value, with almost no additional work on your part.

 

[jfaldo]

I have two cured maple slabs sitting in my garage that I hauled back from Ohio a couple months ago. One stays here for a sometime in the future build and one goes to a friend of mine in Arizona. Cost to me was $0.00. My brother owns the mill and had a stack of slabs sitting in his barn for several years now. Told me "take what you want". Maybe should of grabbed a couple more?

 

[GANGGREEN]

Yes, you should have, or take another trip to Ohio soon. I'm always on the lookout, but it's only been recently that I've jumped on stuff like that or made offers. Over the years, I've been in a lot of shops and lumbermills that had stacks of curly maple that were put back "for some future project" which are likely still sitting there collecting dust. As I said, I've been very fortunate to get some really nice pieces of wood cheap, but I still have feelers out all over the place as you simply can't have too much fancy wood.

I just built a toy chest/blanket chest for my granddaughter for Christmas. It has removable panels that allow them to be flipped from a pink color (little girl's toy chest) to a natural stain (adult girl's blanket chest) and the wood I used for the panels was some birdseye maple boards that I purchased along with 6 or 8 nice gun blanks a few years back. Like I said, you can never have too much fancy wood.

I have two cured maple slabs sitting in my garage that I hauled back from Ohio a couple months ago. One stays here for a sometime in the future build and one goes to a friend of mine in Arizona. Cost to me was $0.00. My brother owns the mill and had a stack of slabs sitting in his barn for several years now. Told me "take what you want". Maybe should of grabbed a couple more?

 

[jfaldo]

Also brought back a good size pile of kiln dried cherry that we ran through the molding cutter and made into base, casement, and cove molding for a remodel project my wife has planned. My garage smells really good right now with all that cherry stacked in there

Where you located GANGGREEN?

 

[GANGGREEN]

I'm in north central PA jfaldo.

 

[jfaldo]

PM'd you.

 

[Pete G]

Makes one appreciate the stock blank suppliers