How to dry a stock blank

[Xtramad]

I cut up a birch log I've had lying around outside for two years. I got a nice piece 120cm x 12cm x 20cm, but now I'm wondering how to dry it to prevent it from cracking. Should I cut out the almost finished contour of the stock to reduce the volume of wood that has to dry, or should I leave it to dry as it is?

 

[Haggis]

Wax the end grain, put it where it can dry slowly, and ask Odin to force Loki to stay away from it.

 

[Birddog6]

DO NOT cut the stock out. It will twist up like you will not believe & you will never get ti straight again. Either wax it on both ends or paint it on bot ends with about 3 good sloppy coats of oil based paint, any brand, anything, just sloppy thick coats. Spray the wood with a termite spray to kill any bugs in it or that may come to it.

Lay it on the floor on a good flat surface, putting a firring strip at the very ends & then a strip every 8" to 12" apart. Then a piece of 1/2" plywood over than & then put a solid concrete cap block where every stick is. (6' board = about 6 blocks)

Now pile a bunch of junk on top of it so you forget it & do so for about 3 years or 1" per year in house drying.

Don't know about birch for a gunstock tho.... Very questionable as if it is good for a gunstock, seems to me that lots of guns would have been made of them if it was a good wood for that & I have never seen or heard of a rifle in birch.

 

[musketman]

Coat with wax or paint the ends to seal it, then cover it with about 4 inches of lime (the powder, not the fruit) and let it set for a few seasons...

Hey, it works for bamboo... (making fly rods)

 

[Randy]

I agree pretty much with the advise so far although I can't vouch for the lime method. I've never seen a gunstock of birch but I have worked with the wood some. It seems dense like maple when dry but has more tendancy to split or check when working it. Can't be much worse than real curly maple though. Your piece looks to have some nice figure in the butt area so it sure looks to be worth a try. Ive never seen a stock made of hickory either but I have a slab drying out upstairs. Oak has never been popular either and all those trees were plentiful where guns were being made in the past. Maybe they saved oak and hickory for the smokehouse and fireplace.

 

[Xtramad]

Well, I don't like the sound of lime myself. Me thinks it would dry out the wood quick like a mummie, but on the other hand I see the local lumberyard uses a great big oven to dry wood.
The old muzzleloader I'm making a new stock for has an oak stock. And most of the old blackpowder guns in Norway have birch stocks. Birch comes in many forms, we have straight, curly, birdseye and sour birch. The denseness of the wood is governed by how fast the tree grew, I've seen birch that is as heavy as wallnut.
The birch I've got is sour, which means it has been left with its bark on so long that a special type of fungus has tainted the wood in darker colors. Only specks of the original color is left, but the strength is retained.
Think I'll try out quick drying a couple of smaller pieces to see what happens.

 

and.... I'll bet they saved all ther Birch, for cabinets!! :: LOL!!

 

[Zonie]

Just a little was mentioned in the Jan/Feb 2004 MUZZLELOADER magazine article titled "Historic Gunstock Woods". (Before I start a heated discussion, the author is talking about American Gunstocks).
It says of Birch:
"Birch (Betula spp., sg 0.55-yellow birch, B. lenta sweet birch 0.60) can have incredible grain, especially in the crotch. While on the heavy side, it is plagued with short grain that makes it unsuitable for gunstocks."

IMO the "short grain" might make it prone to splitting in thin areas like the wrist of the stock. If this is true, I would think you could minimize the danger by laying out your stock so that the grain of the wood is running parallel or nearly parallel with the top and bottom of the wrist. That way the wood grain will be in "compressive stress" during firing rather than in "sheer stress".

 

[Xtramad]

I have noticed that nicely figured birch is short grained, but so are most other woods. The nicer the figure, the shorter the grain. The best stocks are made from the most boring wood.

 

[musketman]

KILN DRIED VS AIR DRIED (MOISTURE CONTENT)

Dried wood falls into 2 categories: air dried and kiln dried.

Quality, air dried wood has
a moisture content between 12% and 20%, on average.

This is wood which has been dried by exposure to air out of doors, or in an unheated shed for some length of time.

Kiln dried wood has been dried with artifical heat in a strictly controlled chamber.
Finish grades of kiln dried wood have a moisture content of 6% to 12%.

Kiln dried wood tends to be softer than air because the kiln process stops the hardening process. Air
dried wood gets harder and harder the longer it is dried in the air.

 

[Xtramad]

Ok, I guess I'll have to buy a blank for my flintlock project, but I've now cut four blanks that I will be saving for future projects.

 

I belong to a woodworking club and acouple of years back a few of the members dried wood by covering it with hot sand. they said that was the way that wood was dried before the kiln was a handy piece of equipment. the chair parts they turned on the lathe turned out well with no cracking or checking. I dont know where you could research this but I believe they knew what they were doing.

 

[oaklane]

Uh Guys:

Those Manufacturer's that make smokeless powder guns, e.g. Winchester, Marlin, Savage, Remington, Mossberg, have been using Birch for years, for their cheaper grades of guns, with success. Not neccesarily pretty but functional. Even CVA and Traditions use it for some of their rifles. Takes a nice Walnut or Maple stain tho.

 

[blckhrn]

Birch, M14

 

[blckhrn]

My 1986 CVA Hawken kit came with what I thought at the time was beech, may be birch.

I mixed walnut stain with black and it came out colored pretty much the way I wanted it. It still don't look like walnut, the rays give it away. I'm satisfied with it but it's about time I made up a rifle around the .54 barrel that came as an extra. That'll probably be in claro or black walnut.

A wood supplier on ebay who makes his own stocks says NEVER kiln dry. The blanks I've seen were roughed out with plenty of excess then just hung with a screw eye for 1 year per inch thickness.