Pine stock

[himem777]

Just wondering if a pine stock would be strong enough for a full stock Jager. I know most use maple or walnut but why not pine? The reason I ask is because there are no hardwoods here. I know Its not tradition, but that is not the point here.

 

[Bill Hall]

Pine is WAY too soft and non-durable. Like making a coffee table out of balsa wood. Now, if you wanted a disposable gun, that would be the way to go. :rotf:

You can either order some good wood online, or go to a hardwood dealer near you. If I'm building a rifle out of plain maple, and without a cheekpiece, I buy at my local hardwood dealer. I would buy from them more often, but they don't stock wood that's wide enough for a cheekpiece. Bill

 

[Birddog6]

Pine would make a good wall hanger, and that is about as durable for a gunstock as it would get. :idunno:

Gunstock wood is not laying at the local Home Depot or local lumber yard. Gunstock wood is Select wood from logs that are hand picked for gunstocks. Few places do that, thus you don't see them everywhere, you have people specializing in them.

Dunlap Woodcrafts is the first place of choice for me for a blank. I feel he is quite reasonable for what he delivers. Tell him you want a plain hard blank for a ??" barreled Jaeger & he can possibly help you out.

What barrel & lock you using ?

Keith Lisle

 

[himem777]

Thanks for the help first.... The reason for wanting to use pine was not to use cheap Home Depot wood. It was so I could use Indigenous wood. Here where I am there are few hard woods, save those in town where they were planted by man. There is an abundance of pine tho. Sorry I was not more clear. While I would like to use wood I gathered, I don't want to make the 1870s version of a Saturday night special. :grin:

 

[Xtramad]

What about birch? It works for me.

 

[jerrywh]

Do you really want to do $1000.00 worth of work on a $3.00 board. If you do you will end up with a $200.00 gun that has $600.00 worth of parts in it.

 

[paulvallandigham]

There are all kinds of pines, and some of them are harder than soft maples are. However, even the hard pines( used for flooring and for joists and piers a hundred years ago) do not last long.

If you want to PRACTICE making a stock for a gun before spending the money on a better piece of HARD WOOD, then by all means, pick up a piece of local pine. The problem with pines is that they are full of PITCH, which makes them very hard on tools used to cut, carve, and finish stocks. The pitch eventually dries out, and the cell walls of the pine collapse. At that point its just firewood.

Since you won't say where in this country you live, we can't give you guidance as to hardwoods commonly found in your part of the country. Birch, Hickory, Maples, Oak, Ash, Walnut, and even Ironwood grow in many parts of the country. Then there are the fruit trees- apple, cherry, pear, persimmon, etc. that also can make good gunstock woods. Poplar( cottonwood, Aspen) also can produce a hard wood, which would be preferred to any pine for use as a gunstock. With Poplar, I would plan to glass bed the barrel and tang mortises to strengthen these important parts of the gunstock, but the wood could be used.

The real problem with using " exotic" woods for gunstocks, is that they can be very difficult to work with hand tools, and even can cause serious problems for routers, and power saws.

 

[Vaino]

I would use "southern pine" that has been pressure treated {nice green tint} and hope for the best. "Southern pine" has beautiful grain, is the hardest of all the pines and I always hoped to have my house floored w/ it, the end grain would certainly hold up to the recoil force of a MLer and above all, it'll prompt the curious of all ilks to ask..."what in heaven's name is that thing?" Seriously though, you can't be that isolated to the degree that suitable and historically used woods aren't available and as was said...why put time and effort into something that isn't worth it....Fred

 

[William O.]

I would use "southern pine" that has been pressure treated {nice green tint} and hope for the best. "Southern pine" has beautiful grain, is the hardest of all the pines and I always hoped to have my house floored w/ it, the end grain would certainly hold up to the recoil force of a MLer and above all, it'll prompt the curious of all ilks to ask..."what in heaven's name is that thing?" Seriously though, you can't be that isolated to the degree that suitable and historically used woods aren't available and as was said...why put time and effort into something that isn't worth it....Fred

I hope you are joking about using pressure treated pine.

 

[himem777]

Sorry I'm in southern Utah. Yes I can order any wood Like European walnut, but it doesn't grow here.
There is a cottonwood drive makes me wonder if cottonwood can be found. There are hardwoods here, but they are in peoples yards. I think they might frown on cutting them down. :hmm:

 

[Birddog6]

Your situation is no dif. than most of us here. Most of us don't have gunstock planks laying around at the local lumber yards, even if the trees are here. It takes special trees to make good gunstock blanks & the general sawmill doesn't cut the logs correctly for gunstock blanks. They cut for Lumber & to get the very most lumber out of each log.

If ya want something worthwhile to build with, I suggest ya just buy a blank from Dunlap Woodcrafts or Pecatonica or Tiger Hunt & go on. You won't be sorry.

Keith Lisle

 

[BillinOregon]

Matchlock: A tip of the hat for trying to find a useful native wood for your project. Here's a list of Utah tree species that includes four maples, which ought to provide possible stock wood.
http://extension.usu.edu/forestry/UtahForests/TreeID/speclist_common.htm

I would recommend you check with the BLM or Forest Service for suggestions and rules for harvest. Also put a call in to your local arborist/tree surgeon as he encounters gunstock wood on a very frequent basis.

 

[ZUG]

Is there a saw mill close by? If so stop by and ask what they have in the yard. I LIKE Jerry H's answer -- I made a few of those when I started out! I don't want to stop you from being creative but save your effort on a GOOD piece of wood - nothing worse than spending months working with expensive parts and ending up with less expensive parts after you filed them to fit that "wonderfuly figured pine" kindling :hatsoff: !!

 

[HAMMERSCHILD]

Here is a link to the Utah state extension service. It lists several nativehardwoods from utah. http://extension.usu.edu/forestry/UtahForests/TreeID/speclist_common.htm

 

[texcl]

I have seen several original rifles that were restocked (rather crudely)in pine and they seemed to be pretty functional. Personally I wouldn't do it. Stock wood is not that expensive until you get up into the higher grades, and I'll bet you'll find something locally that will suite you better than pine.

 

[himem777]

Thanx This is a big Help Now I just have to find some. Most of the good Hardwoods are far north of me, but I can take a wagon trip north to get me some. (station wagon that is) :wink: Now hows about birch?

 

[BEP]

Both birch and beech were/are used by foreign gun makers for stock wood. Many Korean War and later M1 Garands were stocked in birch, as were tens of thousands of M-14s. It is, however a very plain wood with almost no grain contrast or visible "figure".

 

[Pete Gaimari]

See if you can find some petrified pine.

 

[himem777]

Now petrified wood, there is plenty of that here. But I think that would be a heavy gun. :shocked2: But I do have some stone tools

 

[Xtramad]

Both birch and beech were/are used by foreign gun makers for stock wood. Many Korean War and later M1 Garands were stocked in birch, as were tens of thousands of M-14s. It is, however a very plain wood with almost no grain contrast or visible "figure".

The bit about the grain is not true. Birch has very nice figure if you know how to pick a tree.

Here's a stock in the white: