GANGGREEN
45 Cal.
OK, I know this has been covered before, but I have a point and a reason for asking again. I purchased some really spectacular curly maple with the intention of possibly using some or most for muzzleloader stocks. Some of the wood is 10/4 or even 12/4 and 9 or 10" wide, so I can make any muzzleloader style that I'd like from those pieces, but a good bit of it is 2" thick and ranging in width from 7-9". I've measured many of my rifles and quite a few are thinner than 2", but I know that you need at least some wiggle room in a raw blank, so I'm not sure if I can do anything with this stuff or if I should post it on "For Sale or Trade" board to find something that will be or more use to me. I'd presume it will be fine for trade guns, half-stock rifles without a cheekpiece, maybe fowlers, but not for many/most styles of longrifle. Also, I'd presume that the 7" boards are probably a bit narrow, even if you were to cant your pattern on the board before tracing and cutting.
As you can see from the photos (and I realize that it's not planed down or sanded) the boards range from pretty nice curly maple to incredible curly maple. I think it's mostly hard maple, but I need to do some research and learn to identify the wood before making that pronouncement with any confidence. So, once again, before I decide to trade this stuff for thicker wood or for something I need like locks, barrels and other parts, what's the rule of thumb for thickness and width need generally and for specific schools?
That first board is actually 2 1/8" thick and 9 1/2" wide, so I'd think I could likely use it for southern guns. The other 6 in the lower photo are all precisely 2" thick and range from 7-9" wide and 6-10' long.
As you can see from the photos (and I realize that it's not planed down or sanded) the boards range from pretty nice curly maple to incredible curly maple. I think it's mostly hard maple, but I need to do some research and learn to identify the wood before making that pronouncement with any confidence. So, once again, before I decide to trade this stuff for thicker wood or for something I need like locks, barrels and other parts, what's the rule of thumb for thickness and width need generally and for specific schools?
That first board is actually 2 1/8" thick and 9 1/2" wide, so I'd think I could likely use it for southern guns. The other 6 in the lower photo are all precisely 2" thick and range from 7-9" wide and 6-10' long.