What Wood For A Stock

[FishDFly]

Going to the Alabama/Kentucky Show next week.

If you could pick any wood for a long rifle, what wood would it be for beauty and strength?

Have a decent budget and want to do it right.

 

[Brokennock]

Going to the Alabama/Kentucky Show next week.

If you could pick any wood for a long rifle, what wood would it be for beauty and strength?

Have a decent budget and want to do it right.

What kind/style of gun?

 

[FishDFly]

Kentucky.

 

[nchawkeye]

Curly maple, the more, the better...As a fellow told me decades ago, if you aren't going to carve it, let God decorate it...

 

[Brokennock]

Kentucky.

Sorry to be so pedestrian, but, I have to go maple for that type gun.
I love a nice cherry stocked fowling piece. But, American style rifles just beg for maple.
An English game gun , walnut. British or Euro fowling piece, walnut or some type of fruit wood. But nothing says American made Pennsylvania/Kentucky rifle, to me, like a nice piece of maple.

 

[oldwood]

Fancy Maple

 

[Brokennock]

I have a question for the builders of nice guns and woodworkers in general, pertaining to our responses thus far and the criteria laid out in the o.p.
Is there a strength difference between fancy maple and plain?

I had a piece of ipe once that had all sorts of beautiful grain figuring, normally that stuff is pretty plain, but tougher than nails. I has made a couple of ipe bows before, tried to make a nice one out of the pretty piece and it blew apart.

 

[cynthialee]

birds eye maple or a tiger stiped maple (but that is so done already though)

 

[Sparkitoff]

I like Cherry

 

[appalichian hunter]

Like was stated maple the more curl the better. Chech the blanks over take a bottle of water with you and wet em down, then look at it from every angle. Find the curl.

 

[Africa58double]

Black Walnut

 

[oldwood]

Fish...........You mentioned the word .....Strength. Wood has two characteristics in it's make-up. One is wood "grain" , or growth rings of the tree. The other is " Figure ". All trees have growth rings , while few exhibit figure. "Figure " , can be curl , bird's eye , tortoise shell, burl , and any combination there of. Figure can be condensed into a riot of undulating patterns , or spread out ,light or dark . Lower grade wood tends to have figure in lesser amounts. Some wood is graded top grade if it has condensed amounts of figure evenly spread over the entire stock. Some wood "grain" , can have tan to black mineral streaks running with the "Grain". Many times,the streaked wood takes a lower grade ,and is less expensive. STRENGTH.......Here's the kicker. .....Wood considered "Quarter Sawed" , or the grain is stacked ,like a deck of playing cards lying flat on a table can be far weaker than what is called "Slab Sawed. " Quarter sawed wood can be very weak through the wrist of a long rifle , where "Slab sawed " wood with the grain running vertically , top to bottom in the wrist like if the deck of cards was sitting on it's edge , can be far stronger. STRENGTH. Thing is , you have to be the Educated buyer , and pick out the most desirable characteristics displayed in the blank , or stock you are holding. To further confuse the process,wood can be hard maple soft maple ,or anything in between. If you desire a light rifle , the softer wood might fit the bill. If weight is not a factor , then harder heavier maple will be in order. Personally , I can live with mineral streaked , slab sawed , figured maple any day. The buying public is mostly clueless as to all this information anyway. When John Bivins was buying curly maple , he made the statement , that he preferred only , Quarter sawed wood , where the curl is spread top to bottom , over the whole stock. I'm the opposite , I like slab sawed wood , and wood that catches my eye with burl and figure variations. To further compound the confusion ,all the different kinds of wood,can have the above considerations to a lesser degree. There is curly cherry , ash , birch, walnut , maple , fruit woods like apple, orchard cherry ,pear , etc. ...... Sorry , I'm way out in the weeds ,and I hope all this helps.................oldwood

 

[GoodRabbitPilgrim]

I've got a couple of walnut stocks and a nice ugly maple but next I'd really love a cherry stocked gun.

 

[Africa58double]

My brother owned a large mill
Nice figured Oak, maples,walnut… All at my disposal.
Just havnt gone that route yet.

 

[smo]

Ash! Makes a great looking rifle…

 

[jackpine54]

I think maple is the way to go. Or walnut. Or cherry....... Oh manure I guess I kind of like them all. Maple sure is pretty though.

 

[FishDFly]

Fish...........You mentioned the word .....Strength. Wood has two characteristics in it's make-up. One is wood "grain" , or growth rings of the tree. The other is " Figure ". All trees have growth rings , while few exhibit figure. "Figure " , can be curl , bird's eye , tortoise shell, burl , and any combination there of. Figure can be condensed into a riot of undulating patterns , or spread out ,light or dark . Lower grade wood tends to have figure in lesser amounts. Some wood is graded top grade if it has condensed amounts of figure evenly spread over the entire stock. Some wood "grain" , can have tan to black mineral streaks running with the "Grain". Many times,the streaked wood takes a lower grade ,and is less expensive. STRENGTH.......Here's the kicker. .....Wood considered "Quarter Sawed" , or the grain is stacked ,like a deck of playing cards lying flat on a table can be far weaker than what is called "Slab Sawed. " Quarter sawed wood can be very weak through the wrist of a long rifle , where "Slab sawed " wood with the grain running vertically , top to bottom in the wrist like if the deck of cards was sitting on it's edge , can be far stronger. STRENGTH. Thing is , you have to be the Educated buyer , and pick out the most desirable characteristics displayed in the blank , or stock you are holding. To further confuse the process,wood can be hard maple soft maple ,or anything in between. If you desire a light rifle , the softer wood might fit the bill. If weight is not a factor , then harder heavier maple will be in order. Personally , I can live with mineral streaked , slab sawed , figured maple any day. The buying public is mostly clueless as to all this information anyway. When John Bivins was buying curly maple , he made the statement , that he preferred only , Quarter sawed wood , where the curl is spread top to bottom , over the whole stock. I'm the opposite , I like slab sawed wood , and wood that catches my eye with burl and figure variations. To further compound the confusion ,all the different kinds of wood,can have the above considerations to a lesser degree. There is curly cherry , ash , birch, walnut , maple , fruit woods like apple, orchard cherry ,pear , etc. ...... Sorry , I'm way out in the weeds ,and I hope all this helps.................oldwood

oldwood,

Thanks, nice explanation..

Reason I asked is I heard that birds eye maple is prone to chipping and breaking. It to me has great eye appeal, but don't want to have problems.

My goal is to find a rifle there and do it right.

 

[FishDFly]

I think maple is the way to go. Or walnut. Or cherry....... Oh manure I guess I kind of like them all. Maple sure is pretty though.

Friend wrote a whole sheet on comments on what to look for in a rifle, some I would not have thought of. His last sentence was, "get a pretty gun that you are going to be proud of ".

 

[Brokennock]

Fish...........You mentioned the word .....Strength. Wood has two characteristics in it's make-up. One is wood "grain" , or growth rings of the tree. The other is " Figure ". All trees have growth rings , while few exhibit figure. "Figure " , can be curl , bird's eye , tortoise shell, burl , and any combination there of. Figure can be condensed into a riot of undulating patterns , or spread out ,light or dark . Lower grade wood tends to have figure in lesser amounts. Some wood is graded top grade if it has condensed amounts of figure evenly spread over the entire stock. Some wood "grain" , can have tan to black mineral streaks running with the "Grain". Many times,the streaked wood takes a lower grade ,and is less expensive. STRENGTH.......Here's the kicker. .....Wood considered "Quarter Sawed" , or the grain is stacked ,like a deck of playing cards lying flat on a table can be far weaker than what is called "Slab Sawed. " Quarter sawed wood can be very weak through the wrist of a long rifle , where "Slab sawed " wood with the grain running vertically , top to bottom in the wrist like if the deck of cards was sitting on it's edge , can be far stronger. STRENGTH. Thing is , you have to be the Educated buyer , and pick out the most desirable characteristics displayed in the blank , or stock you are holding. To further confuse the process,wood can be hard maple soft maple ,or anything in between. If you desire a light rifle , the softer wood might fit the bill. If weight is not a factor , then harder heavier maple will be in order. Personally , I can live with mineral streaked , slab sawed , figured maple any day. The buying public is mostly clueless as to all this information anyway. When John Bivins was buying curly maple , he made the statement , that he preferred only , Quarter sawed wood , where the curl is spread top to bottom , over the whole stock. I'm the opposite , I like slab sawed wood , and wood that catches my eye with burl and figure variations. To further compound the confusion ,all the different kinds of wood,can have the above considerations to a lesser degree. There is curly cherry , ash , birch, walnut , maple , fruit woods like apple, orchard cherry ,pear , etc. ...... Sorry , I'm way out in the weeds ,and I hope all this helps.................oldwood

Not really in the weeds. A lot of good information there.
I've found that most people mistake the pattern that ring orientation makes for the direction of the grain. This can lead to weak places in bows or rifle stocks.

 

[SOLANCO]

I am a little surprised not to have seen or heard of sycamore being used. Back in the day maple sugar was an important and valuable commodity. Butcher blocks, for example, used to be sycamore because people did not want to cut a sugar and cash producing maple.
Flat sawn sycamore is boring. But quarter sawn it has lovely grain and can have chatoyance.