doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Restocking Slab/Rift or Quartersawn?

I got the impression from the link, that all that matters is if you see swirls on the end grain.

I think the fact that the log renders 25% more blanks when cut as suggested, plays a role in the Sawyer's decisions.

I also think that relatively few stocks break from recoil. Most fancy grade blanks are for club guns whose only risk is getting shut in a car door, or knocked out of the rack.

Thanks for the comments. Most stocks I've seen broken over the years are from falls. I've never seen one broken from recoil, but I have heard some of the Parker Repro's with english style stocks did break during firing because of poor layout in the wrist.

I believe that most of those Parker Repro blanks were provided by Calico Hardwoods in Ca, but I could be mistaken. FWIW, I've only ever used Quartersawn wood. I also long ago bought a very fancy piece of Circassian and watched Dan Rossiter cut it into a small pile of foreends because the layout was awful. I learned a lot that day, because it cost me some money out of my pocket.

Here is one of the best explanations of how wood is sawn.
http://www.hardwooddistributors.org/blog...in-sawn-lumber/
Flat sawn wood sawn over 150 years ago might have been good for stocks because of the how tight the grain was, but not now.
Also back then the wood was air dried and some was left for 25 years before it was used, reasoning was it was subject to hot, cold, wet, dry after all these years and became stable. Now a days they throw it in a kiln for a few days and call it quits, they can't afford to have sitting around.
As you will read, rift sawn is some of the best cuttings but also the most waste.
The best figure is usually from the root or on a large tree, where branches are.

Most people only have a handful of stocks made during a shooting lifetime. So, we get to choose whatever "cut" we want, and how it's dried.

Over on Woodnet, there's a guy whose family has been providing all the Euro gun companies stock wood since before the Big War.

They kiln dry their blanks by the ten's of thousands. Shipping container's full, dried en mass. Of course they are feeding factories, and endless duplicators, so a % scrap is to be expected.

He pretty much disagree's with everything people ever say on these sites. I figure somewhere's in the middle is where I will be satisfied. I doubt that if I let a blank lay in my barn for another 50 years, that it would one day decide not to move when the draw knife comes out. But not the day before.

Myself, I don't see how a 200 year old tree is all that different than a 150 year old tree. A tree is the product of it's growth environment. Heartwood is dead, and has been for a long time. When a blank is cut, only so much stress relief can occur. The pretty little swirlies are all tied up in knots decades before I ever see them, and I doubt they plan on changing their relationships when I cut through them.

Regrettably, there is no definitive way to prove a negative. Maybe a book matched set would be like twins during an experiment.

Apparently CZ, you have never cut a walnut tree to produce blanks. The English Walnut tree that I had cut up about 15 months ago is air drying nicely. But despite my care in handling the wet slabs, I expect to have some checks and stress cracks as they slowly season. They have had the ends heavily coated with a few coats of polyurethane and are stacked and stickered out of the weather. But one slab already has a nice crack running along those pretty swirlies that I had hoped would grace a buttstock. This is not a huge unexpected tragedy. This is the nature of figured walnut. I can only hope that I don't lose more. I had the same experiences with a truckload of black walnut slabs I purchased some years ago. But the price was so nice that the inevitable losses due to checks and cracks were quite acceptable. As to your statement about kiln drying... if kiln drying was just as good as air drying, everyone would do it. But of course, even kiln drying can be rushed too much with bad consequences.

Keith, I log all my properties. I sell the hardwood.

I just find it interesting that a major producer of stock material says kiln drying (as whatever their process entails) provides so many blanks to all the major manufacturers. They get satisfactory results on a large scale.

Yet here, it's Satan's handwork.

You wight try a wax product and heavier ricking for your next attempt at air drying fresh cuts.

OK, so you haven't cut any walnut to pruduce gunstock blanks. I can't claim to be an expert either. I had to hire a guy with a portable band sawmill who would cut my English Walnut as I requested. This batch should be ready to start turning out gunstocks by the time I retire. It was properly handled, stacked, and stickered. I discovered that one large slab had a long crack running along the "swirlies" as you call them when I checked them late this summer. This large slab had been near the bottom of the pile with 4 or 5 other slabs on top of it. My brother-in-law and I strained mightily when we unloaded them from my truck and stacked them in the shed. The amount of weight on top was more than sufficient. I was surprised, as always, how much weight the green wood lost in only one year. I was not surprised that I lost much of a piece that I hoped might yield one or two full length rifle stocks. I should still get at least one two piece stock ad a number of forend blanks out of it if it doesn't get much worse.

I know that kiln drying is not a Satanic practice. Millions of perfectly serviceable factory firearms prove otherwise. But there is also a large body of evidence provided by the very best gunstockers and fine furniture makers to prove that properly air dried and well seasoned wood is better than kiln drying. But cracks and checks can and do open up even in what should be old stabilized air dried wood. After all, it's wood, and not all of it is perfect or suitable for gunstocks.

For years I cut crotch wood to get the best figure in the butt stock. After reducing the crotch to 2.5 inch slabs I then layout the wood for great grain in the wrist and a good butt. This can yield some mariginal blanks. I held one very fancy piece for 43 years because it would only make a straight stock ( not enough wood for a pistol grip) This year I had a single barrel LCS trap gun come to me with a straight stock. The original stock had been trap shootered,aka butchered! It now wears that43 year old blank and looks great!

Bill

Bill, you are the epitome of patience.

Mike

Only a thought from a hobbyist point of view. Even though it seemed like a large slab, I'd consider leaving it quite a bit bigger when rough cut. If a big check starts, you can cross cut it off, but there's a good chance that it continues into the 'good' looking area. With oversized boards, I've had good luck just carefully splitting a board all the way through with a wedge. It may hang up on grain 'swirlies', and it can be finished with a best guess saw cut.

It'll generally follow the grain, you can rough clean it up on the band saw, then back on the drying stack. Early on, the wood does not need to look like a nicely milled up board or commercially prepped stock blank. I think CZ has a thought about sealing the end grain with things that may breathe a little less. I've had a chance to dry a fair bit of hardwood that's considered to be on the pricey side of things, and I've come to the conclusion quite a while ago to break it down purely for what I hope is quality and not worry about maximizing quantity. Best of luck with your stash, I'm sure you'll reveal some real gems when the time comes. Again, only thoughts of one way to look at it.