doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DIY Gunsmithing @ doublegunshop.com Stock Blanks

This would be a new venture for me, what kind of things do you need to look for when purchasing a blank for a wood stock?

Good grain flow in the head and wrist are the most important thing.

Quarter sawing is ideal for stability and strength.

How dry the blank is and how it was dried is important.

The desired figure and the symmetry of said figure on each side of the blank are a major consideration when it comes to grading the blank.

The species of wood is usually determined on the maker and grade of gun that the wood is going on.

http://doublegunshop.com/bill_dowtin_stock-blank-pick_082304.htm

http://doublegunshop.com/phiatt2.htm

http://doublegunshop.com/phiatt4.htm

http://doublegunshop.com/phiatt.htm

Four good articles from this site. I bought a lot of expensive firewood before I figured out most of what they say in these articles. From what I learned from them and my own mistakes I can give you a few free lessons that I learned the hard way.

First if you are buying on the internet you need six clear detailed photos, one from each side and full right to return the blank. Second any grain flow from side to side or diagonal when viewed from above or below is to be avoided. Third bark inclusions are always bigger than you think so watch them in crotch blanks. Fourth one sided blanks, fancy grain on one side only, are a dime a dozen but some one sided blanks will become two sided when carved. The trick is recognizing them if you can. Fifth do not buy kiln dried wood over air dried. Six dry does not mean ready to use. Wood needs to stabilize after it is dry. Every blank in my wood pile which is ready to use, is over ten years dry, some a lot more than that. Seven don't put too high grade of wood on a plain gun. It is like putting a evening gown on a pig. Just never looks right. I've made that mistake too many times. Last you need to make sure the wood is dense. Some of the California orchard wood is grown with so much water it is not dense at all. Soft wood makes a poor stock. If you can dent it with your thumb nail it is too soft. Send it back.

Thanks Guys, I was thinking something like this




but wasn't sure what to look for.

That piece is a little straight. I would not recommend it for anything but a straight grip gun. And it appears to have been cut from the outer sode of the log. You have sap wood on the top and bottom of the one side which may or may not come out depending on how thick your blank is.


Something else I will mention is that you are always better off buying from someone that will guarantee the blank for defects. Sometimes you will get a flaw inside the blank that is completely undetectable from the outside and you don�t know until you cut into it.

Brian thank you, this is all new and I am eager to learn, I appreciate all the help!

After a couple of years of getting over cancer surgery and the attendant checkups and biopsies(have one on Friday)this thread got me interested in life again.I have a couple tons of flitches and need to saw them into stocks or sell them as table tops or whatever else people use thick walnut slabs for.My buddy and I moved some today and I can't believe how heavy wood gets after sitting for a couple of years.

I hired a guy with a portable band sawmill to cut up a large English Walnut tree a couple years ago, and I can't believe how much weight the slabs have lost after less than two years of drying. I'm thinking the strength you lost from cancer treatment may be why those slabs seem heavier RHD45, and I hope you have a full recovery.

There is a lot of good advice above RARiddel, especially when it comes to proper grain flow and layout for a gun stock. English Walnut is the most desirable species among gun makers and stockers for several reasons, but may not be appropriate for restoring a gun that was originally stocked with black walnut. You should learn the difference between slab/plain, quarter, and rift sawing and what that means for gunstocks. Many wood sellers and wood buyers see some fancy figure, and become blind to all of the things that may make it very bad for a gunstock. The blank you are considering is plain or slab sawn, very straight grained, and as noted, the sapwood makes layout tougher. I'd advise passing on that one. I made several plexiglas templates that are large enough to encompass most 2-piece shotgun butt stocks, 2-piece rifle stocks, and 1-piece rifle stocks. With these, you can lay the clear plexiglas template on a slab or blank, and move it around to see if you can get the desired straight grain at the head, grain flow through the wrist, and the desired flow and figure in the butt. My templates are slightly over-sized in every dimension so I can be relatively certain that I can use a given blank. There are important considerations that determine whether your stock will be prone to split at the head or toe, break easily at the wrist if you should take a fall, or get damage from recoil, etc. You can see if you are likely to be able to get around splits or inclusions. And it's a whole lot quicker and better than the common method of drawing an outline of a stock on a slab or blank, because you can quickly move it or flip the blank over to make sure that the place which looks OK on one side is also good on the other side.

I bought a very full truck-load of dry black walnut slabs several years ago from a sawmill guy who was retiring. He also had hundreds of nicely figured walnut and curly maple gun stock blanks he had sawed out on his large vertical band saw. I rooted through them for several hours, and unfortunately, he knew nothing about correct grain layout for gun stocks. Easily 95% of them were nothing but fancy firewood. He couldn't understand why I had no interest in them, and bought all of those huge nasty rough sawn slabs for $10.00 apiece. Good wood has gotten very expensive, but you can still find some real bargains if you live in walnut country, and especially if you can buy green wood and have a place to properly air dry it to use perhaps a decade later.

Thanks guys,
I noticed it was slab sawn, but the grain looked straight and I thought that is what you need to look for, it is a huge learning curve. As far as fancy, it's something I'm really not looking for, but maybe a little figure to give the ole girl some new life, as it does deserve a little love! Please call me Rick!

Rick,

If you are looking for something, contact me and I can send you some pictures of some circassian that I have in stock that woukd work well for you.