Keith:
I'm with you and as a lifelong woodworker I learned a long time ago that if you wanted a table just get the wood and cut away everything that doesn't look like a table and it will probably turn out ok. A great deal of artistic license is of course allowable here.
However my few feeble attempts at gunstock making came to naught. Cutting away everything that doesn't look like a classic gunstock works ok until you get to the last few critical thousands of an inch. This is where the real artistry comes in and makes all the difference between stock craftmanship and stock butchery.
Jim
