doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Question on tiger striped fiddleback

I seriously doubt if the first stock shown is quarter sawn. Take the buttplate off for a better look.
These days the only quarter sawn you get is the middle cuts of the tree as it is slab sawn.

When you consider the slab sawn middle cuts of the tree, there are differences between say the 2 or 3 VERY middle ones and one on either side of those, where the grain starts to curve around. Some people refer to those areas as 3/4 sawn. The first one shown is not quite there IMO. But actual technical description may even vary by geographical region of the country. I just stated what we say around my part of the country, yet the whole post was about the fiddleback to start with. When you get down to it, slab sawing messes up as many stocks as it lays out right, which is why I never used the method. I always went for layout, and any waste was too bad since I was concentrating on gunstocks and not lumber...Steve

Doug Mann's stock is feather crotch, running "up the limb." The crotch therefore ends up in the buttstock, and the grain turns through the wrist of the stock as it is actually the heart of one of the limbs which made up the crotch. It is certainly laid out textbook fashion. I see some crotch cuts running down the trunk, which I have found is more difficult to get as good a layout. (although on a .22 or other light recoiler, it might make it possible for the entire stock section to be feather.) I sure miss the old days of cutting trees--it was like searching for buried treasure! But the kind of work that will turn you old...Steve

Example of quarter sawn stock :
Matching right/left sides



horizontal grain through butt:


best regards,
JBP

I remember that Fox !!!!!!!!!

J.B. - Doug,
That's my favorite kind of wood!

Fiddle back is amazing and one of my favorite wood attributes. Here is a 1932 Superposed with light fiddleback:

And a 1966 Superposed with amazing fiddleback (top gun in photo):

Deleted, server problems.

This is incorrect, if you are referring to quartersawn. As shown with Doug's blank and the Fox, in quartersawn the growth rings are perpendicular to the face of the board/blank, not parallel.

Altamaha:

It appears as though you are a wood cutter. An honest question here: In showing these photos with the descriptions of "quarter sawn" and "flat sawn", are you saying the only difference in getting the "fiddleback" figure as opposed to the "quilted" figure is the way the log is oriented to the saw blade? Thanks.

Craig Libhart