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I’m getting mixed reviews here hahaha
Rough barn gun
- Thread starter lbothell
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A friend had 10,000 board ft. of curly maple stored for about 15 yr.s in a cow shelter barn. Sure enough , the bottom layer of planks , about 16 planks , were slightly holed, w/ powder post beetle holes. The planks we planed and cut into stock blanks , and used them over the next years. Neither of us ever saw a bug , over a ten yr. period. Also, none of the precarved gunstock wood had any indication , there was a problem. One word of caution , never spray gunstock wood with insect poison , The guy working the wood into stocks , could be made sick from toxic bug spray. This happened to a wood worker running a gunstock copying machine..
Would vacuum bag the stock, cover with a black lawn sack, and hang in the summer sun for a couple of days work?
It getting up to +100F and in the direct sunlight and the black plastic keeping it hot should put the Kietus on them.
Inquiring minds and all,
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i would imagine that would work.
first it would be necessary to determine if there are active bugs.
when they are active you can hear them. they sound like someone crunching on a carrot.
Loocking at all these worm holes makes me question how bad the inside of the wrist area looks. That you cannot find out unless you cut into it. Being a professional cabinet maker, I have cut some wood over the years... I could come up with 2 solutions. One, shooting the gun with a proof loaf safely. If it does not break, kill the worms. We were taught that kiln drying will do that. So heat is a good one. Second, and you may get there by default is to use your old stock as a template and make a new stock. Make sure you get rid of the old stock soon after. You do not want to get the worm into your house. All the best!
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Original Brown Bess
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Worm holes in the original Brown Bess appear to be bored from the exterior of the long go finished stock. The barn find stock worm holes appear to be from before the wood was milled and then became apparent when the final shape emerged - worms could not burrow along wood surface. Like another poster, I would worry about worm holes in the wrist area causing weakness.
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I’ll be honest the more I’m looking at the stock the holes don’t go deep I can see the end of each one so not sure how they could still be there. Feeling a little better about that!
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if all are surface channels you are golden! certainly will be one of a kind!
we pay big money for figure in wood, those bug runs will be sure to attract attention.
i got to thinking (dangerous),about killing those bugs that might be alive. if there are any holes uncovered you could blast the hole with high pressure. likely to do bad things to a bug.
ps. please post progress, this has me enthralled.
Northwoodstrapper
32 Cal
If the wood that your stock came from was kiln dried it will be okay. Once the moisture comes down to 6-9% the heat in the kiln is turned up to close the cells and kill any bugs and larvae.
Heating the wood to about 150° F (about the temperature of a hot cup of coffee) will kill any and all eggs, larvae and adults present. Heating at about 200° F will also stabilize the wood and make it more insect resistant. Some woods are heat treated to about 210° F, which is about the temperature of kiln drying. Bagging the wood and using a hot hair dryer would probably be adequate.
(The author is a qualified entomologist and music instrument technician)
(The author is a qualified entomologist and music instrument technician)
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I will definitely do that! It’s definitely a neat piece of wood with some good curl, I rubbed a damp cloth on it and was pretty excited to see the curl but these big holes are going to look nice too! The stock came from TVM so I’m assuming it was done properly, but like I said all these holes are surface only snd none seem to go into the wood. Also no crunching sound that I could hear in the wood either
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Well this is an old post, but I received so much help with ideas to finish this gun figured I better post some pictures.. it turned out better then expected and I have yet to have an issue with any worms that made the holes I believe they are all gone. I like how it is a working man’s gun and I’m not afraid to use it, but yet it still has parts that really shine. Really shoots a patches round ball very well, 50 yrds no problem but I haven’t shot past that, thanks again for all the help and ideas it is much appreciated
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If you were concerned about possible live wood worms you could heat the gun up to about 120° F for a half hour or so to kill any remaining larvae or eggs. That temperature shouldn't cause any damage and it would kill anything left alive.
That really did turn out well.
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Thank you for the idea I will definitely remember that if I do another stock with em in it. This one has sat for over a year with no new holes, sawdust etc… so I feel pretty confident they are not there BUT if that changes I will do the heat
GREAT SCOTT!!!! Turned that one into a fantastic piece you did! Great character!
Huzzah!!
Huzzah!!
