alternate woods used for longrifles

[zimmerstutzen]

I have seen a pistol stocked with osage orange. that strange yellow green orange with brown iron furniture. Sort of so darned ugly.......it was cool.

There was a guy in Virginia that made a few items from highly colored Damson wood. It would have purple rings, orange rings, reddish rings. just plain strange. He made a plug for a powder horn from Damson that looked like a black and blue, blood-shot eye looking at you. Kind of wacked. But I often wondered what a pistol stock would look like made from that.

 

[GANGGREEN]

After seeing that Chinese elm gunstock, I'm curious about American elm myself. I have a few on the property but I hate the thought of cutting them down because it's becoming more unusual with the Dutch elm disease.

I also saw another interesting rifle a few weeks ago. I was at an individual's house and he had an attractive longrifle hanging over his fireplace. I asked if it was butternut and he acknowledged that it was. He said that he had ordered the rifle from Chuck Dixon when he was in Vietnam during the war. It was quite an attractive rifle.

 

[robertdale]

I once was told that sycamore was common in use for plain guns. medium density hard wood.
is still used for heavy skids/pallets.

ironjaw

 

[Paul R]

About 35 years ago, when dutch elm disease was running rampant through this area (Winnipeg), some govt. department got the bright idea of cutting down all those diseased trees, before they rotted, and sawing them into planks. The idea was that the wood could be sold to local cabinetmakers and save all that good wood. Trouble was, nobody would buy it.
Elm is a cantankerous wood, full of wild grain and hidden knots. A plank that was 100% clear on the outside could have a large knot that wouldn't be obvious till you opened it up, and then it was always in the wrong spot. Elm can be a beautiful wood and would probably make a good gunstock if it wasn't so unstable. Also, it would be a real heartbreaker to get half way through a build and run into one of those hidden knots.
Paul

 

[ron ward]

just about any of the commonly found native hardwoods will make a decent stock and i'll bet they were all used more often than we know about. the more accepted woods that we commonly see have been selected through the years because of thier overall workability and stabilities, but they're certainly not the only woods that will work. point in case,sugar maple.... considered the standard for these guns, yet a good stick of red or big leaf maple is just about as dense and actually more likely to have really nice vivid figure.
the one thing to watch out for with the "other woods" is grain direction and orientation to the profile. lamminating for a stock is going to become more common as these woods become more scarce and expensive. i've made several from lammed up red maple with no longterm problems such as movement by picking well kilned planks that have a good prtion of vertical grain out near the edge of the plank so that the forearm ends up shaped out of essentially quartersawn stock and the plain sawn portion is in the butt where thickness of the stock will help in stability. when glued up in this manor they are as stable as a solid piece and way less expensive than a solid blank.
granted we all know they aren't really "period-correct" and they deviate from the histaorical aspect of front stuffers as contained in these forums, but man, i just can't afford what they want for a fancy blank and these look every bit as nice when done.

 

[Kilchis Jack]

We have a tree here in the northwest that is interesting. It is called a Cascara, it has a nice yellow wood that is pretty hard when dry. Last time we were shooting, we had a iron pot of beans heating over the fire for lunch, I had forgot a spoon to stir the beans with and started toward a Cascara to cut a small limb, but the other guys saw me and told me to leave that tree alone, gee I wonder why, regularity would have been no problem after that. But the wood, would make an interesting rifle.Just don't lick the stock unless you need to. Jack

 

[William O.]

Although I don't have the talent, time or tools to build one myself I did have one made from cherry recently;

 

[Kilchis Jack]

Cherry certainly has some quality's I will be looking into, and that is a rifle to be proud of.

Jack

 

[ron ward]

cherry carves nicely, too. you don't want to breathe in the sanding dust from cascara, also.