Brazilian Hardwood Rifle Stock?

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SolidLeadSlug

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Good afternoon everyone,

I'm in the process of relocating to beautiful Natal brazil and just down the street from me is a lumber yard with some of the most BEAUTIFUL wood I've ever seen. They have Jatoba (Brazilian Cherry), Ipe (Brazilian Walnut), Cumaru, and Brazilian Koa. These are all hard woods with deep reddish to red purple colors. From a glance, the individual lengths seem large enough for a longrifle stock. If enough people are interested, I can certainly investigate further the quality of the wood with measurements and pictures as well as explore the possibilities of shipping them to interested parties.
 
My father in law has a mountain of small peices he has left over from making Chair legs

Brazil has a beautiful rosewood that I used to get years ago in small pieces. My brother made revolver grips from it, they were gorgeous. Maybe some of their woods would be great for rifle stocks.
 
These would not be very traditional long rifle stocks.

Decades ago a Philadelphia bar called the Happy Rooster had a magnificent bar top made from Brazilian rosewood slabs.
Not traditional american but unique, durable and beautiful nonetheless. Several pourtugese firelocks in the nearby museum sporting ipe stocks
 
Some types of rosewood are illegal to import into the US. For me I will stick with the more traditional woods like maple, walnut, cherry, ash and the like.
 
For many years I communicated with an American who lived in Peru and made his living by exporting exotic woods from South America. He taught me much. Most importantly, many SA woods are highly toxic. Just breathing dust can be dangerous. Some SA woods are harder and heavier than anything most of us in America have ever seen. They can be very unsuitable for rifle stocks. That said, there are several SA woods that are absolutely mind blowing beautiful. Choose wisely.
 
For many years I communicated with an American who lived in Peru and made his living by exporting exotic woods from South America. He taught me much. Most importantly, many SA woods are highly toxic. Just breathing dust can be dangerous. Some SA woods are harder and heavier than anything most of us in America have ever seen. They can be very unsuitable for rifle stocks. That said, there are several SA woods that are absolutely mind blowing beautiful. Choose wisely.
Hey that's an idea.
 
I have a decent amount of Ipe that I use in woodworking projects. It’s left over from deck projects. You wanna talk about hard! It’s murder on saw blades, chisels and drill bits. We have to pre drill it for nails or screws when we build decks with it! While it is a beautiful wood I can’t imagine carving a stock out of it. All the materials I have are 5 quarter. I think it would add an immense amount of weight to the gun, this stuff is really heavy.
 
Koa is some of the prettiest wood I’ve ever seen on a bow or knife handles. I bet it would be stunning as a rifle stock.
 
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Not traditional american but unique, durable and beautiful nonetheless. Several pourtugese firelocks in the nearby museum sporting ipe stocks
There was much trade in’logwood’ out of South America. Popular in Europe, I don’t if made in to guns. But considering ivory,glass African mahogany teak pear, olive all got made in to European gun stocks I bet it would be good
 
An ipe stocked rifle would be WAY too heavy.
But, with the right piece of ipe, nearly indestructible.
The one ipe bow I managed to break, broke badly. All the others were very plain looking, this piece of wood had beautiful figure in one section, so tried to make that the handle and riser section of a slightly more modern style flat bow. During tillering that handle and riser just let go breaking into all sorts of funky shapes.
 
IPE is a common wood used for decks here in the states, it is also a good bow wood, very dense. It has a specific gravity of over 1.0 so a block of it will sink in water and not float.
Indeed. While working in Palawan, Philippines years ago I made a Banka boat paddle out of Ipe (Called Ipel-Ipel there). Yup, the paddle slipped off the boat- and sank. Ooops.
 
I built a rifle with Bolivian Rosewood that was imported in 1957. While working it was a red color with black streaks running the length of the wood. I never found a finish that would harden on it so it's just bare polished wood now. After the first year it turned black. The color can be seen in direct sunlight. The rifle is heavy at sixteen pounds and that's what I wanted.
 
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