Fiddleback walnut look

[Frontier's]

Gettin r done!!

 

[ohio ramrod]

interesting!

 

[Stykbow]

I like it!

 

[oldwood]

Very interesting. I have a few very low grade maple precarved stocks to try this concept. Thanks.

 

[Tradbow]

To each his own. Don’t care for faux. Either what you have is what it is or it’s not.

 

[oldwood]

Think I'll stick with ink and a feather's edge. Free paint brushes found in your yard, if you have birds naturally shedding their feathers. Have used the feather and black ink way before with success. Learned this from one of the master builders out at Friendship Ind. Spring Shoot , back in the 1980's.

 

[duca]

Wow! I think that looks Great! Nice job. Looks like it was time consuming

Anthony

 

[Fly Navy]

I like that look and you did a great job, but I always wonder how well it will hold up. Does the fiddleback come off or wear out with handling over time?

 

[david w]

I like that look and you did a great job, but I always wonder how well it will hold up. Does the fiddleback come off or wear out with handling over time?

It would diminish over time. True fiddleback walnut will change color when it is tilted in different directions. When the T/C Hawken kit was popular, they used VERY nice fiddleback walnut. at the time. I built 5 kits and sold them because everyone was amazed on how good they looked. They were also accurate. So, T/C decides they will be no longer good quality. Notice, they are out of the market now. Ever heard of the Peter Principle?

 

[Mulemauler]

Many Leman rifles were artificially striped such as this. With a good finish they should not fade that much. I've used several colors of leather dye to good effect. Start with a yellow then some red and then dark brown.

 

[billraby]

Why not just use figured wood?

 

[Mulemauler]

On a new build I would use nicer wood, but sometimes I've had to try this to add some interest to blah woods on rifles that I was refinishing.

 

[LME]

Why not just use figured wood?

Have you looked at the cost of figured wood lately?

 

[Rifleman1776]

When the T/C Hawken kit was popular, they used VERY nice fiddleback walnut. at the time.

In the early days of the TC 'hawken' their main distributor was in a town not far from where I lived in Illinois. We bought from him and learned the wood used for 'hawken', senecas, etc. at that time came from several sources. What you got was pretty much the catch of the day. Meaning, your pretty stocks were just luck happenstance.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Have you looked at the cost of figured wood lately?

A couple years ago I tried to go into the stock making business. As part of my research I found sources for highly figured woods. Many of these 'walnut' woods were much unlike what we see with black walnut in the U.S. They were beyond description in beauty and beyond reach financially for myself, or anyone I know. I never used any of those woods for fear of ruining one and being out thousands of dollars and disappointing a client.

 

[Hayes Cooper]

Def something different

 

[Frontier's]

Itll never wear off. Especially if you apply a good finish, not linseed oil.

How it looks now.

 

[R Ellis]

I like it but dont know if I have the patience io do it

 

[user 51067]

Itll never wear off. Especially if you apply a good finish, not linseed oil.

How it looks now.

The fly seems to approve!

 

[hanshi]

A good job can look truly great. I never thought to try striping a stock. I just don't like refinishing a stock that already is done and looks good. A plain stock is fine with me and doesn't try my patience like an attempt at striping would. Those than can do it and make it look close to natural get a "tip o' the hat" from this tinkerer.