Gunstock prices....

[Col. Batguano]

While the money the stock suppliers in maple stocks get for their product generally comes from the figure and the curl, the more important aspects are grain direction at the wrist and hardness of the wood. Our wrists are (or at least should be) exceedingly thin. Very long guns can focus a lot of leveraged force on that wrist if you drop the gun, or something on it in the middle. Furthermore, in inletting our lock and trigger internals we remove a lot of wood in that critical area weakening it further. Grain direction is critical to lend strength. Of course, if it's wrong and has a out of runout at the wrist it can be reinforced with a plug under the TG, or a rod in to the butt.

In order to get that natural "turn" in the grain the wood has to be harvested from a place it naturally does that. That's right at the base of the tree, and from the below-ground stump. It's far far easier to cut down a tree above ground than it is below ground!

The other aspect that goes to strength is wood hardness which also corresponds to sheer strength. Sugar maple is about 25%-30% harder (generically speaking) than red maple. Sheer strength closely corresponds to hardness in the individual blank. Harder wood also holds intricate details better in carving.

Wood with a lot of curl and figure in it is also inherently weaker than straight grained wood, and curled wood is going to seasonally move on you in 3 directions rather than two. * I have a gun where the front of the MC is flush to the muzzle face in August, and 1/16" below it in March!.

Sugar maple is also much less commonly curled than red maple. Daniel at Dunlops told me that roughly 1 blank in 500 has rich deep curl running throughout. Add in the grain direction turn and hardness requirements and now you're talking about 1/1000-2000 stocks. In fact, before he would sell me that $850 piece of wood, he wanted to see at least 2 examples of my past work. It was like going through an adoption process akin to buying a puppy! Since I was building a Lehigh styled gun with an A-weight barreled gun, the wrist was going to be very very thin. If I was building a D-Weighed barreled Lancaster, that grain turn aspect wouldn't be so critical in the stock. So given all of that, it's small wonder they ask the big big bucks for those super rare and perfect stocks.

A totally speculative guess in pricing is that if the demand for maple were the same as it is for walnut, that perfect maple blank would be priced 3x-5x higher. Want to help keep prices down? Keep the joy of ML'er building a secret!

 

[76 shovelhead]

does anyone know where a blank could be taken to . for inleting. in pa

 

[GANGGREEN]

Dave Keck at Knob Mountain (between Bloomsburg and Berwick).

 

[Col. Batguano]

David Rase does a really good job, and he's particularly finicky about his work, As far as I know, he's the ONLY guy that can get you a 1/16" web if that's what you want.

What kind of a gun are you thinking of building? It matters because not all guns need that thin of a web. Hawkens for instance seem to be fine with 1/4" webs..

 

[76 shovelhead]

i will look him up thanks ganggreen. i think my next one will be a plain golden age with steel hardware. 54 cal flintlock left hand.chambers lock. would like to do a swamped bbl. never had one. i have a maple thats been inn log form for two years now. my friend will saw it into slabs for me soon. looks like it should have some curl. but that doesnt matter its off our farm where i live and hunt. thanks all and merry christmas

 

[Col. Batguano]

It takes a mighty big log to be big enough to get you enough sapwood for a gun stock. The lesser drop styles like a Golden Age or a Lancaster will be easier to find enough wood than the more extreme ones, like a Bedford or Lehigh. If you're going to have to do a splice to get more height, you can sometimes camouflage the glue line in the tang area with carving edges

For a 54 you'll need a C or D weight. If you have a thick web with that size barrel you'll have a mighty meaty gun.

Addendum to my above post. David Rase is not in PA but he can certainly handle the job

 

[tenngun]

Had an old retired navy chief who lived about four miles or three houses away from me in Arkansas. Was over visiting with him one winter when I noticed how dark some of his fire wood stack was. I said a comment about it. He said one of his walnut trees died the year before. He had a grove off them on his land toward the back, made for good squirrel hunting. He bordered an unused land and I hunted many times near his grove on this other piece of land.
He just cut it down ‘it made good smoke’ keeping his little house toasty.
I asked him if I could buy a piece he gave me one. A split out quarter.
I had parts for a pistol I had got from golden age arms. The stock wood was too small for the gun and I never got around to making it. Made a pistol stock from that piece of fire wood.

 

[Cattman]

quilted maple is from the west coast. very expensive.. for a 1/2 stock block of wood years ago i paid 250 dollars. carved it out my self. really nice looking. the company i bought it from said he just sold a block of wood quilted maple but where the root and tree come together so it was solid but full of burls also for 14,000 dollars to make a muzzleloader for a very very rich man. he owned a big dog food company. never found out who built it for him. once i was contacted by a tv star of a detective series to build a muzzle loader for him. then he backed out and i built it anyways and sold it to a rocket scientist it was just curly maple. the guy loved the looks of it and hunted elk with it. stocks can be plain maple but made to look very very nice. never use oak. i tried that once. looked nice but every time it went off a chunk come off of it.

 

[tenngun]

I have heard but don’t know that the high tannic acid of oak can rust a barrel. I’ve never seen an oak gun from the past and it was so popular in the old days for so much.
Elm was so tough and used for cannon carriages I oft wondered why not guns, but it is heavy

 

[GREENSWLDE]

I have a 9br Double sxs that is stocked in Elm. It doesn't rot easily and was used on shore & wildfowling gun sometimes. Used a lot for bottom boards on canal barges and stair treads in UK, On the price of Blanks, the Hand sawn Circasiun walnut blank for my replica Metford was £300.00 in 1984.. Nice bit of wood with an Oil finish.. OLD DOG.

 

[Bob McBride]

David Rase does a really good job, and he's particularly finicky about his work, As far as I know, he's the ONLY guy that can get you a 1/16" web if that's what you want.

What kind of a gun are you thinking of building? It matters because not all guns need that thin of a web. Hawkens for instance seem to be fine with 1/4" webs..

Dave does awesome work. He’s in Washington State though. He does come out this way a few times a year to shows and brings stocks and totes back blanks. I would give him a call. He is one of those that focuses on each inlet like he’s doing it for the King of England. Top shelf.