stock wood

[snowdave]

this may be a stupid question but here goes, is there a reason why stocks are made out of walnut,maple or cherry, is there a problem with oak or other woods. I can understand pines and soft woods but what about others.

 

[gene mosier]

theres not a tree species around that hasent been used as a stock wood. only some are a little more suited for the task. oak isnt as stable as cherry or maple.more open grained then walnut and harder to work. when i say stable im talking about changes in relative humidity.pretty much any wood species that strikes your fancy can be used for a gunstock, given proper seasoning (drying)and isnt under internal stresses.walnut, cherry and maple seam to foot the bill more readily.in a past muzzle blast article there was pictured a very nice ash stocked long gun.wish i still had that magazine! hope this helped ya out some, if not, just fire back some more!

 

[snowdave]

yes thanks i knew it had to be more than a visual thing ive got tons of old barn oak but can't imagine trying to work that stuff

 

[Stophel]

Oak is very heavy and an oak board will almost literally walk across the floor. Oak is pretty unstable.

Hickory has been used on RARE occasions as a gunstock...by those foolhardy enough to attempt to use it! Hickory is incredibly hard, and therefore, harder to work than some of us mere mortals care to try. Rich Pierce notwithstanding...I think he's trying to reproduce the hickory stocked Bucks gun... :wink:

Beech is OK for stocks (and was used for military stocks, and is still used on European rifles for lower grade guns). Super hard, but brash and unpleasant to work. It's also got lots of flecks and rays that can be quite gaudy.

Birch makes an OK stock, but unless it is curly, it is horribly, horribly plain and unattractive. Often used in Scandinavia, but apparently they have a somewhat higher incidence of curly birch than we have here. Most cheaper grades of American guns have had birch stocks for decades.

Ash makes a fine stock. Hard, not quite as heavy as oak, and seems to be relatively stable. The porous rings do visually interrupt carving, but it can be done. Ash was used on German rifles on RARE occasion, and perhaps on a PA rifle here and there, but there seem to be several old Tennessee/Southern Mountain rifles stocked in ash. The English used ash in the 17th century a good bit to stock guns with.

I have a curly ash stock blank here that I have not yet done anything with. I have a straight-rifled barrel ordered that I think I'm going to put in it...

 

[ohio ramrod]

Walnut has long been one of the prefered woods for gunstocks because of its , weight, machinability, and cell structure which absorbs vibrations (recoil) and resistance to spliting. Cherry is more likely to be used in New England (cherry for fowlers ). Maple in Penn. long rifles, Maple was often chosen for its curl appearance rather than any specific properity.

 

[snowdave]

thanks alot guys, i know alot of people get here and think hey id like to build one and I guess I'm one also.I love to tinker around with stuff and I came across an old tradition model and dont care for the stock thats on it so i figured hey lets see what happens.