Strange chunk of wood

[crgabel]

I've built 7 guns now and desided to buy my first kit from TOW. I ordered the grade 4 (highly figured)
Well it arrived today all parts were in order as expected but the stock has a lot of Grey coloring in the wood. I quickly sanded the slab that they send along with, and slopped some Aqua fortis on it and heat and it is not visable. I have never run into this on any other stocks.
Is this Grey matter normal in the stock industry??
Your thoughts please??
:hmm:

Craig

 

[fatboy]

Hi Craig Ive seen this in another stock that was a very high fig pc of wood . My other job we used alot of maple and remember seeing it before . I dont belive its all that abnormal or should you have a problem with it . I'm sure you will get some more ansewers here .

 

[Stophel]

The gray is called "mineral streaking". There are certain minerals found in some soil (don't ask me what they are) that the tree will absorb and it will color the wood gray. Not an uncommon occurrence. You've already found out for yourself that it will pretty well be invisible when stained with A.F.

I actually haven't gotten too many stock blanks with much mineral streaking, but what little I have gotten has pretty much all gone away with staining, or at most, simply looks like a nice natural dark streak in the wood.

 

[Wehrmacht]

Mineral streaks will almost always be thin streaks of much darker colored wood fibers.These streaks usually aren't wider than maybe a quarter inch and usually don't run more than 4-10 inches.Black,dark brown and reddish/brown are usually the most common colors.

Mineral streaking is a major cull factor in hardwoods originating in the deep Southern States,but is much less common from the Southern Appalachians northward.The high silicon content of our soils down here is the main cause,and because of mineral stain very little of our hardwoods are used in the furniture industry.

I wouldn't want mineral stains in my flintlock stocks,but being in the timber business I have panelled each room in our house with a different native hardwood.All have a lot of mineral stain,and it is totally beautiful...it really sets the wood panels off!

 

[crgabel]

What I'm seeing is not mineral streaks. 90% of the stock is actually gray not the normal white color. I have a wood lathe with a 2' diameter capasity and have seen this color in maple before near the sap wood of shortly after it had gotten wet.
If I were to try to sell this gun in the white i could not do it, it would have to be sold in the gray
Craig

 

[the skrat]

hello craig hard to say without seeing your stock but i believe your stock has water stain if the log was cut during the summer months this can actually happen in about a week.i am a logger in upper michigan and usually try to avoid cutting high grade logs during the summer when its really humid. i cut 5 curly maple veneer this summer called the wood buyer that night and he had them picked up and the ends waxed wihin 3 days. in the veneer industry they will not buy logs that are to stained but if aqua fortis will hide it it might be okay i do not believe this would hurt your sructural value at all but i dont think i would be happy with it.
curly maple

 

[crgabel]

Thanks curly

 

[Chiefs50]

Curly;

I know the money is good these days for maple veneer logs but how do you know a sawlog contains curly maple before it is sawn?

 

[flintriflesmith]

You can check for curl by chopping a small window through the bark. It is easy to see the height and spacing of the curl.

 

[vermontfreedom]

I'm not an expert in these things (I do have a forestry degree, but I'm not a wood processor, mill operator, or logger more intimately familiar with the properties of wood), but here's a thought I recently learned:

Red or "soft" maple (Acer rubrum) often has very good curl, but is prone to mineral streaking. It also tends to having 'fuzzy' wood that won't make sharp corners and edges.

Sugar or "hard" maple (Acer saccharum)is favored for curl, tends to be a bit more finicky, but is less prone to mineral streaking and is a better wood for finer carving, incising, etc.

Perhaps other folks--especially "curly maple"--with more knowledge about the vagaries of red versus sugar maple could weigh in.

 

[Stophel]

Maybe that's why I don't see too much mineral streaking....I avoid using red maple!!! :winking:

 

[crgabel]

Vermontfreedom
Funny you should mention the soft and fuzzy aspect of the red maple, This stock feels lighter (by weight) and softer than any that I have done to date. I'm sure that the discoloration is as stated above in respect to getting too much moisture before being milled.

Thanks
Craig

 

[the skrat]

craig i was thinking about this today and i talk to a lot of sawmill guys tell me a lot of staining can happen during the kiln drying process along with a lot of other problems. maple is also the most finicky wood to dry so this could also be your problem although i dont believe this stain will harm the structural integrity of your stock.

chiefs50 i identify curl in a maple tree by whenever i cut a log size tree after i put my felling notch in the tree i bust the wedge of wood apart this will show if it has curl or not a lot of trees have curl right at the base so if it has promising curl i then chip off bark further up the tree if it still has curl then i will cut it a couple inches longer then the wood buyer will cut off a couple inches off the log and chip it apart with an axe and check for consistancy vividness and mineral stain and size of log and base the price on that
curly maple

 

[Cherokee]

Red or "soft" maple (Acer rubrum) often has very good curl, but is prone to mineral streaking. It also tends to having 'fuzzy' wood that won't make sharp corners and edges.

This sounds like my stock from TOTW.
It has some soft pulpy areas where the pulp is soft and after staining and setting a few days starts to darken and fuzz up. I have found rubbing #0000 steel wool takes the fuzz off and puts a shine back on it.
This is in the initial staining and drying inside of a week.
I bought the middle priced curly maple stock from them and I think I paid way too much for what I got.
IM not finished staining the stock but it looks good.

 

[crgabel]

Thanks for the information. I guess I'll just build this one as a plane jane model and sell it because I don't feel the wood type will lend itself to carving. I guess I'll have to go back to my oringinal stock supplier in the future.
Thanks Again
Craig

 

[the skrat]

vermont freedom i believe peaple make the mistake that soft maple is soft yes it is softer than hard maple but still a very hard wood now as i understand silver maple is very soft but that is a subspecies of soft maple. soft maple also tends to have more hidden defects than hard maple wich i believe turns a few peaple off hard maple is in my opinion more consistantly good and that is part of the reason whyit demands more money.northern wood or wood from the mountains is a lot more dense than southern wood this fall a man showed me a soft maple cutoff that was 12 inches in diameter and was almost 300 years old he had to polish it up and count the anual rings with a magnify glass now if you ask me its hard to find a piece of wood more dense than that. also i like the curl in soft maple better it seems to be more vivid.
curly maple

 

[Chiefs50]

Curly Maple: Thanks for the info. I always wondered exactly how you determined that. I suppose it works for "birdseye" as well?

 

[crgabel]

So Fellows, What should I expect if I start to carve the stock. Will it not cut as clean as hard maple? Will it be gummey and try to push instead of cut?
Craig

 

[jmckenney]

If the gray area on this piece of maple resembles the gray on the stock your talking about, it's staining from mold growth. Mold grows in maple either as the tree is standing dead, after cut in log form or after sawing and not being dried fast enough. Maple is prone to mold growth because of the moisture content and high sugar level, both contribute to rapid mold growth.

 

[the skrat]

birdseye is a little bit easier to tell first if its really good eye you can sometimes see it in the bark, little dimples second if you chip off the bark the dimples are very obvious kinda looks like you shot it with a shotgun and third after you cut the tree down if you look at the end of the tree you will see what they call rays they look like the spokes of a wheel leading towards the heart of the tree.btw back in the 90s i heard of 2 trees that had extremely good eye 1 sold for 35 grand and the other close to 40 grand.
curly maple