The Worst & Best Wood

[musketman]

Harpman's post "Practice wood" got me a thinkin' and I Would like to know, in your opinion what is the best and worst woods for making gun stocks???

Just what is the top ten, all time best woods to use???

 

[Slowpoke]

:imo: Walnut is probably the best while I suppose pine would be about the worst.

CH

 

[2158]

air dryed sugar maple, best for detailed carving. and
ebony would be the worst. " small stuff ok " but amagine
building a whole gun from it. you would have to sharpen your tools daily, if that would even help!! :curse:

 

[B.Habermehl]

Hard sugar maple followed by hard dense red maple, is best by me. English walnut is right up there given the right density and grain structure. Followed by black walnut, if dense enough. The nastiest stuff is soft wood, and soft curley is worst yet. This could be from any of the above species. Dense hard blanks are what I look for of what ever species of wood I need for a project. Light weight, soft wood is of no use for detail carving. Hard wood will yeild tighter inlets with crisper edges, that make good inletting look like great work. Soft wood is more difficult to get clean inlets with crisp edges. :m2c:

 

[Dave Poss]

in your opinion what is the best and worst woods for making gun stocks???

Tiger Woods is a good golfer, but I don't know if he makes gun stocks or not! :crackup: :crackup:

Saw a flint pistol once with a cedar stock...seems like it would be easy to work, but splitting seems pretty likely also after it ages awhile.

 

[musketman]

I like blackthorn wood, but it's twisted...

Cork or balsa would be a bad choise...

 

[Liver eatin’ Johnson]

Even though it is easy to work, I really don't like beechwood which you see in a lot of cheap kits. Walnut is my favorite. :thumbsup:

 

Balsa, one of the worst, yes. Cork itself is actually the bark of a variety of Oak tree. (Quercus Suber) I don't think Oak makes a very good gunstock, (too porus?) but better than the bark of the Cork Oak!

 

[Zonie]

Maple, Walnut, Cherry =GOOD
Cottonwood, Redwood, Pine =BAD

::

 

[bulletman]

Thanks for bringing this up, I ordered the book Gunsmith of Grenville, And will be looking for a stock. I also ordered some carving tools and files. I think I pretty much have everything else i will need, except for engraving tools, Anyone know who has beginner type kit at a good price ? for engraving. Also just got the Muzzle loaders supply catalog and will probly get the stuff from there, maybe get the gravers from them too.

 

[musketman]

Harpman, here are some exotic hardwoods to choose from...

alder (Alnus rubra)
andaman paduak (Pterocarpus dalbergioides)
black korina (Terminalia superba)
Brazilian rosewood (Dalbergia nigra)
birdseye mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla)
birdseye maple (Acer saccharum), (Acer rubrum)
carpathian elm burl (Ulmus campestris)
cocobolo (Dalbergia retusa)
East Indian rosewood (Dalbergia latifolia)
Gaboon ebony (Diospyros piscatoria)
figured Honduras mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla)
flammed Acacia koa
flammed maple (Acer macruphylum), (Acer saccharum) (Acer rubrum)
flammed walnut (Juglans nigra)
lacewood (Cardwellia sublimia)
myrtlewood (Umbellularia californica)
quilted maple (Acer macruphylum), (Acer rubrum)
osage orange (Maclura pomifera)
purpleheart (Peltogyne porphyrocardia)
swamp ash (Fraxinus nigra)
spalted maple (Acer saccharum)
tulipwood (Dalbergia frutescens)
walnut burl (Juglans nigra)
white korina (Terminalia superba)
wild black cherry (Prunus serotina)
zebra wood (Dalbergia melawoxylon)

 

[Leonredbeard]

Wpalongrifle,
I would have to disagree with you on ebony. Have you actually used it? I know I was told in junior high that it was too hard for use. In '91 when I built my PA Lancaster I ordered an ebony ramrod for it. I found the rod to be no heavier than hickory and it filed like walnut. It was easier to sand down to fit through the pipes than Hickory is. And when I final sanded it, it polished like a plexiglas rod. I never did put any finish on it. Sure wish I had that gun now, sigh. But I needed the money later that year.
God bless.
volatpluvia

 

[Gary]

Maple is easier to work with than Walnut.

 

[LSU TIGER]

The best, would be in no order, maple, cherry, and walnut. The worst could be broken down into two groups, those being wood that the expense would preclude use and wood that is too soft or unstable for use. :m2c:

 

[Herb]

I had a double barreled 12 gauge underlever shotgun I got in North Dakota at a farm sale. Someone had whittled a butt stock for it out of cottonwood. I thought that was crude until I saw cottonwood slabbed off in a woodworker's shop. It can have fantastic grain, but my wife has cottonwood shingles on her tea house and they sure do curl as they dry out. Tough and stringy. This same woodworker did her tea house and I am building him a .40 caplock, very plain rifle to show the wood, and of all the wood he could choose, he wants me to make it of Chinese elm. (Siberian elm, Ulmus chinensis). He says it can have wonderful figure, and I have seen it in his shop. Hope he comes up with a good stick for me to work from. If so, will post a picture of it. Another woodworker acquaintance says that box elder can also have very nice figure (Acer negundo). Am also going to build an early Lancaster style from local black walnut, full stock.

 

[Chickenfax]

I'd second the notion that balsa would be bad. I would think that other bad choices would include most "rain forest" species as they are very expensive, difficult on tools, and much more dense than typical hardwoods. Ebony might make a nice stock but it would probably cost a new car and weigh half as much.

I vote that hard maple would be the best species around here for stock material. Cherry seems to be popular but I would think it would be too soft. Walnut is my favorite wood of all but for gunstocks I think it is a little too brittle.

Red oak is porous to the point that you can suck water through the endgrain like a straw. But what about white oak? Ships were made from white oak. If you filled the grain it may work. Might be tough to carve on. Dunno.

Course these are only my opinions.

:m2c:

 

[bulletman]

Gonna go look at Black walnut board (8/4)=2"X7"X10 feet long for 80 bucks, hope its good enough. Cant find any maple in this darn city at all. 2 inches thick cutting it to close ?

 

[Zonie]

IMO 2 inches, rough sawn is cutting it real close unless your building post 1800 guns like the Bedford (which were thin).
Even then, it won't allow you to put much, if any cast into the butt.

 

[Chickenfax]

I would look for 10/4 (2 1/2") or even 12/4 (3") roughsawn. Gonna be purty 'spensive.

Ching-ching :m2c:

 

[musketman]

Gonna go look at Black walnut board (8/4)=2"X7"X10 feet long for 80 bucks, hope its good enough.

Black Walnut... :redthumb: