Not wishing to hijack...
This is Re: 505ED and the current topic elsewhere titled "how’s my wood".

In response to a question by "577nitro" concerning grainflow through the wrist:

Ed's stock is being flipped, he is a lefty. So the layout out improves in regards to what the eye is seeing.
That said. The black grain in this blank in question does not follow the actual grainflow.
This is common in very old trees.

Tendrams is correct. If it were left to be turned as the layout is drawn on the blank, it would be fine.

Why?

Well several reasons
1. It is over 2.5" thick. The wrist area of a finished stock is just over an inch thick. It is loosing 1.5".
2.It is rift cut on top, i.e. the grain is running straight. So, when you remove 1.5" of wood from the left face and the grain is straight on top what you have will be what you want to see...straight grain through the wrist.
Keep in mind the blank is going top be flipped for Ed.

Further....and this is HUGELY important when picking a blank for a big bore.
Density, density, DENSITY!
The blank in the thread is supreme in density.
It is heavy
It is hard
It has nearly NO pores.

We cut a VERY large amount of wood for gun makers/companies. 10's of thousands to date.
When you cut and turn as many as I have done/seen you get a very keen eye as to what will happen when a stock is turned.

This is a good topic.
All too often I see guys make comments concerning wood blanks they just bought or are considering using.
(this has nothing to do with you 577nitro)
They seek advice from people and generally speaking, when I read these responses written by people...I read the wrong advice; a case of someone being ill-informed and passing it on to further perpetuate the scenario.

There are so many factors that go into choosing the correct blank of wood for a given project.
One of the least of which should be personal taste regarding "figure".

Here are a few pearls of wisdom for you (in addition to the one above concerning black figure following the grain):

1. You cannot tell if a blank is quarter-sawn from the photos showing just the two faces.

2. When you have a true flat-sawn blank you can disregard the grainflow on the two faces when laying it out.

I tried to start an educational thread on this before but people only want to talk about figure. Education is priceless…

Thank you for that. Very good information.

AFreeman:

Thank you for the information. And please take no offense with my comments. I am not trying to talk bad about you, your company, or your products. You make some gorgeous blanks and my observation was only based on what little I could see in the photos.

I was just trying to point out something some people may or may not have considered.

Mr Freeman,
What causes that black streaking in that wood? It looks great!

577 nitro,
No problem, I did not take it in any negative way.

Mike,
The black streaks are a result of minerals in the soil, most likely heavy metals.
It takes a long time to get them.

What AFreeman says about the black streaks is true unless it is an early Perazzi (Ithica) or SKB then the black streaks were caused by a charcoal pencil

Michael J

Sorry,

I've been out hog hunting a couple of days .

577 I see what you were saying and Adam and I talked a bunch about this blank.

I dont know as much as I should so I take advice from guys like Adam that cut and look at wood everyday.

I think why we picked this blank, is because it was dense, dense, dense!!!

Thanks for the anwser Adam!Your anwser was a damn site better than mine was going to be.

Ed

Ed,
Now you should admit that the figure in the blank had something to do with it!

Your right Adam, I was drawn to that blank by its straight grain and low color contrast

Ed

quote:

Originally posted by 505ED:
Your right Adam, I was drawn to that blank by its straight grain and low color contrast

Ed

Yep, probably would hve saved you a penny or two?

Ed,
How much extra did you pay for that blank???