Have you guys looked at these custom laminates in fancy woods?

I have always liked certain aspects of laminates, but prefer figured hardwoods. This outfit makes its own laminates out of walnut, CHERRY, maple, and others.

Just wondering what you guys think about it?



I was thinking about a five layer all cherry laminate with three fancy layers of cherry and two plain ones...fancy outside . plain . fancy middle . plain . and fancy outside

333, the real guru's in that game are the guys at Serengeti Stockworks. They are real artists also. I had one done on a Sako action and the inletting is just flawless.

The differnt woods Richards offer seem interesting, I'm sure serengeti would do one out of anything you want, but they mainly stock walnut of the various types.

Nice Pics--Don

I do not like that maple layer showing down the middle. Looks cheap to me.

+1 for Serengeti. If I ever restock a rifle, it will be with one their laminated walnut stocks.

quote:

Serengeti Stockworks

Are thier stocks laminates? I am having a lot of trouble finding cherry, with high figure, thick enough to make a stock out of. However, I can find as much high figured 4/4 thick as I want. I was thinking of using these to create a custom laminate cherry stock?

Sounds crazy huh?

333, yes-their stocks are a vertical laminate--I'll try and post a photo of mine later, try this

Serengeti

Thier stocks are very interesting. I had not looked at them before. I would love to see pictures of your stock. Thier website does not due the wood justice from what little pictures they are.

I bought a semi inlet from them awhile back. Actually semi inlet isn't a good description, it was more finished than a typical semi. Some look good IMO some don't. If the slices color match well they look nice. Here are few pics.

So basically they take a complete blank, slice it and plane it and then glue it back together and stabilizes like a laminate?

Interesting. Does this really make the wood more stable. Can you take a picture of one of the areas where they are laminayted back together so we can see how they fit?

I'll post some, not great photos though. I have some of a stock with a poor color match (IMO) that should show the slices.

Sorry if these are too large...




This one is of the finished stock minus finish and wetted




I think Serengeti is doing three slices now. These stocks are five. Three should look better

I am really curious about this method, but my blanks look like they might be the standard tapered design and that won't work with them reversing the slices right?

looking at teh pictures at the serengeti website, teh blanks look square.

http://www.serengetistockworks.com/

I contacted Serengeti and they gave numerous prompt responses about the woods they use and can use, plus thier process. They actually have donw some cherry stocks, but I am not so sure I like the looks of them. Not the laminate part, but rather the color?

It's very common in woodworking to lamiate table tops.You alternate the grain to even out the wood movement. I think they use 7-ply for their stocks.The new Tite-Bond III should work very well,so should some epoxies,like G-2.

333, I'm trying to post some pics of my Serengeti rig. Am working on better shots, have figured out it's a camera thing--my previous one--which I returned, worked better!

I am actually having a hard time finding where it was cut and laminated? Is this common? I thought they rearranged the wood in different directions and then reassembled it?

Serengetti slices the blank top-to-bottom, then reverses the pieces. The theory is that while one piece of wood might want to move "right" under certain moisture conditions, reversed laminates will move "right" and "left" at the same time, in static tension. Also with top-to-bottom slices, each side is uncut, giving it the look of a solid piece of wood.

I spoke to one of the owners about a project of mine and found him very receptive to changes in his basic displayed designs. We discussed changes in comb design, height, drop, palm swell, grip curvature, and cast (IIRC), as well as length of pull.

I was impressed.

Jaywalker

I am just wondering if the wood has odd appearence where the laminates come together.

The wood could have an "odd" appearance beings that sometimes the grain takes on a different look depending on the direction of the light on it. Think about it. wood looks kickass up to the joint, and the next slice looks like poo cause of the way the light is shining on it. To be honest with you, I woudl not even worry about it cause you are paying for a laminated stock, not one solid piece. So, as minute or largely noticeable it might be, I would not care. As far as color, I doubt there would be that much of a difference if they are getting teh slices from the same blank.

The top stock reminds me of the Rem 600whatever in 350 RM with the thick lam stock. Hate the look of the front sight on that thing, but the rib is cool...

333, I think the best view of my stock to pick out the lamination is the 2nd picture. you can see the line running along what would be the top side of the sling swivel in that photo. The next photo, if you look closely you can see the line toward the butt (left side of pic) although it is pretty faint.

As Jaywalker said, they slice the blank vertically, so obviously there are no laminations visible on side views, I just put those in to show the overall stock. It is actually interesting how little the laminations stand out. The Serengeti folks are just great to work with, I am a big fan. If you look at the photos, you can see what an incredible job they do on wood to metal fit.

As an aside, they were very professional at some non stock work they did for me, i.e. Cerrokoting and glass bedding my rig, as well as doing some accuracy assesment work.

Regards--Don

Fish, that is an awesome looking rifle.

Thanks HP, I really like the way it came out. As a bonus it really shoots!

Regards--Don

Can we see more of these stock just out of curiousity? I was told that a onesided blank can be made into a full figured stock by stacking. I am not sure I am into the laminate, but I cannot argue some of these stocks are very nice.