i have a nice maple stock i'm working from a blank i got from ernie paulson about ten years ago.i know kennedy once said it makes no sense to cut off a piece of wood to attach another but the debate is to attach a forend tip or not. got ebony and rosewood both here. what you all think.

Maple & ebony:

My personal opinion is that ebony is too dark for unstained maple. Fla's stained stock looks great though.

I have seen fancy walnut used to good effect, a good scrap of fancy black or darker claro would look nice.

Of the two you mentioned, rosewood would be my choice.

Regards,

Dan

If the maple is stained or flamed to darken the color as above, then ebony is good. Is the maple is natural in color, you can try either Macassar Ebony, or I used Bubinga on a tiger stipped red maple stock that was perfect. I think I would go for Macassar Ebony this time. There is a lot of differences in the color, but you would want one that is light brown to dark brown stripped.

I may have changed my mind?

IMO Maple looks good with about any color tip.....even cocobolo looks good on Maple.....however I like Ebony the best.

Intersting, my thoughts that those are a couple of the prettiest maple blanks I think I have seen in a while.

I think Rosewood, and isn't there a Indian grade of Ebony that is red, not black, would both look good. THe black ebony looks nice also.

I tend to fall into the Kennedy camp, but own guns both ways.

I think everyone is right here. Ebony comes in a few different species and locations. I love Gaboon [Nigerian], but not the perfect black peices. I like just a little light cream grain to it. The Macassar stuff has wonderful grain contrast. There is also an Asian and Indian ebony as well as a So. American form. Look for Mexican cocobolo. It has rich reds and black streaks. I stray away from the rosewoods since everyone did that for so many years, but that is my personal choice. If your maple is highly figured, I would not pick a figured end cap too. I would go for color, and maybe contrast like some of the ebonys, but too much and it gets aweful looking.

By the way, this is what big-leaf maple looks like from the west coast in its quilted form. Fortunately it quilts quit easily, unlike other maples.

Redwood Burl

Problem with Redwood Burl is that you need to have it stabilized to really make it suitable. I have about 1000 pounds of the stuff in an air-dry shed now. Since it is such a light wood, and chippy when dry, you need to have it injected to make a suitable tip for long term use. I know it isnt affected by climate and rote etc, but too light and fragile compared to the other woods.

333,
Beautiful!

333, that M70 is beautiful, I like flame-shell & fiddleback, stained or natural, and I think it looks good set off with ebony, black pads & steel caps.

I did my Maple Burl stock with a tip & cap made from a piece of Mesquite Burl.

Used Tung Oil finish.

Looks great!

fla,

Is that escutcheon cover on your Ruger a one-of-a-kind?

max(hm2), if you decide you want to look at walnut, let me know. I have some walnut forends and grip caps from the Fajen sale that I could send you a set gratis. The stock wood I use is dark enough that I just don't use them, especially since I really like cocobolo and mesquite.

Okay, here we go!

Camatillo [type of Mexican Rosewood]


Mexican Cocobolo


Macassar Ebony [stripped]
[IMG]http://www.cookwoods.com/Ebony%20(Striped).jpg[/IMG]

Gaboon [Nigerian] Ebony


Maylasian Ebony
http://www.cookwoods.com/10-05-05-MalaysianEbony3-1of1.jpg

I would personally pick one with a little of the contrast in color, and not the jet black ebony.

Yucatan Ziricote

quote:

[IMG]http://www.cookwoods.com/Ebony%20(Striped).jpg[/IMG]

[IMG][IMG]http://www.cookwoods.com/Ebony%20(Striped).jpg[/IMG][/IMG]

All these pictures are better than porn...

Jeff

Okay, so here is the actual page named 'Wood Porn.

http://www.talaricohardwoods.com/woodporn.htm

For further excitement go to:

http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/

quote:

Ian (VA):fla, Is that escutcheon cover on your Ruger a one-of-a-kind?

No it's not a one-of but I forget who makes them, seems like I got it from NECG, Jeff's Outfitters, or maybe Brownell's.

quote:

Originally posted by fla3006:
333, that M70 is beautiful, I like flame-shell & fiddleback, stained or natural, and I think it looks good set off with ebony, black pads & steel caps.

What color stain did you use for that rifle, and how much did you use?

Gixxer, I don't know, my gunsmith told me it is an acidic stain that he applied heat to over the stove, gave it the reddish color.

Aqua fortis. 20% nitric acid with about 1 gm ferric chloride (or dissolved nails).

Wet the maple with the solution with a cotton ball. The wood will be green/yellow. Heat the wood with a butane torch/stove until the color changes. Experiment with scrap so that you know how to avoid char. The result is a nice reddish/brown stain.

you arent kidding about the testing on scraps part! I do believe that would be too involved for me to do. Does anybody have a suggestion for color of "regular" stain that would produce that color? BTW getting back on track with the topic at hand, I would use a piece of heavily striped Macassar ebony with the stained maple. If the maple were not to be stained, then a wood with more red than brown would work, and definately not that dark.

quote:

Originally posted by 333_OKH:

Like that.

quote:

Originally posted by gixxer:
I would use a piece of heavily striped Macassar ebony with the stained maple. If the maple were not to be stained, then a wood with more red than brown would work, and definately not that dark.

Naw, just use the solid black kind. It looks best.

I have an 03 springfield that I put a piece of maple on that is a lot like the Ruger in the pics above. I added a black walnut tip and grip cap for some contrast and did the coloring with leather dye per Tiger hunt.

You can also get dyes for maple from brownells.

Hello

I have a maple stock with the grain structure resembling that of fla3006`s, but mine is not stained red. I would like to have a more reddish color on my stock, but I have already used a lot of "Schaft Öl" on it (in light brown color) so it is wery pale. What should I use to get a more reddish color on my stoch without sanding it down and starting all over? Are there any oils suitable for doing this?

Also, with the grain structure resembling fla3006`s, what type of maple do I have? (Its wery difficult to find anyone up here in Norway with any knowlegde of maplestocks). What are the strength and weaknesses of maple vs walnut as material for rifle stocks?
By the way, my rifle is a 1934 Mauser M98 in 30-06.

Tordenskiold, I don't know how you would stain your stock darker w/o removing the protective finish. Aqua fortis should be easy enough to make, if you can obtain nitric acid. I would think a little experience might be in order as regards to how long to leave it on, proper way to heat, neutralize the acid, etc. The grain structure on my maple stock is referred to as fiddleback or tiger stripe, other varieties include flame-shell, quilted, birdseye, spaulted, etc. Look on ebay if you wish to purchase a maple blank, some nice ones on there.

Thank you fla3006! I dont think I will redo the finish on my stock. I am very happy with it the way it is, but would like just a hint of reddish color to bring out the tiger stripes even more. My stock has very clear tiger stripes all the way to the tip. Wery nice!
How many types of maple are used for gonstocks? I have heard there are "hard" and "soft" maple. I think my stock appear to be a bit softer than walnut, but at the same time a bit stiffer I cant fint any places on the web with articles about the relative strength and weaknesess of maple vs walnut.

Hard Maple= Silver and Sugar Maples

Soft Maple= Red and Big-leaf Maples


Walnut is typically right between the two groups.

Laurel Mountain Forge makes a "Lancaster Maple" stain that will give a color very similar to that on the #1. The color when wet is what it will be once the finish is applied. IF you thin it down 50% it will pennetrate deeper and you get more color control. 3-4 applications (thinned) should give you a nice rich reddish color with amber highlights.

This is the stain used on this piece of Maple, four coats thinned at 50%. Sorry about the flash glare. Actually it contains several different sections with different applications. But the most visible end had the Lancaster Maple Stain with four applications of stain.

Wow! That looks pretty nice. Easier than learning how to heat wood with a torch without burning it! Did you use the Stain thinner that Laurel Mountain makes?

Yes, I used the thinner LMF makes. I have a flintlock nearing completion (someday) that I plan to use this stainning process on.

There are also several analine dyes avail from Woodcraft and such that will give you the desired red tone. You have to be sure of what type you are getting though. They come in water, alchohol, and oil soluable types. And also in liquid or powder form. I have used a them several times on figured maple and they give a very nice color and tone without clouding the figure. A lot of stains use a solid to "stain" the wood anf it really hides the character of the wood. The analine dyes actually dye the wood and maintain full clarity. When using dyes I usually use a water base dye and apply several coats to get the desired color and tone, then I follow with an oil finish. You get a very nice depth of figure using this method.

Rosewood is also OK on a classic styled Sako .223 (Lawson Myrtlewood)