I have a nice piece of cherry wood that was once part of a mantle in my house. It is not a great piece with lots of fiddleback but not bad with some figure. It has one knot in the side. How do I tell if it will be good enough for a stock and how do I go from block of wood to at least roughed in stock? Thanks

Dhunter, first are you talking about doing it yourself or sending it out to a duplicator service?

If the wood is of sentimental value and you're willing to shell out the (approx) $500 or more to turn it into a gunstock it'll do fine.....IMO it's better than walnut for gunstocks.....it's your money and your wood!

You got to be careful with cherry as it can be fickle when taking a finish. With the amount of time and labor, investment in good tools, and spousal abuse, involved with a stock, the cost of a good blank is a small portion of the total investment. My education in these matters is happening as we speak.

Regards

Elmo

I would hope to get a stock that fits me and the action duplicated by someone with a CNC or similar set up. Customstox you got any idea what it would take to convert the block to a roughed in stock? Thanks "D"

quote:

Originally posted by elmo:
You got to be careful with cherry as it can be fickle when taking a finish. With the amount of time and labor, investment in good tools, and spousal abuse, involved with a stock, the cost of a good blank is a small portion of the total investment. My education in these matters is happening as we speak.

Regards

Elmo

I once built a muzzle loader for my wife with a "curly cherry" blank.

My wife is a natural redhead and I was hoping to get the stock to finish out to a color similar to her hair.

It did, and with the browned steel and silver furniture it is very pretty. (as is my missus )

But

Cherry definately does come with it's share of headaches.

I have used maple, walnut and cherry to build muzzle loading rifles "from the block".

When using hand tools, maple is far superior to the other two with cherry being a real pain in the arse.

The consistant hard nature of maple makes it particularly suited to working with hand tools. Perhaps that is why most of the originals were stocked in maple.

Walnut is a little trickier (less forgiving) when working with hand tools as it is not as consistent in hardness throughout the grain structure.

The cosistancy of cherry is a nightmare as it goes from very hard to somewhat soft throughout the growth rings. The more figure, the worse it is.

All that being said, if you are willing to tackle it with patience and caution, go for it.

A piece of cherry with good figure, particularly "fiddle back" is gorgious.

The grain will not have a lot of contrast, but up close it is definately handsome.

I would suggest that you do not use any strong stains as the color will come out quite handsome with perhaps a little "redish" stain used to compliment the natural color. I used an ether/alchohol base mahogany stain used sraringly. You will also find that the "open" grained area will require a lot of filling to close the pores. I used alternating coats of boiled lindseed oil aplied liberally (slop er on) and allowed to dry completely before buffing back down to the wood with steel wool, followed by a liberal coat of LPS 3 (a waxey rust inhibitor) left to gel 24 hrs, then wiped off with a rag. The boiled lindseed oil will combine with the wax to bridge the pores and fill them.

A linseed oil based stock finish such as "Lindspeed" will work nicely as it has more "driers" than boiled lindseed oil.

It is worth the headaches.

First and foremost you must find out where that knot goes..Maybe you can blow some smoke through it or have it inspected to see where and if it has an outlet someplace...It could be all the way through...Is the wood cured, probably if its been on a fireplace..does it have any warp and my main worry is being a mantal piece above a fireplace is it brittle...
Stock wood needs to go through a process of being in water then dried in a certain manner...

All in all I think your trying to make a silk purse out of a sows ear and you would be better off buying a nice piece of European walnut...just my opine...

Good stock wood does not have to cost a bundle..color will cost but a good piece of plain wood with a littel character can be had for about $200,00 dollars...

Ray, good thought but 20K is out of my budget . The wood is not curley. The knot is not a dry,fall out kind of knot. The wood has sat in my closet since 1983. There is some figure but not a lot. Best I can tell it dried too fast. It had a split in it but I cut that part out. Cherry turns a nice red color with the years. There are deep dark waves in it in certain light. I just don't know who to send it to to see if it will work. Ray is probably right about seeing about the knot first. There is a local lumber place with a woodworking shop. I will look into it. Thanks