It it a suitable stockwood? I would think it was too brittle, but have been told it can be used...

Pedestal,

If you're referring to the wood also known as osage or osage orange, then I can tell you it is widely used in handmade recurve bows and longbows. I have no idea whether it would be a suitable stock wood--but it seems that if it were suitable,then there would be a bunch of them around. Sorry I can't help more.

Good Hunting,

Pedestal,
I have seen it used as forend/grip caps, knife scales and handgun grips---I believe it is too heavy a wood for stock purposes but I could be wrong.

Ol' John

I've heard of stocks made from it, but never seen one personally. It is extremely tough and weighs about 40% more than walnut. Might be interesting if you needed weight, say on a really big bore DG rifle.

I have a local saw mill that cuts it, but it would likely be pretty plain grained. About 4 to $5 a bd ft. If anyone is interested, email me and I'll put you in touch with them, or procure some for you.

BTW, while researching the sp. gr. of Walnut, I came on this bon mot, which is the result of a SCIENTIFIC test of walnut. Amazingly, faster grown walnut has a higher spec grav and is tougher than slower grown. Part of text follows:

"Toughness is a measure of the wood's ability to resist shock and is an important property in uses such as chairs, tables, sporting goods, musical instruments, and so forth. Toughness is a function of the wood's specific gravity, its ability to withstand compression failure, the presence of tension wood or decay, knots and grain deviation. The higher the specific gravity, the tougher the wood and the greater its ability to resist shock. The specific gravity of the fast-grown wood was found to be 21 percent higher than the slow-grown wood and 10 percent higher than the moderate-growth wood."

I didn't say it, the scientist did.

It is too heavy for gunstocks and about colorless...few woods are gunstock woods..and for most us dyed in the wool stockmakers that equates to thin shell walnut...

Gatogordo,
That may well be, but walnut gets its color from slower growth and 100 year old trees..The harsher the climate, the more changes from heat to cold, the more hard winds that twist the tree, and drouth are what make exhibition walnut of great strength and grain....not some fast growing ditch bank tree that may well have some kind of strength, I don't know but it will have pores as big as a thimble hole and be a flat tan looking piece of wood that makes good chair legs IMO....it will have more sap wood around the core...but some sap wood is hard and strong with no pores, but has no color...plain stright grainless walnut can be very strong and plain of color...

Some of these studies are an example of a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and I doubt it covers the whole spectrum as to gunstock wood and probably is mostly BS from a big Govt. grant...reckon??

I'm not the last word on the subject but I can't buy off on this study..Just an opine however on my part.

Well, the study was on veneer quality woods and obviously some of the qualities needed for veneer are not the same as used in gunstocks. However, it was interesting that toughness or strength is a function of specific gravity, which is apparently not related to growth rates, at least in the Juglans negra studied.

Here's a link: http://www.hybridwalnut.com/BlackWalnutVeneer.html

BTW, osage orange, or bois d'arc is not colorless at all, rather it is usually a bright yellow, which will change to an attractive chestnut brown if left unfinished or just plain gray if exposed to the elements. Like all woods, it has grain patterns, but most of the trees cut are not cut for gunstocks, I wonder why? I suspect that if you wanted an unbreakable stock for a heavy rifle, meaning weight was a help, not a hindrance, it would be considerably stronger than walnut ever thought about being.

Bois d'arc is extremely hard to cut. It is pretty rough on tools, requiring constant resharpening.

What HondoJohn said....

I've used hedge for many years for building bows, and as fence post, so have some experience working with it. Finding a piece of osage that is of good enough quality for a stock would be your first major accomplishment. Finding a piece without knots and wind twist can be a challenge.
While bois d'arc has good compressive strength, the shear strength is rather poor. When pressure is applied to the ends of a blank, it can shear the entire length of a growth ring, as they are generally rather pithy in this area. Not exactly what you would want with any heavy recoiling rifle.

waksupi:

Finding a decent sized piece might well be a challenge in Montana where it is not native and conditions are not exactly ideal for growth, but in our corner of heaven, NE Texas, I see many trees 2 feet or more in diameter with no wind twist. If you're a bowyer, you know that there are major differences in the trees, some are better than others for no apparent reason.

I found this by a man who makes akido style wooden weapons:

" Osage Orange

No discussion of wood, selected for weight and strength, is complete without mention of Osage Orange, an unusual North American hardwood with a unique heritage. Indigenous to the American Southwest, the wood has a superb strength and was highly prized by Native Americans for archery bows and is still coveted by traditional bowyers. When freshly cut, it has a startling and unlikely bright yellow color which slowly turns to a subdued orange tan. The tree does not produce much of the dense, straight grained wood which has good mechanical properties. High quality lumber is very rare but the tree is certainly not endangered. Other studies of shock strength sometimes rate Osage Orange as the strongest of all woods. When used in longer weapons for paired practice it absorbs energy upon impact with a surprising springy feel."

What brought this up, a friend gave me a piece that was quite pretty; yellow color, with dark brown growth rings. I immediately thought of pistol grips... Couple of guys told me that it was good for gunstocks, and also known as "Osage Orange".. BUT, having a "bodark" bow when I was a kid, I had my doubts...

Not exactly sure but I believe Herter's used to offer this stuff in blanks. I do know it is tough stuff, we used to cut it out for Pittman rods for mowing machines and it was tough as hell to cut, to shape and to work with. Cut it out and leave it to dry/age for a couple years in the tool shed and you ain't going to whittle on it!
BTW, Herter's also used to offer a blank of "Myrtle Wood" - anyone know what this was or where it grows? I was always going to order one but never did. Wonder what ever happened to all the stocks of wood that the old Herter's firm owned? Would you not love to be able to buy a decent semi-inletted stock for an 03 Springfield for $9.95 and up today?
Regards,

Myrtlewood: (Umbellularia californica) Also called Pepper Wood. Color varies greatly from yellowish gray to greenish black, often with curly or burly figure. It is used for gunstocks and some pieces can make attractive stocks, but it has a deserved reputation for movement.

I have never done business with these guys but here is someone who sells myrtle blanks. http://www.woodslabs.com/

Finally, here is a link to a fairly unusual piece of myrtle on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=36258&item=3607457791

Pedestal
I will quote from Virgil Davis book GUNSTOCK WOODS AN OTHER FINE TIMBERS:

Osage Orange Hardness 2500 - Shock Resistance 30 - Weight per cubic foot 55 - Volumetric Shrinkage 7.4% - Shear Strength 3300 (probably in psi- strong- my words)

"This is an exceedingly hard, strong, and heavy wood that grows throughout the middle U.S.; it is called Bois-d'arc, horseapple, and hedgeapple. These trees grow to 50 feet in height and 3 or more feet in diameter. This tree produces a bright yellow gold to golden brown orange wood, with an occasional brown streak throughout. This close -grained, fine-textured resilient wood polishes to a high luster. Osange-orange is a good stockwood if the weight and color present no problem and a suitable size of blank can be found."

Earlier in the book under Bois-d'arc, he says that the name is French for bow wood.

As a reference for the weight and strength of this wood I will give you his figures for Circassian walnut.

Circassian Walnut Hardness 1200 - Shock Resistance 9.8 - Weight per cubic foot 40 - Volumetric Shrinkage no figure given - Shear Strength 1320

Virgil gives the following for Bastogne, and also says, "Bastogne walnut is most likely the finest gunstock wood in the world available to the custom gunsmith and certainly the scarcest; ............"

Bastogne Walnut (Juglans Regia + Juglans Hindsii) Hardness 1460 - Shock Resistance 12.3 - Weight per cubic foot 42 (I recently had one that went 47 - again my words) - Volumetric Shrinkage no value stated - Shear Strength no value stated.

[ 05-12-2003, 23:51: Message edited by: Customstox ]

I used to do lathe turnings in Osage Orange. Seasoning large chunks was a problem due to lots of lengthwise cracking. Small cross-sections are highly prone to breaking/cracking off. Best to split the wood rather than sawing -- as boyers do -- to avoid the checking/splitting. As an aside, it is said that when used for fence-posts you can set it in the ground and after seventy years pull it up and stick the other end in the ground. It is HIGHLY rot resistant.

I have an extremely accurate 6mm/.284 with an FN browning Mauser action that was stocked by Reinhardt Fajen years ago in XXX-grade Myrtlewood. Despite the reputation of Myrtle for "never stops warping", I have had mine since 1964, and have lived in Alaska, N.Mex., Colorado, Indiana, Virginia, Texas, New York, and PA wit this rifle, and it's zero has never changed more than an inch or two from the day I installed the Leupold 7.5X scope on it....

It is my understanding that Myrtlewood comes from the Pacific Noorthwest, and is from a variety of evergreen tree of some kind.