These are a couple of blanks I have picked up. I know nothing about stock blanks.
One has some fiddleback around the knot that was cut out. They are about 2" thick.

Are the grains suitable to work with in a bolt action stock or should these be used for something else?

Thanks for any info you can provide.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mlambeth@sbcglobal.net/de...=22efscd.jpg&.src=ph

Use them for somthine else. Looks like black walnut to me.

OK, can we turn this into a "Wood Blank 101" Course"??
What aspects of these blanks make them not suitable?

The lack of proper grain flow is a biggy & the postion of those knots are going to be a BIG problem.

I agree.....while you could conceivably get a featherweight style stock from them the cost of a stock (custom made) is very high (unless you can do it all yourself) and these stocks won't permit you a cheekpiece and grain in the buttstock will not be as nice as it could be. The result is a high priced stock and no cheekpiece and not really any fancy wood in the butt. Further the foreend will have wavy grain and that's to be avoided.

I'd not use them for stocks.

Chic, Jeffeoso, and/or Bill Soverns can speak with far more knowledge and authority than I...but from the pictures it appears that all of the figure in the wood is in the forend area where you don’t really want it for stability reasons. They look almost “backwards†to me.

And those large knots and their rings look like they would get into the grip.

unless these black walnut stocks are a mile long, they are ruined for 1 piece stocks.

top one is slab sawn.. would make a nice medium bore stock...

bottom one is junk

jeffe

Not to be overly critical, but those blanks look like scrap lumber, I hope you didn't pay too much.

quote:

top one is slab sawn.. would make a nice medium bore stock

Guess my eyes are going. I thought they were both slab cut.

Paul,
wasn't really going to comment on the lower one

jeffe

It is black walnut and this is a subspecies with the latin name of Cirrius Flawwus.

You may be able to salvage the top one depending on how deep the bark pocket goes. But for the effort you will be putting into a stock, you will be much better served to get a better blank. The bottom one would not make a good stock of any sort.

quote:

Cirrius Flawwus

Could they be used for two peice stocks? As in shotgun or falling block rifle?

No offense, but I think the best use for these would be to BBQ a few good steaks and some corn on the cob!

I'd probably cut them into 4" or 5"long chunks and offer them at the next gun show as very low price handgun grip blanks.

They're not thick enough for gunstock blanks. Hard to tell but they look 1" to 1.5"

Don't take it too hard Trouble, I don't think I've made a mistake yet without it costing either my money or my blood, with the occasional eyebrow thrown in for good measure. That's how I learn.


Dan

That is much better info and exactly what I wanted.

No worries here. I got 'em free so I got no special feelings tied up in 'em.

Looks like its time to come up with alternate uses. Maybe some box calls, or hand calls would be in order....

Thanks and I appreciate all the vast knowledge you guys have shown.

Make plaques to mount antlers on.

I think you should cut the into lumber suitable for a range box. Check out the boxes that he BPCR silhouette shooters use and make one like that. That wood isn't suitable for use on a gun, for some type of furniture, range box, cleaning rack etc. would be a good purpose for it. Non-Gun Walnut ain't cheap either..........DJ

Looks like forearm material

You could probably saw them into pen blanks and get quite a bit for them in the aggregate off of eBay.

Best use for these blanks would be to make a pattern for a stock duplicator. Cheep wood is hard to find when you need to make up a new pattern for some odd ball stock. Flaws are not always seen from the outside, so keep the auto body bondo near by for patches.