Hi,
I have a friend that might be cutting a large peartree that he has in his yard, it´s of a type known in Scandinavia as "grey pear" -not good for eating!. So I´ve asked him for the log in case it could be made into stock blanks. Would it be worth the trouble? Whats the process etc?

All advice, preferably good, apprecitaed!

As to suitability I can not say. However I do know of a few Flintlock rifles that have been stocked in fruit and nut woods ... persimmon, pear, apple, and pecon come to mind. I do not know of anyone that has stocked a modern rifle with such wood.

On the other hand you can always use it to impart a sweet flavor to smoked meats.

Thanks 54JNoll but if people are using papaya wood then somebody has used pear!

Please share your experiences!

Be sure to get the root ball attached. If there is any fancy wood it will be in the root and stump.

Cewe is this a slow growing tree? Save a nice piece for a matching skinning knife handle.

Never seen gunstocks, but I have seen quite a bit used in high grade woodworking projects. I will have to say that, in general, fruitwoods are used for their color and finishing properties, and generally are just about devoid of grain. I saw some really expensive large format cameras (Zone VI when Fred Picker was alive and owned the company) which were made from a large pear tree. His woodshop manager found the log and milled it into enough wood for six cameras. Their normal wood was walnut, cherry or mahogany. They were incredibly dull looking and I never saw one which had been sold.

This may be an entirely different wood from the fruit variety, but if it is similar, I believe it will be a very smooth light colored wood with almost no discernable grain. I would split a limb or something and get an idea of the wood character before I put a lot of work into the log.

Going way back, I recall Jack O'Conner used Apple Wood for some custom stocks. Anyone?

Fruit woods are generally fine grained and excellent for carving . I made grips for My B rowning HP from peach which was nice though no fancy grain. You could always use it for firewood !!.... Cut a branch and check it out .

I'd plan on using the wood for smoking meat...

PRears that aren't good to eat? they probably make good wine or BRANDY

AllanD

Even if the grain isn't real bold.
Try various colors of Minwax stains to see which will bring the grain out.

I had three rather plain cherry blanks given to me in 99 and after having a blank turned it was very disappointly white without much grain.
I tried some stains and found one that looked real good, so went ahead with the stock. Turned out really nice and some reddish colorat the time it was fresh, the red was starting to show.

Since this has been 6 yrs, its very red now. Still a real nice grained stock. Another blank I tried to start the shaping on it and got it all wrong. Still have the last one with no idea what or when it'll be used.

One time I made a set of grips from Ash, it was a light grey color and just left it that way. Long ago without much enthusiasm about it. The gun was stolen a few months later. Oct barreled H&R 922.

George

I lost half of a plum tree in a snow storm a few years back. I cut up the wood and stashed it until it seasoned a bit. Now people think I can cook.

Never heard of a stock made of fruit wood, though.


Okie John

You ever hear of cherry wood stocks?
I've got one, very pretty.

Somewhere on here is a discussion about using pear. Might be of interest if you can find it.

George