Well certainly Teak works well, many military rifles around the WW1 and WWII period used them. I think the reason we gravitate toward Walnut is the combination of figure, it's reasonably stable and relatively easy to work. Teak will work very well, it's used on boat decks after all, but has little or no figure so tends to look sort of pedestrian.

I'm standing there today watching my wife buy a walnut chest and all I'm seeing is a beautiful new stock possibility.

My question is, what woods make good stocks? All I hear and know about is walnut. Does teak or mahogany work? Do you know of non-synthetic stocks made from something other than walnut?

How big a hunk of wood do you need? I thought maybe before I leave India I would buy a piece of wood and have a stock made from it when I get back to the States. Thought it would make a great momento.

I'm thinking mostly about my Remington Model 600.

Now that's a wide open question. So I guess we'd have to define the word "good" All good stocks must be stable, not prone to warp and crack, and not too heavy. All wood will move some from wet to dry air, but the best stock woods do so very little.
Good stocks can be made of some woods that are not very good looking. Woods like apple,and beech make very good stocks, but they have a "military" look to them.
Other woods can be beautiful or stark, depending on the individual piece. Hard maple is one of these woods. In my opinion, a good grades of Sugar maple, when properly done, is one of the most beautiful woods God ever grew. It can be a stockmakers nightmare though. The "curl" in it will fight every chisel cut, and it can be as hard as a mad womans heart. When it's finished, it's amazing. (To see a nice piece, go to the Single shot forum, and find an old post of mine entitled "some of my work")
Maple is often associated with muzzleloading American arms, but it can be beautiful on modern rifles too.
Cherry is a wood that has a pleasant mellow color after it ages some, and it's one of the most stable woods there is, but it's not a wood that will often have a lot of figure. It is strong and light, and makes a good stock if your not looking for a lot of figure. It's a little "soft' and doesn't take fine checkering very well.
Brazilian Rosewood is also one of the most beautiful wood to use, but it must be cured VERY slowly. It's hard like an IRS agents will, and takes checkering like metal. It's also heavy, so i don't recomend it for a feather weight mountain rifle, but it's very nice on a 458 or 404. I did a Mauser in a nice piece of this wood once, stocked in classic style, and it weighed 11 1/2 pounds when I was done without scope. It was a show stopper though.
Then there is the "king of stockwoods" Walnut. Walnut comes in every "flavor" from stark American black walnut ("M-94 winchester grade") to some of the most gorgeous wood there is. HARD is the key, if You want to checker. It's quite strong for it's weight. Claro is beautiful, not too expesive, and looks great. Most Claro Walnut should be checkered no finer than 22 lines per inch, but I have worked some of it that was harder.
European Walnut can be stark like some You'll see on Italian guns, and on most CZs, but it's VERY strong. On the other end of the scale you can find it in blanks that would make a rich New York Lawyer back up, and it's outstanding, if you can afford it.
Well, I will now invite You guys out there to put in Your comments....... There are a lot of wood workers on this forum.......
What think???

If you are able to find the following book you will really be in for a wealth of information:

Gunstock Finishing and Care
A. Donald Newell

A stackpole book 1949 and again in 1975

Chapter 1 deals with wood choices and descriptions of quality.
There are sections on dimensions, finishes, formula for stains and finishes much more.

If you can find
The Modern Gunsmith
James V. Howe

It also contains some in-depth material on woods and uses.

Sorry I don't have time right now to make any copies of the info.

Frank

there is only one stock wood IMO, that is thin shelled walnut, French, Australian, European, Turkish etc....

It is light in weght wood, strong wood, beatiful wood and so far ahead of any other wood that 2nd place is out of sight..

Mohagany and teek are way to heavy and much too oily IMO. Maple is the wrong color except on muzzle loaders, some claro is pretty nice, black is too porus mostly...I have seen exceptions in all wood but as a rule I will only look at thin shelled walnut, the rest leaves me cold...Also when it comes time to sell the rifle, the real value will become apparant, any other wood will weaken re sale and cut the price...

I only speak for myself, some guys actually like blonds!

If I was to bring back a piece of walnut to try, would a piece roughly 36" x 24" x 6" be a decent size to possibly end up with two stocks? (Assume the largest would need to fit a Remington Model 700.)

6" thick is about twice what you need. Most blanks are sold between 2.5" and 3" thick.

I have a beautiful piece of Mesquite that is being put on a rifle as we speak. It is as nicely figured as any piece of high-grade walnut I have ever seen.

My Dakota Model 10 (35 Whelen AI) has a stock of cocobolo wood that is gorgeous.

There are quite a number of exotic woods out there that are more stable than walnut, and not so dense that the stock becomes too heavy.

I have a desk made with an interesting wood from South America called "marblewood". I plan on having a shotgun done up in this sometime in the future.

When my wife and I were traveling through Spain I saw a grove of olive trees being torn up, and wished I could have gotten a slab from one of the trees there (some were hundreds of years old).

All of these woods are like walnut in that you must get a blank that is free from defects and has a desireable grain pattern/contrast.
Finding exotic wood that is suitable for a stock is easy.
Finding the perfect slab is quite another.

Garrett

Kensco,

Since you're in Bombay, do try and visit the Bombay Gun House and H S Bandukwala and Sons, two shops that stock a number of British guns from the old days. Rusi Jijina, the owner of the Bombay Gun House has some lovely old double rifles including some really unusual ones as does Hanzala Bandukwala (the name even means "gunsmith" ) and even if you don't buy anything, you are sure to have a nice chat with them looking at some fantastic pieces over a cup of fantastic Indian tea.

If you want to buy walnut for a gunstock, try and visit Kashmir - there are some old gunmakers there that still make some lovey side by side 12 bores entirely by hand imncluding the Shiva Gun Works and a couple of Sikh companies whose names I have forgotten - you will easily find them listed in the Yellow Pages there. They should be able to get you good gunstock wood.

If you plan to visit Rajasthan, I could also introduce you to India's oldest gunmaker Curious House Pvt Ltd and the Chairman Gajendra Singh Parihar. Many Western people go to these places on holiday, and, if your plans take you there, you will definitely enjoy yourself checking these places out.

Good hunting!

Thank you for the leads. I will check out the two places in Mumbai. Hopefully after Monsoon, or later, we will get some time to visit a few of the other spots you mention.

Regards

I wouldn't use anything but walnut but the "NRA Gunsmithing Guide" (long out of print) listed a lot of different woods. Sycamore, for instance, is listed as a wood suitable for large calbers because of it's resistance to splitting.

If you will e-mail me, I will send you pages on wood from the Howe Book.
Frank

Ray,

While teak is more dense than most walnut would ever be, and it is oily, you are very wrong with regard to mahogany.

Mahogany is both less dense than walnut and not oily. It is also softer and not as strong.

ASS_CLOWN

An alternative timber to walnut (for rifle stocks) which I feel is worth considering is afrormosia, or kokrodua, as it is sometimes known as. It grows in central/west Africa.

In appearance, it is something like a cross between teak and sapele, the latter being one of the most common �pseudo-mahoganies�. It has the golden-brown colour of teak, but of finer texture and without its oily nature, and quarter-sawn material often displays a striped, roe type of figure common to sapele. The seasoned weight is said to vary between 39 and 49 lbs/cubic foot, which makes it slightly heavier than walnut, on average. Walnut is said to vary between 35 and 47lbs/cubic foot.

Incidentally, according to some data from the British Forest Products Research Laboratory that I have in front of me, the average weight of Burmese teak (generally considered to be the strongest variety) is about 40lbs/cubic foot. This rather refutes the oft-stated theory that a rifle stock made of teak would be so heavy that one would need to put wheels on it �

Afrormosia has excellent strength properties, equal or superior to teak in all resects, and it is very stable. Movement in service, meaning the degree to which it swells and shrinks with changes in moisture content, is down amongst the lowest of all timbers. Although it is quite a hard timber, when thoroughly dry it has a �crisp� sort of texture, and it is easily worked with hand tools. The grain can be somewhat interlocked, so using a sharp plane, with the back iron set well down and the mouth closed up small, is necessary to avoid tearing of alternate stripes in the grain when planing it.

For the same reason, some extra care is also necessary when chiselling WITH the grain, but across the grain, it cuts cleanly and easily. Rasps, even bastard files, and scrapers, remove material quickly and cleanly, and a good finish is readily obtained. From a �workability� standpoint, I�d much rather much rather make a stock from a hard, dry piece of afrormosia than a soft, stringy piece of middling to mediocre grade walnut. I am in no doubt that the finished article would give much better service, too.

Of course there is still nothing to beat GOOD walnut, for both workability and appearance, but at the price of it these days, some of us at least have to look for a practical and affordable alternative. A few decades ago, there was some very good NZ-grown, European walnut available here at affordable prices, but once the vendors realised how much money American plutocrats were prepared to pay for such stuff �

Attached are a couple of photos of a stock I made recently of afrormosia. Not very good photos, unfortunately � just some experiments by a friend having a play around with his brand new digital camera. They were taken against the back wall of his house, in the late afternoon sun, and they don�t show off the grain of the wood too well, but give the general impression.

(haven't tried this before - hope it works)

[image]http://www.hunt101.com/img/181918.jpg[image]
[image]http://www.hunt101.com/img/181919.jpg[image]

Hmmm - no pictures.

Can anyone tell me EXACTLY what the format of the instruction lines should be for pictures which are hosted at hunt101.com, please?

Almost any close grained hardwood could be used to make a stock but for practical purposes the finished weight should be close to walnut which runs 650-700kg / m3
Australian Blackwood is an exceptional alternative to walnut exhibiting figure and fiddleback like top grade walnut at about 1/3 the price.


This timber is commomly used in manufacture of fine musical instruments but is available in sizes to suit stockmaking.

Redrover,
Click "Image" from the "Instant UBB Code" menu when making your post. An address box will appear.
When you open a picture in Hunt101.com it has an "Image Link" address at the bottom of the picture. Right click that address, copy then paste into the box that appeared in your post when you clicked the Image from UBB Instant Code. I find it easiest to do with two browsers open at the same time - one with Hunt101.com and one with your AR post.

If you can't see your picture in the post preview then neither will anyone else.

BTW - very nice looking wood.

- stu

Stu:
Thank you for your assistance, and your advice on how to post pictures - it is much appreciated.

Glad you like the look of the afrormosia - I quite like it myself, but still not as much as a choice piece of European walnut. However, the plank that the stock in the photos came out of cost me the equivalent of about US$100 in today's money, and yielded three blanks with good grain layout and one - which I may never use - with a rather mediocre layout. I hate to think what their equivalents in reasonably hard, dense walnut would cost.

B A Wal:
Re: Almost any close grained hardwood could be used to make a stock but for practical purposes the finished weight should be close to walnut which runs 650-700kg / m3

I agree with you up to a point, but ... there are a lot of hardwoods in that basic category you describe which are still lacking in some of the essential properties required for a GOOD stock timber. For example, some species of beech and birch are close grained, are of moderate weight, and have excellent strength properties, but their movement in service is several times greater than that of, say, walnut, or teak. They are usually nothing much to look at, either.

I'd like to make a stock out of Australian blackwood, and I will if I can ever get my hands on a decent sized piece of it with a good grain layout. I have seen some really nice looking stuff over this side of the Tasman, but it has always been too thin for stocks, and the timber merchants don't seem to be very interested in bringing in any thicker pieces. Do many stock makers over there use it?
Red

Teak is too heavy and mahogany is too soft for anything but rimfires.

Maple, Cherry, Oregon Myrtle, the various walnuts, beech, and perhaps a couple of others make serviceable rifle stocks. There is a wide variety of exotics that make good forend tips/gripcaps and handgun stocks.

Redrover,

I am really impressed, I am reading through this thread and see some pics of a person who not only makes a nice stock but also makes an extended box magazine out of wood too!

Nice looking stock BTW!

Glad to help. Now practise my instructions and post some more pics of your very nice work!!!

ASS CLOWN,
Your clown ass is showing again!

Mark:

Quote:

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... see some pics of a person who not only makes a nice stock but also makes an extended box magazine out of wood too!

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Quite a revolutionary new accessory, isn�t it? It's intended to handle extra-long 22RF cartridges, but I�ve been having trouble getting it to feed reliably �

Stu:

Quote:

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practise my instructions and post some more pics of your very nice work!!!

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I have just tried including pictures, following your instructions, and they came up perfectly in the preview. I then took them out - no need to post the same ones again - but I have got the hang of it now, thanks.

I don�t have any more photos to post at present, and the other stocks I made myself which I still have in my possession aren�t really anything special. I�m making another stock at the moment out of a piece of American (black) walnut, with cocobolo fore end tip and grip cap, but it appears now that the figure in that piece of wood is not going to turn out looking very fancy. However, the main thing I want is for it to fit me properly.

I�m finding the 22 in the photos a real pleasure to shoot now, because it fits me like a well broken-in pair of boots, whereas previously, I had to adapt my stance and my grip to the factory stock. I tried to copy the general style of stock makers Leonard Mews, Keith Stegall and Lenard Brownell, whose work I have always admired (in photographs) but I don�t think I quite succeeded. Trying to copy the work of a master is difficult. I just wish I had the skill to put some good checkering on that 22 stock, but I�m scared that I would mess it up!

Red

what's the fore end tip on that afrormosia stock and what kind of finish did you put on the stock?

Stu:

Quote:

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what's the fore end tip on that afrormosia stock and what kind of finish did you put on the stock?

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I�m afraid I don�t know what variety of wood the fore end tip and grip cap are. They both came out of an off-cut given to me by a friend who does wood turning, who acquired it from a friend of his, who in turn bought it along with various other bits and pieces at a deceased estate sale. Or something like that � the history of it is a bit cloudy, anyway. At first sight, I thought it was jarrah, a fairly common West Australian timber. Maybe it is, but if so, it�s the softest, most mild-working piece of jarrah I have ever encountered. Most of it is hard, tough, coarse grained, and anything BUT easy to work. Because of its great strength and durability, it has been widely used for things like railway sleepers (ties, I think Americans call them) and wharf piles and beams.

I was a bit disappointed with the colour that the tip and grip cap finished up. I had smoothed up two edges of the original piece of wood and rubbed some Tru-Oil on it as a test, and it turned a very dark, reddish-brown colour, almost black, which was what I was hoping for. However, on the finished job, the fore end tip in particular turned out a much lighter and more reddish shade. Despite my disappointment, I didn�t feel inclined to try replacing it. It is attached by the �Roy Dunlap method� � a substantial wooden dowel in the centre, plus a stainless steel pin on each side (and epoxy glue) so replacing it would have been the devil of a job.

The finish on this stock was an experimental one for me. To start with, I applied some stuff made by International Paints called �Everdure�, which is a two-pot epoxy sealer of a very thin, watery, consistency. They recommend diluting the first application by 50% with epoxy thinner to make it penetrate as deeply as possible. I suppose other paint/glue/chemical manufacturers make similar products.

The instructions with the Everdure suggested applying the first few coats in rapid succession � as soon as one had soaked in, put on another. For me, this worked OK for the first two coats, but part way through the third, the stuff suddenly started �going off� � in a matter of only a few minutes it became thick and tacky, and started building up on the surface of the wood instead of penetrating. I didn�t dare stop half way through, so I finished that application, left it to cure for a couple of days, then cut it well back with fine sandpaper and then successively finer grades of Scotchbrite. Slow work � that stuff sets HARD � but the excess Everdure did help to fill the grain. Not that afrormosia needs a lot of filling, because it is fairly fine-grained to begin with. (by hardwood standards)

Despite my best efforts, after the cutting back was finished, the colour and texture looked a bit uneven, so I put on one more thinned coat of Everdure, and then rubbed that down lightly with fine Scotchbrite. Then I applied a number of coats of Dembart Gunstock Finishing Oil, about every second coat with very fine grade Scotchbrite rather than with a cloth wad.

The finish turned out quite well, though it is a little more shiny than I would prefer. It�s not very apparent in the photos, but several people who have seen the actual stock have remarked that there almost seems to be a �glow� coming from within the wood. OK, everyone knows that this is impossible, and that wood is simply not luminescent, but that�s the impression one gets in certain lights. Whether this is due to some characteristic of the wood, the finish, or a combination of the two, I don�t know. And to think that when I was part way through making this stock, I was wondering if it might finish up a rather drab looking thing.

BTW - I do know at least part of the reason why I missed out on successfully emulating the Lenard Brownell style - the size and shape of the grip is wrong. Aesthetically, it should hang down a bit less, curve back slightly more, and the bottom of it should not rake upwards quite so sharply. I was aware of all this, but I have got fairly wide hands and short fingers, and if I had made these changes, the stock would not fit me so well. I decided that 'fit' took priority over 'form'.