Rick,

Guess I wasnt smart enought to pick up the joke, didn't matter anyway, wanted to try to learn a little more.

I agree with your comments. I got coaching on all the blanks I posted with exception to first one which I bought all by my lonesome, I bought it cause it was cheap. In fact I didn't pay more than 3 bills for any of the blanks. I didn't want to screw up a nice piece of wood with my Hobbying, but didn't want to work my butt of on a 2x4, so I kind of went middle of the road.

I'm just trying to gain as much knowlage as possible. I've got some good coaching from Chic, Bill Soverns, Mike Kokolus and others, just want to learn all I can.

They can and do exist. You can tell this sort of wood by looking at the ends of the blank. At the front of the forend, the grain lines will run horizontally, or at a slight horizontal angle. At the back of the butt section, the grain will run vertically.

Steve Heilmann sells blanks of this sort at the customer's request, and lists quarter-to-slab cut blanks on his website as available for sale:

www.metalandwood.com

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How can a stock be quarter-sawn in the fore-end and slab-sawn in the butt? I'm not saying it can't be so, I just can't visualize it. I always thought "quarter-to-slab" was referring to a rift-sawn blank.

Many top stockmakers don't think there's any material difference between slab-sawn and quarter-sawn wood. I spoke with D'Arcy Echols about this a couple of weeks ago, and he shares pretty much that same opinion. If the blank is well laid-out, dry, cured, and the wood is of good quality, either one will do just fine. This I believe.

I have rifles with quarter-sawn stocks in my collection, and I have two quarter-sawn blanks awaiting stock jobs, as well as two that are quarter-to-slab, meaning they are quarter-sawn in the forend, and slab in the butt. They are very old, dry blanks with superb character and layout.

My mentors into the world of custom rifles (these guys were hunters and collectors, not gunmakers) were big on quarter-sawn wood. They insisted that quarter-sawn wood was not only stronger, but more stable. I've come to believe that this is not necessarily true, and I know of rifles with slab-sawn stocks that are quite stable, and have been hunted with for years with no stability or strength issues ever surfacing........

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Glen,
Trees don't always grow like the textbook photos, especially down around the root ball.

Brent

I'm always somewhat mystified by the "quarter-sawn" mystique. I know what it is, and I know how wood moves with changes in moisture, and god knows, I've split enough firewood to understand how grain affects strength. But after all that, what is so magical about quarter sawn wood? Stocks are very 3 dimensional, unlike. for example, a floor board. If the grain runs vertically through the wrist - where most people champion quarter sawn wood (which would have horizontal grain in the wrist), how can the gun be less strong? Or less stable? The darn wrist is almost round and hence, in the steriotypic perfect slab vs. perfect quarter sawn wood the only difference is whether the rings run veritically or horizontally, and that just does not equate to anything having to do with strength.

I CAN, however see how grain run out in the wrist would affect strength and have seen many rifles adn shotties with busted wrists where quarter sawn grain runs out of the back of a strongly curved wrist. Relative to this, slab sawn, vertical grain would be much prefered.

Anyway, just a few ponderings from the peanut gallery.

Brent

I assume, then, that such a blank must be produced by a sawing technique, or rather layout technique. The blank (when viewed from the side) must be laid out at an angle to the axis of the log rather then parallel to it, with the muzzle-end of the blank closer to the outside of the log than the butt. This would allow the grain to be as you describe. BTW, I have seen Mr. Heilman's site. It was the first place I ever encountered the term "quarter-to-slab". Your post was the second.

Gringo,

Actually I was making a joke about starting another thread.

Like you, I don't know much (nor do I claim to) about what is good or bad structurally when it comes to picking out a piece of wood for a rifle stock. What may appear "pretty" to me may actually be something that would be structurally very unsound.

Knowing that, it only makes sense to consult with those who do have that knowledge BEFORE wasting our money.

If you trust a stock maker enough to let him build your stock doesn't it make sense to trust him enough to let him pick out the blank that would best serve your visual needs as well as the structural needs of the finished product?

If you don't have that confidence in someone I can't imagine why in the world would you be hiring them to build your stock in the first place?

If you plan on trying your hand at building your own stock from a blank I would still consult with someone who does it for a living prior to buying the piece of wood...and I certainly wouldn't start off my "training exercise" with a real expensive piece.

Rick

Brent hit it on the head. In fact, the most desirable trees are the ones that don't grow in a plain, straight fashion. some twist or fault in the trunk of the tree, a crotch with lots of weight on it, or a good root ball will give the most beautiful figure- but not necessarily the strongest blank. Gunstock blanks are a bit of a compromise as are most things in life.- Bob