I know guys, you all converted me over to the Juglans regia, but I was hoping to see and hear of other exotic stockwoods other than the walnuts and maples, such as: koa, or pistacio, that you have thought of using. I have a bed made from papya wood and it is great looking wood.

I will pick the black cherry since I was never able to find that piece I was looking for! This is an Ottmar rifle.



I am sure it will only take a few posts until a walnut lover says something like pine, or aspen!

Very pretty piece of wood.

I think the reason most people prefer walnut is that the better strains seem to possess all of the best qualities for a rifle stock. Beauty, strength to weight, ease of working, takes a finish nicely, etc.

Allot of other woods are as good or even better than walnut at one or two of those, but not that many woods can give you all of them.

Having said that, I have seen some gorgeous rifle stocks made from Cherry, Maple, Mesquite, and Koa.

I have heard of koa stocks but never viewed one. The post on wood ID fo rthe thuya burl stock was nice. I just thought this would be nice to see for everyone. I am sticking to the regia walnut myself.

quote:

Originally posted by 333_OKH:
I have heard of koa stocks but never viewed one. The post on wood ID fo rthe thuya burl stock was nice. I just thought this would be nice to see for everyone. I am sticking to the regia walnut myself.

I lived in Hawaii in 1954-1956 when my dad was stationed there and my mom still has a salad bowel set and a bunch of other kitchen stuff made from Koa wood. After all these years, and a whole bunch of use and washings the stuff is still as beautiful as ever.

Very expensive nowadays, and cutting is pretty regulated.

Every time I see an exotic wood stocked rifle, If the wood is nice the first thing that goes though my head is "WOW, what a neat rifle" then after looking at for a few more moments a nice walnut stocked one that I've seen in the past comes to mind that I liked better. Having said that, I've seen a few highly figured maple stocks that were stained that I really liked. I just like walnut myself. There are some very exotic looking pieces of it out there.

Terry

Tradition is hard to break and the various forms of walnut are all of that.

That said I've seen some very beautiful birdseye maple, Myrtle, shellflame maple, mesquite, and even some of the laminates are quite attractive.

The way it looks to me is that there is no such thing as a "cheap" custom stock. Many of these custom works of art will run $1,000 to $5,000 depending on grade and who does the work. There's no way this customer will want an ordinary piece of wood for the task...it must make a statement of his tastes in art. Only the various forms of walnut (and especially the english walnut) is that wood.

That reddish brown highly figured wood just melts with the ebony fittings and blued steel like no other.

I've only been tempted by myrtle as an alternative.

I had a set of myrtle wood grips on a S&W revolver years ago and that was some of the prettiest wood I have ever seen.

I second the myrtle wood. I have a friend that stocks in myrtle and they look beautiful.

Don

I spoke to Roger Biesen the other day about a stock for a Remington 700 SA, and if anyone is interested he has one in stock in Mesquite cut to his classic sporter pattern.

Mesquite sounds really cool, bu my only Remington 700 is my 338 Win Mag and I think Iwill leave it alone for now.

Myrtle, Bay, Pepperwood, all of it is Umbellularia californica. I grows everywhere hear, and I really do not like it! Again, my opinion, but most of it get a grey to odd yellow color that looks poor to me. If you all like it I will let you know in a few years when the blanks I cut last year are dry. I have 2-piece blanks with burl in the butt area, and one piece with full fiddleback, and another with full fiddleback and burl in the butt area. A few are plain with great contrast to the yellow, grey, and mineral brown streakings. Anything that did not make those grades to me went into the firewood hopper.

I have a myrtle blank I have been sitting on for 5 years - waiting for the right project.

I also love Mesquite, Maple Burl & Curly Maple.

Working on a Curly Maple Mannlicher stock for a project right now.

I always wanted to try Purple Heart, or Wenge but I think they are too heavy and brittle(Cracks & Checks)

African Wenge make some nice tips & caps on walnut or maple

Hi: Some of the Hawaiian Hardwoods make up great looking & solid stocks...most common is Koa...
it can have a lot of curly figure, often goes to light blondish colors...but there is curly Mango,
Yellow Poinciana, Hau,Lacewood, and Monkeypod.
I think it would be neat if you had an exotic wood
stock on different rifles...makes it easier to pick them out of the guns cabinet! Then you could have one of Sandalwood & have the gun cabinet sweet smelling too! Actually, I think a stock made of Monkeypod would be most excellent..it would beat the acclaimed dramatic figure of the screwbean mequite with a nicer figure, less regular. Has a medium to coarse texture, and would be nice for a more tactile grip than other woods. Wood make a nice stock for a rifle intended for Africa.
Aloha, Tom

The only temptation of me other than walnut might be a blank from a Mesquite tree that grew on the dirt where I hunt. It would have to have some significance like that to really make me turn down a comparably priced piece of walnut. I've seen pretty myrtle but I always heard it splits and/or cracks too easy?

I don't believe that screwbean mesquite grows in Texas. You have the flatbean mesquite which is rather plain. I had a Winchester feather in one but there was no color definition so you could barely see it. So I torched it and yelloes, purples, greens, etc cam eout and it was beautiful. Screwbean mesquite is virtually unbreakable and TWICE as stable as walnut. Unfortuneately, it is VERY slow growing and very little of it is left in the wild.

Oriental pistachio is a great wood. It has a light yellow greenish color with dark streaks like English. It also cuts well like English.

quote:

curly Mango

I have this Dick Idol sleigh bed made from Mango wood. Some of it is curly. man if I could get a piece long enough for a gunstock! Great wood.

I will make a stock from South Texas Mesquite some day, even if it's plain. I put a mesquite wood floor in a house I had in Houston once, it had quite a few pieces that had figure and color, even some burl, but most of the pieces were plain. I havent been able to find a piece large enough to use yet. I may try to laminate a blank one of these days, that would get me around the thickness issues.

Here is the mango bed. Just double click to see a larger picture

....Does anyone have a Koa stock to be looked at?

Billy, I might can get you some mesquite blanks

Does Austrailian walnut count as an exotic? I've done a mrytle, and it was plain as pine.. then again, i like dark woods... heck, if I wanted a blonde stock I would go with ash!!

jeffe

Jeffe,

as long as its cheap and fits my high class taste

quote:

if I wanted a blonde stock I would go with ash!!

I have a curly piece of ash that is 2 3/4 thick by 8 wide and 34 inches long. that stuff is tight grained and hard. I bet it would make a magical stock. It is just another part of the collection of wood I have.

For cartridge arms:

1. Fiddleback Myrtle
2. Mesquite
3. African "Walnut" (Can't recall its real name)

For muzzleloaders:

1. Tiger-striped maple
2. Cherry
3. I never get this straight..."flame-shell" (?) maple.

Flame shell=tortoise shell=curly=a few dozen other names.

If anyone could get me a blank/stock for one of my rifles in Koa or Monkeypod, I would be a buyer. If some of you stockmakers could do it, let me know....

Regards--Don

besides being heavy, would an all ebony stock be good?

desert ironwood is my first choice...

I've played with a lot of assorted Walnut and a little black cherry, but I'll go for Myrtlewood and Screwbean Mesquite for my exotics. I even used a Myrtle blank to stock my really ugly 9.3x62mm camp gun. Nice stock, ugly gun. Have an old Winslow .257 Weatherby with a Myrtle stock that is still beautiful after 40 years.
LLS

anyone ever try any oak variety have a lot of oak after rita and katrina its just layin evrywhere

Winslows are REALLY spaceage. Can you post a pic so the younger guys can see it?

quote:

Flame shell=tortoise shell=curly=a few dozen other names

Since I deal in Big-leaf maple I must say these really are not the same figure.

I have never seen Koa made into a rifle stock. Koa is used in some of the finest high-end accoustic guitars by Taylor. Beautiful stuff.

Have had rifles built with both Myrtlewood and Screwbean Mesquite. If it hadn't been for a very costly divorce, I'd still have them. the Screwbean Mesquite made a heavy stock, but it was on a magnum and did tame recoil.

quote:

Originally posted by OldCenterChurch:
I have never seen Koa made into a rifle stock. Koa is used in some of the finest high-end accoustic guitars by Taylor. Beautiful stuff.

In the 60's Koa was advertised a lot in the various gun rags, in very inexpensive semi-inletted form.

I have handled a few semi-inletted blanks, but the stuff in question was so plain, so porous, and so light-weight I was always very leary of it. I'm sure much better Koa wood was probably available, but I never happened to see any, so never bought one for any of my customers or myself.

The very first Mk V 460 Weatherby was made on a spaulded myrtlewood stock.

I'll second, third or fourth the vote for Texas Mequite. Don Dobbratz stocked a Sako 30-06 for me in a piece with a fleur de lis checkering pattern. Absolutely a classic! It develops a richer reddish hue as it ages! I think most of the Screwbean Mesquite came from Arizona....

I have a killer Blank that is burle "Madron"(oops spilling )it is heavy and very dense. any one ever made a stock from this wood it is a real dark redbrown I think it would look great on a lever action.

quote:

Madron

Okay my firend !!!! That is my favorite wood i nthe entire world. I have yet to personally find a piece large enough with any figure to be used for a rifle stock. CAN I PLEASE SEE IT. It is known as Pacific Madrone (Arbutus menziesii), or Madron, or Madrona, but Pacific Madrone is it's really name.

Below is my custom made knif ewith stabilized burl madrone in high carbon steel and bronze. The knife is all my desing and built by an ABS Journeyman Smith named Chuck Richards.

The only pictures of a Pacific madrone stock I have ever seen! I never got who made the rifle, but it was a large caliber in the 416-458 range and was for sell on Guns America.

With any wood not all of it is figured . Plain Koa is just plain, figured Koa can be fantastic. BTW it's in the legume [bean ] family like mesquite. One of the lighter woods that can have excellent figure is big leaf maple ,grown in the american NW. Technically a soft maple ,they used to use it for firewood !!!!

quote:

big leaf maple

I have a bunch of this that I milled and it is stickered and drying right now. None for rifles though.

Ok if I can figure out how to post a pic here but not to night got to get up at 3 am for work.or pm me with your email and I can send them to you that way and you can post if you want

quote:

Originally posted by 333_OKH:

quote:

Madron

Okay my firend !!!! That is my favorite wood i nthe entire world. I have yet to personally find a piece large enough with any figure to be used for a rifle stock. CAN I PLEASE SEE IT. It is known as Pacific Madrone (Arbutus menziesii), or Madron, or Madrona, but Pacific Madrone is it's really name.

Below is my custom made knif ewith stabilized burl madrone in high carbon steel and bronze. The knife is all my desing and built by an ABS Journeyman Smith named Chuck Richards.