My daughter wants a light colored wood for her rifle I am making her. I was thinking about Maple, but it doesn't seem to have much grain/character and I don't like the curly/fiddleback.

Other recommendations?

English walnut can be a very light honey or straw colored. Try a dealer like Presliks to send some pics in your price range and ask for lighter colored pieces to choose from.

I'll second the English walnut recommendation. "Ink and parchment" English is as pretty as it gets and that's the route I would take. I have a couple of English walnut stocks that are honey colored with jet black mineral streaks, they are just beautiful.

I generally dislike light wood for a rifle stock - maple in particular.

OTOH, red-stained, tiger striped maple can be fantastic, especially on a Kentucky long rifle.

As a general rule, reddish to dark brown walnut, with fiddleback, good black streaking and deep color are my preferences.

But light-colored, mineral streaked English is the exception to that rule and can be just as beautiful, IMHO.

quote:

Originally posted by mrlexma:
I generally dislike light wood for a rifle stock - maple in particular.

I also prefer dark wood. I find it interesting that many women like lighter colored wood and metal-work, in my experience anyway.

I am a Black Walnut fan. I like a nice curly maple stock if it is stained orange.

Birdseye maple may fill your bill, but it won't be cheap if you can even find a blank.

Butternut is also referred to as "white walnut" and has nice grain but I haven't seen much with figure. Butternut is very lightweight; it is useable as is, but you may consider making a laminate with two 3/4" - 7/8" pieces of butternut for the outsides with a strip of hard maple or walnut in between for rigidity. This same laminated approach would work if you could find birdseye maple boards and then use either two or three birdseye boards depending on the thickness or even putting plain maple as the center layer. You can just glue the boards up with a good wood glue and "C" clamp them together and let dry a few days, it isn't rocket science.

Another good candidate would be Birch.

Lastly Beech is a darn good gunstock wood but not very pretty as a rule.

Some Bastogne can be very light and is usually dense and strong. I have bought some at Ebay auction that has heavy fiddleback and quite light in color. Light wood is out there, just requires some looking.

I would contact Cecil Fredi (http://www.gunstockblanks.com/) and ask him to send some pictures of English and Bastogne in light colors with the type of figure and price range. He will send some pics and try to meet your needs.

Thanks - Yes - some of the lighter walnut would be good as well; I just need to find some. I also think using a clear filler and sealer, without any pigments, would help as well.

We would use a bleach kit to make a walnut stock light colored and it would have a good figure design because the harder grain would not bleach out as much as the soft grain. I haven't done this since the late '60's. I don't know if the kits are available now. One problem that we had was that the wood had to be cleaned with acetone to remove any finger prints or they would show up when a finish was applied. Figured black walnut was the best to bleach. I don't have any pictures of this process.

You said your daughter wants a light colored stock. You said you dont like Maple (for the reasons stated). Since this rifle is for her---What does she like? Giving her the final pick may just keep her intrest high in the shooting sports! Just a thought. Have a great day.

Here's a few pics of what I call seedling English. I think the variety of Juglans Regia is "Hartley". It works very well, usually has some fiddle in it. In my experience it is very stable.

Maybe Screwbean Mesquite. Expensive but pretty IMHO and Very tough.

Myrtlewood is also nice. this is a unique piece.




I have 2 pieces of Light English if you're interested. they came from fellow board members.
They have a shellac coating which impart almost no color. Oiled whey will be a bit darker.

You can get very nice , light walnut.My 22 Mauser I had stocked with some with full fiddleback ,another with straight light European walnut .You could also use cherry and others. Just remember to use clear finish !

quote:

Myrtlewood is also nice

The right piece can be very nice. Sure wish I hadn't sold mine.

i got this to do a 3/4 stock on my 7,62 destroyer ... sealed it today, put it in the attic .. we'll see in september

if you don't lke high figure, don't look .. its like gold flame

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...geName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Thats a realy cool piece of wood jeff.

This one is pretty nice:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Beautiful-...4738047#ht_500wt_928

I'm surprised nobody has voted for Cherry. Light colored, may have some figure, strong, dense and lightweight. I have one.

I thought about that, but doesnt it patina and darken over time, like cherry floors and cabinets?

I didn't mention Cherry because I hand carved a petite Oberndorf style stock from Cherry and near the end of the process on the finer, little cuts/inlets, the brittle little parts just broke off and p*****d me off!!!!

I think the best advice out there was let her pick it!

She liked the stock in the post by gunmaker - the seedling english walnut.

Friend Hunter: Seems like folks are trying to talk you into something other than what she wants. Look at some of the laght bamboo being offered. Very interesting grain, according to how it is laminated--light color--and, it isn't even wood! Cheers, LUKE

Wonder of all wonders; I had her with me a Cabela's this weekend.

Maybe it was rifle fever, but now its:

1. Walnut or Synthetic stock is okay

2. No stainless

3. Polished or Matt blue


So I get to go with my original plan; get a new youth model from Howa or Vanguard (or a used Rem M7) in 7mm-08 with a 20" barrel.

Copy the stock dimensions of the Ruger Compact I have (it's scaled down all around - not just length of pull) and do a custom stock. Walnut is fine.

The Ruger Compact is a great sized rifle, but they come with a 16.5" barrel and the muzzle jump is unbearable. If they came with a 20" barrel they would be perfect. And yes, I would rebarrel, but the one I have is in a .223 Remington and uses a smaller action. If it was in standard short action size, I would just rebarrel. However, this is a great rifle for kids as well - within 100 yards. She has already taken one hog with it and succumbed to "buck fever" twice and passed.

I found the Howa rifle to be on the heavy side. Check the weight on them if you haven't already

Rich

I have a 243 with a 24" #2 contour barrel; yes - it's heavy, especially with the accurate innovations stock.

The vanguard youth with a #1 20" barrel and synthetic stock was just about right, not to light as to make the recoil to noticeable, but not to heavy for her to manage.

Herre are a couple of FN Whby rifle in Myrtle wood stocks. Originally very light colored wood. They have aged beautifully with applications of tung oil through the years.

hal hartley loved maple - this is one of his

that's nice.

I found this on the Biesen's sight. Golden orange piece of Maple - this rocks:

http://www.biesen.com/My%20rifle.html

B-loc, the Hal Hartley rifle is a beauty.

quote:

The Ruger Compact is a great sized rifle, but they come with a 16.5" barrel and the muzzle jump is unbearable. If they came with a 20" barrel they would be perfect. And yes, I would rebarrel, but the one I have is in a .223 Remington and uses a smaller action. If it was in standard short action size, I would just rebarrel. However, this is a great rifle for kids as well - within 100 yards. She has already taken one hog with it and succumbed to "buck fever" twice and passed.

Just a suggestion, but have you looked at the Ruger Ultra Light? 20" barrel, you could cut the stock for length if needed or put a compact stock on it, then you have the other stock when she gets older. Or you could buy another compact and swap the barrel.

Not as much fun as a custom stock, but could save you quite a bit of time and money.

The Ultra Light doesn't come in 7mm-08.

I also read the compact has a shorter action than Ruger's standard short action? That may not be true.

The other option is buy a new 7mm-08 compact and rebarrel to a longer barrel.

quote:

Originally posted by fla3006:
B-loc, the Hal Hartley rifle is a beauty.

+1

Clorox bleach mixed 1 part bleach to 2 parts water. If using cheap bleach, mix 1 to 1. Wipe on with gloved hands using old terry cloth toweling. Let soak for ONE minute to see what you get and how fast you get it, then rinse with running water, scrubbing with another piece of clean terry. Repeat as necessary until desired effect attained.