Hey guys,

I may have posted on this before, but if I have, I've slept sense then and I hope most of you guys have to.

I have a pice of Claro, its not a good pic, lots of glare and I'm to lazy to take a better one, which may not be any better than this one.

Anyway, this is a piece of Claro, CA grown best of my knolwage, I say that, it might be black for all I know.

I have never used Claro, its my understanding that claro is typicaly not used on heavy kicking rifles and that's what I normally make stocks for, for myself (375's 404 and 416's etc). But this piece of Claro is heavy......as in heavy ass piece of wood. It also seems very hard, as in cut it with a gouge it seems hard. Its also a very nice piece of wood, pic does not to if justice.

Has anybody done a big bore/heavy kicker on a piece of Claro. I've used Black, Bastone, Engish, but never Claro.

I've never used it for anything larger than a 358 Norma. Not much recoil less than a 375. I think calling all Claro bad is a little overkill. If it is heavy, dense with correct grain I don't see a problem.

Ramrod,

I've had this blank for a yr or two, never figured out what to do with it. I had thought about it for a 300 h&H if I ever get around to it. I picked it and a piece of English up at the same time to move them and noticed it was quite a bit heavier than the english, its a larger piece of wood than the English, but not that much larger to weigh as much more, or feel like anyway.

A 404 Jeffery firing projectiles at Kynoch 2125-2150 FPS specs will not be a heavy kicker. I a ten-ten and a half pound rifle it will be a very manageable!

Whether or not it's Claro is not at all relevant. If it's dry (are you sure?) and heavy then it's available for the big bores.

In fact I played with the photo and it's a pretty piece of wood.....I wouldn';t hesitate to turn it into a big bore.....because I'd assume it's just not Claro...treat it mnore like Bastogne.....I think it just might be!!!

Vapo,

I've had it for close to a couple of years, can't remember when it was cut, think it was cut 2 or 3 before that maybe longer, It should be plenty dry.

Its a nice piece of wood, I had some better pics, but like everything else, can't find them.

quote:

It should be plenty dry.

famous last words....have it tested

I had some that we're 20 years old.....(cut 20 years prior) and still were not dry enough for gunstocks......at least according to Fajen that routed them for me....they always kiln dried them first.....and no charge BTW!!!

Billy, sand the finish off of the blank and weight it and watch the weight for at least six months. I wait for a year after I am sure it is not loosing any weight. Do not have anyone kiln dry your wood. It is not the way to dry wood. Unless you want to run the chance of ruining it.

Chic,

Thanks for commenting, I was hoping you would comment on this thread.

jim

Billy,
Is that onee of the pieces you bought from larry on that first trip? that's been about 19 months since you had it.. iirc, he said it had been down 3 years then

Jeffe,

It is one of the pieces I got from Larry, I couldnt remember how long it had been.

I don't even know what day it is most of the time ............much less anything else.

I think Harry ended up with one of those blanks also, his was nice to.

quote:

ramrod340: If it is heavy, dense with correct grain I don't see a problem.

Ditto.

I had a highly figured walnut Remington 870 stock with a polyurethane finish that I couldn't remove until I contacted my gunsmith learning he used Permatex Gasket Remover which made the urethane easy to remove with water, 4 ought steel wool and a damp cloth.