okay, I turned 2.5 stocks sunday and finished the 3rd today...

1 was walnut.. nice work.

the other 2 were "too thick" plain as pine cherry... 4.5" thick and I don't have a bandsaw big enough to resaw some of that...


the eventual SHAPE turned out good... but it's not much mroe than orange myrtle wood.

underwhelmed and tough on tooling

but proof that I will turn a customers wood to their pattern... i don't much like massive rollovers that some of the "bench" guys like

anyone got any pecan, hicory or ash, just to try that too?

How bout some sweetgum or ironwood? I'm sure they couldn't all that much more trouble now...

ironwood?

hell, i'll bite.. if you got a piece big enough to make a stock from

jeffe

There is a 10-20 acre Pistaceo orchard right by my house. Maybe 15-20 tree per side, 300-400 trees maybe. Just a Guesstimate. Must be a very old man still liveing in the house. Trees havent been worked in years. Old house is unkept and over grown but there is always a car setting in front. Im sure land developers have tried to buy the guys property for a corner strip mall. Been meaning to knock on the front door.

Jeffe,

How about Coca Bola

quote:

Originally posted by Gringo Cazador:
Jeffe,

How about Coca Bola

yeah.. you can turn that one... i'll loan you a good 1/2 face mask...

pistachio? now that would be odd!! wonder if the wood is green, too?

jeffe

I remember a place that had a thick Osage Orange or Padauk blank :-)

http://www.woodply.com/p_hardwood.htm

Rich

Jeffe,

I can get you some Hickory. Which of the species would you prefer ?

James,
IIRC, shaggy bark has a better grain color.. that is, the figure in the grain is darker... I don't remember which, but when I was a kid, my dad would keep one and sell the other... if you are some, or can get some, quartersawn would be the ticket.

"bo-ark". boise de'arc, osage orange.. turns a wonderful gold color, on english style longbows and pistol grips.... i can't imagine letting the beaver have it... rather rather RATHER chippy and yeah, it's hard....


kinda scary to have a stock machine and be willing to try...
jeffe

What about sassafrass? I have a big one that came down in a storm a year ago.

i tried one once in butternut. nice golden color with good figure, but to soft to work with anything with much recoil

quote:

Originally posted by butchloc:
i tried one once in butternut. nice golden color with good figure, but to soft to work with anything with much recoil

wow...that stuff is softer than pine.....I'm surprised you used it for a stock.

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
"bo-ark". boise de'arc, osage orange.. turns a wonderful gold color, on english style longbows and pistol grips.... i can't imagine letting the beaver have it... rather rather RATHER chippy and yeah, it's hard....


kinda scary to have a stock machine and be willing to try...
jeffe

I call it hedge apple and have used it to make tire thumpers for truck drivers. Damn stuff is extremely heavy and dense. The pores are so small that it takes a long time for glue to set if you put boards together to turn on the lathe.

If one wants a yellow gunstock it might be ideal for a big bore as I doubt seriously that crossbolts would be needed.

It's hard, heavy, and yellow.

I'm told that custom bow makers use it for long bows.

Also I'm told American indians used for bows as well.....but not sure the tree was here for them as I doubt it's native to North America...anyone know?

I gave up on the big search for highly figured cherry for a gunstock. The two leaders in the cherry market were unable to produce a blank that I thought would be enough figure in a rifle; I am sad to say.

I guess it is off to Turkish or English?

oh but it's so nice to talk about gunstock woods and the figure in them rather than plastic

In the days before barbed wire, Osage Orange was cultivated in hedgerows to fence off pastures.

quote:

...native to North America...anyone know?

"Native to a limited area centered on the Red River valley in southern Oklahoma and northern Texas, they were planted as living fences - or hedges - along the boundaries of farms, and have spread widely from these restricted, linear beginnings. The trees are easily recognized by their glossy, lance-shaped leaves (see illustration), and their short, stout thorns." (gnpc.org, see below)

Although native to the trans-Mississippi west, by the time of the US Civil War, its use had spread at least as far east as middle Tennessee. At the battle of Franklin, TN (Nov 30, 1864) an "abatis" of Osage Orange contributed importantly to the failed Confederate attack on the left of the Union line. Among the many accounts of this engagement, perhaps the best is Wiley Sword's "Embrace An Angry Wind". (Hardcopy title. The paperback edition - still in print - has a different title; can't recall at the moment). Seems I remember a reference to Osage Orange at Gettysburg, too, but maybe it's just my imagination.

Here are a few links for the stock whittlers among us, vicarious and otherwise:

Osage Orange

Hedgeapple.com

The Versatile Osage-Orange

Among its interesting properties, it seems it also has insect repellent properties. Worried about termites in your multi $K bespoke smokepole? Not if its made of Osage Orange!

But if Osage Orange had potential as a gunstock material, likely it would have been recognized many years ago.

"...Seems I remember a reference to Osage Orange at Gettysburg, too, but maybe it's just my imagination."

Can't honestly comment on Gettysburg but I'd guess they were there. I can say with absolute certianty they were - and ARE - at Antietam! In fact we got oodles of them around here. I can still remember very old fences (or more properly - hedges) of them when I was a boy. One, about a mile long was on a farm near the Potomac, where General Lee re-crossed after the battle.

http://www.cantwellwood.com/menu_item_10.htm

Pistachio blanks...