What do you all think about using Cherry wood for a 2 piece stock on a 12 gauge O/U?

I think cherry would make a fine stock. In fact I plan on doing two seperate stocks from cherry. The feather crotch will be going on my Marlin 94 357 mag. The quilted cherry will be turned into a very classic pattern and will be put on my Husky 640 8x57. But the hard part will be finding nicely figured cherry suitable for a stock.

quote:

Originally posted by ElCaballero:
What do you all think about using Cherry wood for a 2 piece stock on a 12 gauge O/U?

That's nice wood, but I would not do it on a field gun. Too brittle and sooner or later, the gun is going to take a dive.

I might do it for a range only gun.

Is cherry too light to give you the balance you need? Probably not, but just a thought.

Brent

Looks like English Walnut wannabe.

Close, but no cigar.

quote:

Originally posted by Brent:
That's nice wood, but I would not do it on a field gun. Too brittle and sooner or later, the gun is going to take a dive.

I might do it for a range only gun.

Is cherry too light to give you the balance you need? Probably not, but just a thought.

Brent

Brent,
I disagree with your statement. I may be wrong and hopefully somebody like Bill Soverns or Customstox will chime in and add their knowledge for all of our benefit. Cherry that is old growth and properly air dried and cured is extremely dense, solid and stable. And it is far less brittle than other woods commonly used on stocks. American black walnut and claro are far more brittle than cherry. I cant say about nglish because I have never worked with it. And it is definately less brittle than maple. I do a lot of woodworking and good cherry is as fine as a stock wood as you will find out there.

I wouldnt worry a second about putting it on a shotgun that was going to get thousands of rounds at the range each year. It will take anything you want to throw at it. But just like any other wood selected for a stock grain layout needs do right.

would work out nice.. cherry makes me sneeze when I am turning it, though

Cherry is THE most under rated stock wood going. If I could only find blanks like that? Could anyone suggest a source for blanks like these?

quote:

Originally posted by 10at6:
Cherry is THE most under rated stock wood going. If I could only find blanks like that? Could anyone suggest a source for blanks like these?

You have a PM with the sellers email.

I have sent the seller of my blanks an email to get his OK before I post his contact info here.

quote:

Originally posted by M1Tanker:
Brent,
I disagree with your statement.

Then I'm not sure why you asked, but have at it. It's your wood, your time.

Brent

I've never seen cherry with feather or figure before. Quite interesting. Cherry is well rated as a gunwood in the NRA Gunsmithing Guide article comparing various woods.

I've seen some beautiful M12s with fancy maple stocks.

quote:

Originally posted by Brent:

quote:

Originally posted by M1Tanker:
Brent,
I disagree with your statement.

Then I'm not sure why you asked, but have at it. It's your wood, your time.

Brent

M1 Tanker didn't ask, I did. I have not used it before and wondered about strength. I am an English Walnut fan.

I think I will go ahead with this and see how it ends up. I can always do something else if it is no good. I will get some pictures and show what I have.

Norm Abram says cherry gets darker over time.

cherry also gets much darker under a heatgun.. i haven't used a torch on it, but I've seen the old muzzle loaders of the day..

Try here: http://gunstocksplus.com/blanks.html and here: http://www.gunstockwood.com/products.html Grant.

quote:

Originally posted by 10at6:
Cherry is THE most under rated stock wood going. If I could only find blanks like that? Could anyone suggest a source for blanks like these?

Cherry was used a lot on American flint and percussion rifles in the 18th and 19th Cs. Many of them were thin in the wrist and were subjected to hard and heavy use. I don't believe the oldtimers would have used cherry if it was a weak wood.

Winchester used figured cherry on a few of its high grade 1894 and 1885 rifles around the turn of the century. In fact I got the idea of a figured cherry stock after seeing a an incredible all orgional high grade 1885 High Wall. The stock was feather crotch and had aged to in amazing deep red.

Here are some pics of just how nice figured cherry looks once it is finished. These are some frames I made for my Dad for Christmas this year, so they havent started t develop that nice red patina cherry gets. The lumber for the frames came from the same supplier as my curly blank.

OldModel70 - I have used Tiger Hunt for some maple and cherry blanksfor a couple Stevens Favorites I am restoring and restocking. He offers some very nice wood at great prices. He is also a super guy to deal with.

Vigillinus - I think you hit it right on. Cherry is not what we think of as a conventional stock wood in modern times. But our forefathers sure thought it was a superior stock wood.

I did a cherry rifle stock many years ago out of a localy cut tree very pretty.

I would think it would look nice on a shot gun.

Here is a cherry stock that was cut from a powerline clearing locally.Literally a junk piece of wood! It was cut from the crotch of the tree. Made a BEAUTIFUL 2 pc stock. I have another crotch that I need to cut. Still not sure what it looks like yet, but cherry can be very nice

oly shit.....

That did turn out nice.

Question about Wild Cherry. Is it always light in color. I have several pieces of what is supposed to be wild cherry. Grain matches up to cherry that I have seen but this wood is a deep red all the way thru. Imagine Wild Cherry in picture that has been stained with cherry wood stain...dark red. Thats what this wood looks like when cut. So, is it Wild Cherry or ??

Cherry can range from a pale pink color to a pink with a slight green tinge all the way to the deep red you mentioned. I did a blanket chest a few years ago using some deep red cherry like you mentioned. The stuff looks great.

quote:

But the hard part will be finding nicely figured cherry suitable for a stock.

I gave it a good try, but finally gave up when nothing suitable with figure arrived in the places I tried.

If You want good figured chery you will have to cut it yourself. From the Fork area where 2 branches "Y". The intersection of the "Y" is wher you get the figure.

As cherry ages, it gets darker. Naturally. The stock in the picture I posted is plain cherry with several coats of tru oil. Nothig more.