Hi All,

The question I have is has anyone tried to laminate 2 pieces of black walnut for a stock or forearm. a dozen peices of nice wood but only about 1/2 the tickness for a stock. I was thinking of gluing 2 pieces together and trying it out. They are not bookmatched though. Just wondering how it might look as you would see a seam.

Spike

i've done this a couple time & it worked find, you'll need about 2 1/2" thick for the blank. I used expoy for glue and clamped well.

Interesting. One of the gun magazimes I read talked about purposely sawing the blank then glueing the pieces (after turning one of them end for end) to avoid warpage.

I don't know if this was the origin of the laminated stock but back in 52 when I was at Trinidad they made maple walnut laminates. Used a piece of walnut the width of the front tang of the magazine on a mauser for the center then a 1/4" maple for the next two pieces then 1/4" walnut then 1/4"maple and then walnut. Made for a very pretty stock somewhat like the ones on the new Remington. Very inexpensive wood was used. Glued with a glue called Fosco from M.L.Foss lumber in Denver as was usually the supplier of the wood. They tested the glue by leaving glued sections on roof of building for over a year with no joint failures. Second stock I built was with one of these blanks. On a 6.5x54. Really a pretty little rifle. Maple was a very popular stock wood at that time. Most of the students were on a pretty tight budget but surplus actions were cheap in comparison to a new FN which if I remember right was $65. Different times.

If the wood matches color wise the seems aren't real noticable. I bought one from Serengetti and the seems aren't real noticable, in the forearm where there isn't much figure you have to really look to see them. Just make sure the two outer layers are thick. I wouldn't glue three half inch pieces together. I'd plane some down for the middle layers.