Can someone explain the difference between flat sawn, quarter sawn, and any other cut? What are the advantages/disadvantages of one over the other? I read a lot about quarter sawn blanks, but don't quite understand what that means.

Here is a diagram. Some say there is no difference in their merit as a stock. Others say if a q-sawn moves it will be up or down in the barrel channel, a flat sawn moving side to side which is more problematic.

you usually pick up fiddleback in quarter sawn, plus i believe the quarter sawn is more stable

Appreciate the information guys. Since I like fiddleback, guess I will be looking at quartersawn.

Dempsey's diagram is correct. However, the gunstock industry does not cut that way, there is too much waste in that technique and it was original started because of inferior wood that the sawyers were trying to improve for other industries that utilize wood products.

I have seen quarter-sawn blanks walk left and right while loosing their free water (first 60 days). I have also seen just as many quarter-sawn blanks move as i have flat-sawn. and that is RARE despite how it is cut.

Regardless of what many say, there is no difference in stability between the two when dealing with Juglans Regia, aka English, Turkish, French, New Zealand, Moroccan, Persian, Circassian, European, etc. This wood is FAR superior to pine and poplar and other low cost species of wood that originally gave rise to such thoughts of wood being unstable when cut certain ways. This also came about because of other industries such as home building. It bled into the thought processes of the gunmaking world.

The reason Juglans Regia is superior is that it has extremely long fibers for a hardwood species.

You will get "tighter" fiddleback, most of the time, with a quarter-sawn blank. Especially with oak and maple.