For years I have wanted a modern rifle stock in black cherry since i saw one in the Pachmayr Club in Pasadena, Ca. The rifle was a custom built M/98 Mauser and I this was done by Pachmayr himself. FABULOUS! The stock had aged to a deep mahogany color and the figure was splendid.

Have any of you ever used cherry for a gunstock and what are your opinions of the wood? I know everyone wants walnut, but I am tired of walnut. I have thousands of pounds of stump wood from walnuts air-drying right now and I am flat sick of the smell of walnut for a while.

So what do you think about cherry?

I purchased some awesome figured black cherry 2 piece blanks from Tiger Hunt a few years ago. His pricing was incredibly cheap. And the wood quality was outstanding. I plan on using the blanks on 3 Stevens Favorites that I am restoring for my kids.

Tiger Hunt

he doesnt list prices for chery blanks on his website but if you call him he will give you the breakdown of what he has. He is a real good guy to deal with.

Do you remember what grade you bought from Tiger-Hunt? I have chatted with him and he sounds like a good deal. I bought a red maple blank from him 8 years ago that was stunning, and it was not the top grade by any means.

I am looking for that right peice for my new rifle....

I bought the AA and it was really nice. He didnt have anything higher at the time or I would have gone that route. I did see a 2 piece set that a friend bought from him for his Win 94 38/55 that was exhibition grade. it was incredible to say the least. And he only paid around $90. After I get back from Iraq I plan on getting an exhibition grade blank of maple for my TC Hawken.

I made a cherry stock 30 some years ago for a rem 511 very pretty wood. I use it for some knife handles looks good.

here's a good tip...

work the cherry "wet".. if you let a cherry stock blank harden to 10%, you'll need to work it with carbide.. it's harder than my head!!

jeffe

Another stupid question from a not so bright memeber ( me ).

If cherry is that hard why is it not used more in stock making?

good, figured cherry is hard to find. i have used it on several different guns over the years. it has always worked int a nice stock.

Partly tradition and partly because figured cherry of any grade is hard to find. Most of it is pretty bland. It has become much more popular for furniture, though. And it is still used a good bit for front stuffers as it was traditionally used.

and it's brittle as heck

jeffe

Hello: What's "Tiger Hunt's" contact? phone no.
or email?
Thanks, Tom

cherry used to be commonlyh use on the frontier for stocks (back in the 17-1800's)

quote:

Originally posted by bisonland:
Hello: What's "Tiger Hunt's" contact? phone no.
or email?
Thanks, Tom

quote:

Originally posted by M1Tanker:
I purchased some awesome figured black cherry 2 piece blanks from Tiger Hunt a few years ago. His pricing was incredibly cheap. And the wood quality was outstanding. I plan on using the blanks on 3 Stevens Favorites that I am restoring for my kids.

Tiger Hunt

he doesnt list prices for chery blanks on his website but if you call him he will give you the breakdown of what he has. He is a real good guy to deal with.

Click on M1Tanker's link and then click on "Home"

Look at the bottom of this page. http://scopeusout.com/hunting-stocks.htm

You will find some other photos of this laminated stock on this page. Its beautifull, and I belive you can order it from him, and let somebody else do your stock for you.

Amen to Jeffeosso! I did a cherry stock for a little .22 Hornet years ago, and it was the HARDEST stuff I have ever worked with!. Finished up gorgeously, but required a horrendous lot of work. I think you can drive nails with cherrywood.
LLS

If you work any stockwood when it is wet, expect a disaster. You shape and inlet any stock after it is dried and cured. If you don't, you can expect and will recieve a blank that is warped or shrunk or swollen with gaps galore. Guaranteed you will ruin a blank if you work it wet.

Black cherry has a hardness rating of 950 according to "Gunstock Woods And Oher Fine Timbers" by Virgil Davis. Circassian Walnut, English walnut is 1200, Claro is 990, Rock (Sugar) Maple is 1450. They all can be cut and inletted with properly sharpened tools. The hardest blank I ever used was a piece of Circassian, it cut like marble and it was dream to work because of it's hardness. Your tools have to be sharp to work any of this wood.

Chic,
i mean wittle as much as possible at 15%... then finish up a year later!!

or get "the hulk" to inlet it for you
jeffe

quote:

Gunstock Woods And Oher Fine Timbers

Well I ahve a few stock makers that are willing to work it. I will have a semi custom job since the blanks will be machines into the style I want first. Basically, I hear that it is very similar to Claro to work. The hardness is nearly the same as Claro, and I am tired of Claro. I know I know, it makes some of the best stocks, but how many custom guns have Claro or English these days? Everyone!

I grew up working in our families cabinet shop and have done a lot of cabinets out of cherry. But I have done a lot of wood projects working with cherry. I hav found it to be one of the easiest hardwoods to work with hand tools. Especially when compared to woods line oak, ash, hickory, etc... The key is using properly sharpened tools. With power tools it will burn very easily if your tools are dull and becomes prone to chipout. But because of its smooth, dense, and consistent grain it is a pleasure to work by hand. But let your tools loose their keen edge and it becomes a bugger to work with. Because of cherry's attributes that I mentioned above you will find that it leaves very clean cuts with hand tools. The edges and corners stay sharp and crisp.

Here is a pic of a goblet I turned fo my wife this last spring for my wife. It is figured cherry. Sorry the pic didnt come out better.



Another guy was in the shop and also turning cherry when I made this. he was having nothing but problems trying to get a smooth clean cut with his tools. When I looked at his gouge it was sharp enough for most work but not for cherry. A few minutes with a diamond hone and the leather strop and he was getting paper thin curl of wood shavings on the lathe.

You will find that the same applies to maple as cherry, except that maple splinters and tears out quite easily, especially if it is figured.

Looks pretty neat but years ago when I had the chance I did not buy one----my dream stock is screwbeam mesquite!!! Can't find it anywhere at least a piece large enough for a stock!

Boss Hoss,

You guys have been very helpful, and I ahve a few wood connections, I will see if I can track it down. You would have to pick one that doesn't get big in the first place huh?

I stocked my '03 in cherry It's light like the cherry goblet shown and rather plain grain.It wasn't very hard and working it , it tends to be a bit brittle when cutting it.I have done darker cherry too but like all woods it depends on the type and where it was grown.

http://woodfinder.com/listings/003001.php

This site list screwbean mesquite as one of thier products. The website is broken and I e-mailed them, so I hope they are still in business.

http://www.mesquitefurnitureoftexas.com/lumber.html

furniture store that sells customs stuff. They also sell lumber and custom sawn mesquite wood.

Boss Hoss--

I am sending you a PM. Looks like I found some of what your looking for?

THANKS---called him

This gentleman also sells Black Cherry rifle blanks and others listed such as Red and Sugar Maple, Blk Walnut, White Ash, Beech and Eng. Walnut.
Bob

Dunlapwoodcrafts.com

quote:

Dunlapwoodcrafts.com

Manhasset--

Have you ever seen his cherry wood? I am intrested in what it looks like since no pictures are available.

333,
Sorry, no.He should be able to email you some photos. Can't expect you to buy wood sight unseen.
Bob

Manhasset


I private messaged you. I would like to discuss your wood listed on Dunlap. I have not been able to see cherry pictures from any dealers yet. I have specific criteria from a stockmaker that may be building the gun. See below:

"Most reputable wood dealers will sell you a blank on approval, which simply means that they will ship it out to you for inspection first hand. If you like what you see, you keep it. If not, you stand the cost of return shipping and they exchange it for you with another one, etc., as long as no work has been done on it yet. Quite a few of them will even extend their exchange offer to cover any hidden flaw that might be discovered once the blank is machined into a semi-inletted stock. You will just have to ask them what their policy is exactly and go from there.

I would tell them that you want a stock blank suitable for building a Mauser M96 in .XXX H&H Magnum and that your three most important considerations are:
That the blank be quarter sawn, or nearly so, not slab cut. ( I can explain that difference in detail to you, if you like, just FYI. )
That the grain flows correctly through the forend, action and grip areas.
That there be no knots of any kind in the action/grip areas of the blank.
How pretty the grain is should always take a back seat to proper grain structure. I'd go with a plain piece of good strong wood ahead of a eye popper that wasn't laid out well any day, especially if you are dealing with a heavy thumper when it goes BOOM.

The checkering part is easy, W.R. or H&H rifles almost always favor bold point patterns with diamonds laid out in a 2-1/2 to 1 ratio and mullered borders. American tastes generally
dictate patterns with many more smaller points and more elongated diamonds laid out in 3 or 4 to 1 ratios."


That being said, I still want figure to the cherry, so can anyone help out here? Manhasset?

Well, I was unable to see any stocks from any dealers, but Dunlap is working to find me a peice of wood in his uncut/dried planks that meets my criteria.

I really wish I could have seen the wood Tiger-hunt claims to have but no photos were ever produced.

If anyone knows another source also, please let me know?

quote:

Originally posted by 333_OKH:
I would tell them that you want a stock blank suitable for building a Mauser M96 in .XXX H&H Magnum

Please tell me that is a typo!!!

I would go ahead and give Tiger Hunt a try. He really is very bad about getting pics emailed. But if you tell him what you are wanting he will come through for you. And if you are not happy he will make it right so you are.

I in no way want to say they are poor. I had a red maple stock that I got from him 8 years ago, and I felt like I had ripped him off. That stock was amazing and so was the cheap price for it. I am just not so certain about cherry wood and I need to see it before buying. I think he probably has cherry beyond belief, but I am hesitant to purchase sight un seen.

I wish I had pictures of that completed stock from Tiger Hunt, but I didnt take any before the gun went to its new happy home. I still have a AAA Red Maple blank at home from him too.

Dan

quote:

So what do you think about cherry?

If I had a pretty piece of cherry thick enough to make into a one piece stock I'd do so without hesitation.
There's absolutely nothing inappropriate about cherry wood as a gunstock material.

If anyone comes across photos of a blank of cherry that they have, please post it. Additionally, if you have a riflestock photo of cherry, please post it. Thanks

Wayne Dunlop is a stand up guy. I have gotten several blanks from him over the years. Many of them sight unseen. I have always been more than pleased with what I received. Tiger Hunt is much the same. Both seem to err on the side of the customer when grading their wood.

Mr. Dunlop is currently looking for a blank in his planks to meet my needs. I only looked outside of tiger because I really wanted to see what I was getting into. If the tiger wood cherry is anything like the maple I am sure it is perfect, but I really wanted to see it first.

Well, still looking with no photos and no available wood so far???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

If you were looking to buy the best quality, dense, figured cherry you could get, where would you buy it from and why?

Still looking for the wood. I have been working with Dunlap, but he doesn't currently have the wood I need. Tiger-Hunt I have message into about details and availability of some of the higher grades.


WHO ELSE can I contact for this wood?