this martini is in 17 ackley hornet with about the wildest piece of maple i've ever screen. the basketweave checkering just fits this piece

I think that is called quilted Maple.It is almost 3d when you look at it.

Bottom rifle is quilted maple in this pic. Others are top to bottom: Tiger myrtle, Fiddleback Bastogne Walnut, and Fiddleback Myrtle.

if anyone is looking for some high end maple, christrees has quite a bit.

I have seen some pretty spectacular pieces of it at his place!
Shane

Very nice rifles, maple has some of the most "unusual" fancy grain imaginable. I just picked up a piece that is absolutely wild, burl and all.

Hard to decide on what it would not be just "too much", kind of leaning towards a Weatherby Mk V and in a thumbhole style perhaps.

If you don't mind me asking who supplied the thumbhole stocks shown here?

--- John

A dear friend that had a penchant for nice wood on his long guns once referred to that kind of maple as “being selected from a tree where the forces of nature had run amuck”. He would have loved to have wood like that on an 18th century flintlock fowling piece.

There is a store up here that had a nice selection of the quilted maple big enough for guitar backs, barely thick enough for a stock. I shivered when I saw that stuff.
If I could come up with another decent fiddleback/birdseye piece, I'd be one happy camper.
I passed on one about 3 yrs ago, still kicking myself on that one, likely could have got 4 stocks for singleshots or shotguns out of it.

If you are looking for maple blanks contact Cecil Fredi. He has some very unusual maple blanks on hand.
Purchased a couple from him just lately, "unbelievable" that tree could produce such a thing.
Tell him what you are looking for and price range and he will forward some pics.
I suppose I could take some pics of my purchases and forward to someone who can post them here. --- John