just finished another insect. Martini cadet this one in 17 ackley hornet. Many of the parts for this were purchased on ar. the action, stock blank, scope were all from the ar classifieds. The maple stock is the wildest piece of maple i've ever seen. And the most miserable to work on. Hard spots, soft spots, wild grain etc. couldn't do much with a chisel, knife, or scrapers, most of had to be simply ground off. The finished wood was very white so i stained it with 4 parts cherry and one part light walnut. Normally i'm not one for basketweave checkering, but on this it not only looks right, but due to the wood, straight line checkering was near impossible. Sure was nice to have Jim Kobe nearby for help. He did his normal perfect job on barrel fitting and drilling the through bolt. The action was rimfire so the firing ping hole had to be moved as did the actual firing pin. anyway the little 17 AH costs about half what the 17 HMR does to shoot. Midsouth bullets are about 7 cents each, 10 grain of lil gun and a primer add up to about 10 cents a round. The scope is another thing too. I've never seen a straight 6x with adjustable objective, target adjustments, an 1/4 minute dot with 1/8 minute crosshairs.

another awesome Martini.....mine is a long ways from done and won't compare to this.....

Weird maple for sure !!
Would that be 'big leaf maple ' ? That's actually a 'soft maple' rather than a 'hard maple '.Can be found with great grain .That would explain soft spots .

quote:

Originally posted by mete:
Weird maple for sure !!
Would that be 'big leaf maple ' ? That's actually a 'soft maple' rather than a 'hard maple '.Can be found with great grain .That would explain soft spots .

When I was in school, we called it quilted or shell-flame maple. The other was termed hard-rock maple and if it (the hard-rock) had birds-eyes then it was birds-eye maple. Chisels MUST be kept RAZOR-sharp and they dull quickly on the hard-rock.

When Pete Grisel was about to graduate, I saw an absolutely GORGEOUS 722 Remington custom that he'd just completed with a maple stock. I asked him what finish he used, that did not darken the almost-white wood(!).

He just smiled and said it was a secret.
Regards, Joe

Quilted or shell-flamed or bird's eye refers to the grain pattern not the wood . Maple comes in two groups soft or hard.
Anyway working bird's eye can make the most polite man curse ! Sharp as a razor and cutting thin layers is the only way .

That is some wild looking stuff! Is that the maple's natural color or did you treat it with something?