stock blanks

[Kenny]

I have only ever used the suger maple for stocks. what is the concensus for red maple on a FL?

thanks

[KentSmith]

I prefer sugar maple, denser, easier to carve at least in my experience.  I think you can find outstanding grain figure and stripe on red but especially for a project you plan to do extensive carving on, I prefer hard sugar maple.  IMHO

[flehto]

I've used and carved both....and both can be too soft. I'm on the last of 3 very hard red maple blanks from Dunlaps and they were a pleasure to work. Red maple many times will yield more curl and figure for the buck VS sugar maple ....Fred

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

I've only built one rifle with sugar maple and I found it softer than some of the red maple I worked. It seems to me that each has it's own hard and soft. Apparently either have a good relationship with your wood supplier, or select the wood personally. Either way I think you are taking a chance, they are all good and all bad. I've tried the fingernail test and that's not definitive. I would love to sample a bit of the wood with a chisel to determine if it is hard or softer.

[rich pierce]

Heft the stock blanks and pick the heaviest.

[Dphariss]

Heft the stock blanks and pick the heaviest.

Good advise.

Dan

[Mark Elliott]

I use red maple for most of my guns.   I feel that it is more appropriate on a plain southern gun.  However,  I used a cheap piece of red maple for the carved chunk gun I just finished and I think it turned out quite well.   The thing is that density will vary within all species.   You can certainly have a dense piece of red maple and a less dense piece of sugar maple.   That said,  for guns that I plan to be highly decorated, I get the best piece of stump cut, quarter sawn, sugar maple that I can.   

[galamb]

I only use Red Maple, and while I'm no means a "prolific builder" it works fine for my purposes.

I would however add, my source is domestic Canadian lumber and with our "tougher seasons" it may be denser than a tree from a more southern climate (??)

[E.vonAschwege]

At Dixon's this year I did exactly as Rich suggested here:  I went around and picked up a lot of blanks from Dunlap, Tiger Hunt, and a few folks with extra stocks laying around.  I was amazed as I picked up many high-price sugar maple blanks and found them to be light as a feather and easily dented with my finger nail.  Many of the red maple blanks were just as light, but others were quite heavy and dense.  I didn't find any that blew me away, but I bought a "second" (with a small knot in the toe) that is one of the heaviest pieces of maple I've ever held - it's red maple with some very pretty figure. 

I've also built projects out of Norway Maple and Sycamore maple (different from true Sycamore)- they grow like weeds on the coast of New England and occasionally reach substantial size.  Density varied on those too, comparable to red maple. 

If you're ordering sight unseen, ask them to pick a heavy one. 
-Eric

[Mark Elliott]

Heft the stock blanks and pick the heaviest.

That's assuming the stock blanks are of equal volume. 

[axelp]

How do you tell the difference between the different Maples offered as gun stock wood? I was told by a very well known kit maker that they could not tell the difference.

K

[galamb]

Check the label on the rack at the wood shop

Not trying to be smart with that one, but I really get what you are asking.

Hard (Sugar) Maple has a (mean) density of about 44 lbs/cubic foot - soft (Red) about 38 lbs/cuft - but with a 10% allowable variance that gives you ranges of 39-48 (hard) and 34-42 (Red) - not conclusive if you measure weight.

You can usually dent Red with a finger nail, but you can sometimes dent Sugar.

Sugar normally has tighter rings - but again that depends on where it was grown.

Red sometimes has darker streaks and an overall darker appearance - (sometimes but not always).

Which leads me back to my first comment...

[Kenny]

thanks guys, as always I`ve gotten a lot of excellent advice from here, . I think I`m going to try red maple.

[galamb]

I will just add on more piece of "trivia" - I also build wooden boats so you end up with some obscure information.

There is a test called the Janka hardness test - old method to test hardwood.

On it's scale Red Maple comes in at about 950, Walnut at about 1000 and Sugar Maple at 1400'ish.

It's measured by seeing how many foot pounds of energy it takes to imbed a .444" steel ball half way into a given piece of wood. The results above are the foot pounds required (typically).

Hmmm - if you were willing to load a steel ball in a 45 cal maybe you could try a home test

The conclusion I draw from the numbers is - not many would question Walnut's "suitability" at least from a "strength" point of view - even on the most powerful centerifires. Red Maple is certainly in the "same league"..

[Paddlefoot]

Wayne Dunlap told me that he has a difficult time separating red from sugar maple once its cut. Since he charges more for sugar maple he only provides sugar maple blanks that he has been able to trace back to a known sugar maple tree. If you buy red maple blanks from him you may get a sugar maple blank but if you pay for a sugar maple blank it will be sugar maple.