Wood Grading ??

[J Henry]

  If you don't send it all back,every time you pick it up or look at it,, you will ruin your day.  Lots of work to turn out anything you are not satisfied with.Send it back take the lose and move on...
 

[crankshaft]

This is a perfect example of how subjective wood grading is.  I could see how that stock could be graded as a 4 (which is done by the manufacturer of the stock, not the retailer).   In my experience pre-carves generally don't have the same grading scale as you find on blanks.  Very few stock carvers will risk destroying a high grade blank on their duplicator, which is more common you might think.  The result of that, is that the highest grade pre-carves generally leave the buyer somewhat disappointed.  That is a very broad generalization, and there certainly are exceptions.  

All of that is pretty much irrelevant though if you are not happy with the stock.  If the retailer will take it back, there is not really anything to complain about here.  Yes, it stinks to have to ship it back, but that is the cost of doing business sight unseen.  Even if you didn't get a photo, did you talk to a representative and get an accurate description of the stock?  I have often found that can be a very good way of getting a nice piece of wood and they are usually very willing to give one, especially when I am looking for a high end piece.  I have found most suppliers want to give accurate descriptions of their products, if for no other reason they don't want to deal with a ticked off customer.  If you did and it wasn't what was described, then yes, I would be a bit miffed and would try to have them pick up the shipping back to them.  Or at least get some sort of credit.  If this was all ordered without communication though, I don't think we can really be bad mouthing the retailer here.  They are willing to take it back after all.  

That is not a bad piece of wood, might not be what you had expected, but would still make a very fine gun.    If you decide not to ship it back, a cap box would cover up a lot of the plain portion of the butt.  The wrist doesn't look too bad.  The top view shows a lot of grain that runs through the wrist without running out, a little on the left side, but not too bad.  

At the end of the day though, you're the one that has to make the call.  If you are not happy with it, you're not happy.  

 

 Most excellent post.

I like the piece.
                 So what do you guys think is a fair price is for the wood?

[PPatch]

OH my, I just tried the super pointy radically curved but plate against my shoulder.  My shoulder can not fit in the curve.  It would stab me if I shot such a rifle. It is too tight a curve to fit around my bicep too.  Really weird.

Done deal, I am out, it goes back ASAP.

That sort of buttplate fits at the juncture of your shoulder and upper bicep. It rests between the two. Your southern mountain rifles with their deep crescent buttplates fit like that and are very comfortable to shoot.

dave

[Robby]

Is it to be a Vincent? Then it would be held as PPatch described. I think its a very nice piece of wood, maybe not tight curl full length, but from what I can see it has some other interesting character going on.
Robby

[Scota4570]

Well I learned something about but plates.  I have large shoulders and biceps. Used-ta-could bench over 300#.   I simply can not fit. 

[EC121]

That wood looks really interesting.  Lots of different figure and not as boring a consistent curl that looks like it was drawn out by a draftsman.  Maybe not what you wanted but interesting none the less.

[Bob Roller]

                So what do you guys think is a fair price is for the wood?

Like anything else, it's a negotiation between a willing seller and a willing buyer.

Bob Roller

[bkb]

I have purchased stocks-blanks from Tiger Hunt and I always thought the piece I got was better than what I ordered.  One time the stock I got was not right  I sent him some photos of what was wrong and he sent me a new one no question asked.

[Jim Chambers]

Glad to hear it was a half stock.  We don't sell any half stocks, so that leaves us out of the discussion.  We always worry about pleasing guys with the wood we supply.  Thankfully, we get very few if any complaints.  But, picking a piece of wood for someone else is about like picking a date for the senior prom for some guy you don't know.