Myrtlewood?

[Kermit]

Anyone ever work this stuff? How is it? I have zero experience with it.

[b bogart]

I know FG1 has built a couple of guns outta that wood. Maybe he'll happen in on the conversation!

[B.Habermehl]

The only piece I worked with was rather nice working a bit to the soft side compared to maple or hard walnut. However I turned out to be rather allergic to the saw dust, with skin reactions and severe sneezing.  I finished the gun with scrapers to limit the dust, wearing a dust mask,gloves, and long sleeves.  It's on the short list of woods that I'll never work with again due to my allergies, not the working qualities of the wood.

[FG1]

Myrtrlewood works pretty much like walnut but can change directions of grain rapidly. I think it is real close in hardness but a little heavier. I think it makes a pretty stock , pictures dont do it justice in comparison to seeing it in natural light.

IIRC Roy Weatherby used to stock his magnums in it  .  

Heres the last one I did with it.
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=12339.0

[v308]

Built 3 stocks with it, it's hard & soft, sometimes very close together (you'll hit a hard area, then an inch or two away there's a soft area) feels like the grain almost reverses like Elm. I've found it to be quite brittle (somewhat like Cherry) it'll chip across the grain especially around inletted areas. Doesn't take stain that well (streaks) but it sands and finishes buttery smooth, and will finish off a nice golden blonde color. Never thought of using it on a ML, all my experience has been with bolt rifles. I have two more roughed out, will try something different as far as finish, I"m thinking AF or vinger/iron, then oil.
I've never had a reaction to the dust, not like walnut - which makes me sneeze, nose run, throat swells,  but I still like it.

[Dave B]

I made a California rifle a long while back using Myrtle wood. It was a lot like walnut in shaping. This was the curliest piece I came across at the hard wood store.

[westerner]

Myrtrlewood works pretty much like walnut but can change directions of grain rapidly. I think it is real close in hardness but a little heavier. I think it makes a pretty stock , pictures dont do it justice in comparison to seeing it in natural light.

IIRC Roy Weatherby used to stock his magnums in it  .  

Heres the last one I did with it.
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=12339.0

I thought Weatherby rifle stocks were made from Mesquite.  

Myrtle is usually a muddy looking, soft wood.  Never saw a piece I would make a gunstock from.  Especially a hard kicker.   

                   Joe.  

[T*O*F]

I made a California rifle a long while back using Myrtle wood.

Dave,
Who's lock is that?

[keweenaw]

Weatherby stocks are claro walnut, always have been, which puts some perspective on things as many people will tell you that claro is too soft to use for a decent gun stock.  Weatherby's are typically heavy recoilers and they aren't known as stock splitters or breakers and the checkering holds up nicely on them.  

I stocked one centerfire rifle with a piece of myrtle wood that was cut in the 1940's and had sat in a shed in Kansas for 50 years.  It had a bunch of knots I had to work around so the grain was going every which way but it wasn't that difficult to work with.  The wood turns beautifully on the lathe with sharp edges and no chips which tells something about it.

Tom

[Dave B]

TOF,
I believe it is a Tom Faux lock that is still available from RE Davis. It has to be this style to keep the spring anchoring point beyond the cutout for the snail

[T*O*F]

I believe it is a Tom Faux lock that is still available from RE Davis.

Thanks!!  I've been looking for such a lock for a late English target rifle project that doesn't use a drip bar setup.  Looks like this might fill the bill.

[Levy]

I know this is a totally different type of myrtle, but crape myrtle can have some beautifully curly grain in it.  I cut lengthwise through  a piece that woodsrunner had cut for firewood and it had fantastic curly grain in it after staining it with aquafortis.  I gave pieces of it to C. Wallingsford, Tim Ridge and Wick Ellerbe.  I know that Mr. Wallingsford made a neck knife using some of it and Wick made me one of his boucheron knifes using it.  It would be hard to find a piece large enough to make a long gun.

James Levy   

[Jerry V Lape]

I believe Weatherby made some custom rifles with screw bean mesquite which is quite heavily grained.  But the screw bean trees sufficiently large to produce stock blanks are pretty rare now.  Only appropriate when you are trying to add weight to a heavy recoiling rifle.   

[T*O*F]

I thought Weatherby rifle stocks were made from Mesquite.

I thought they were made from plastic like everyone else's.     OH...you must be talking about a REAL Weatherby.

[westerner]

Looks like plastic to me. 

My dads Weatherby Mark V was purchased very early in production. German made I think.  The stock looked to be made from a light colored European Walnut. Definitely not Claro Walnut.  The rifle was lost in a house fire.
Seems to me Weatherby advertised Screwbean Mesquite on their rifles.  About 1976 I found a Weatherby rifle in a gunstore in Walla Walla Wa. It was a Mauser and had a Mesquite stock with all the gaudy inlays.
Claro Walnut is fantastic stock wood.  It was very available in California as precarved Weatherby style stocks. No doubt many home builders did a poor job inletting and cracked stocks were the result. I cracked one myself. Cracked just behind the tang on the first shot.  .35 Whelen.

                   Joe.

[FG1]

If you doubt hardness of Myrtle , here are the facts on hardness scale . Its a shade tougher that Walnuts.



http://www.oregonwildwood.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=Janka

[FG1]

Weatherby stocks are claro walnut, always have been, which puts some perspective on things as many people will tell you that claro is too soft to use for a decent gun stock.  Weatherby's are typically heavy recoilers and they aren't known as stock splitters or breakers and the checkering holds up nicely on them.  

I stocked one centerfire rifle with a piece of myrtle wood that was cut in the 1940's and had sat in a shed in Kansas for 50 years.  It had a bunch of knots I had to work around so the grain was going every which way but it wasn't that difficult to work with.  The wood turns beautifully on the lathe with sharp edges and no chips which tells something about it.

Tom

What I meant  was some of them were stocked in Myrtlewood not all  

[westerner]

Might be I just haven't seen a high grade piece of Myrtle yet.   

             Joe. 

[Kermit]

Myrtle varies a lot--kinda like maple. I've seen curly, feather, crotch, burl, and combinations. Never birdseye except in burl. A LOT of color variation, often in the same stick. Much of the "tourist" stuff sold (especially on the southern Oregon coast) is small turned stuff that has some color to it, but not a lot of figure. The figured stuff, especially in larger (read: usable) sizes is getting very pricey. I've seen single sticks with a lot of figure and color suitable for resawing into veneer with prices nigh $1000 (claro is getting there too). Stockblanks in the several hundred range.

Lengths are getting short. Luthier stuff, etc. Some say that Oregon/California myrtle will be essentially commercially extinct in our lifetimes. At my age, I may croak first though.

A client asking for figured myrtle in the field of a dining tabletop has me researching, and it got me to asking a broker to watch for a suitable stick to restock a gun I've got languishing in the safe--it also wants a lot of other work. When I asked about a highly figured stock blank suitable for a fullstock muzzleloader with a 42" to 48" barrel, he laughed at me and asked how my line of credit is. That question was mostly academic, but I'm looking for a two-piece chunk for an underhammer. Those smaller hunks are still in my budget.

Thanks for the feedback, BTW.

[FG1]

Back in early 80's I went to a foreclosure sale that had a huge stack of Myrtle planks 3"-3 1/2" thick , 2' to 30" wide and 10' long . I snagged 10 of them at $10 a plank . I have about 4 blanks cut out left from the pile . At the time I didnt think Id ever use that many and now widh I had bought 20 planks 

[Jerry V Lape]

I recall camping in Oregon State campgrounds in the early 50's.  Many of the campsite tables were 4 or 5 inch thick slabs of Myrtlewood all varnished with some really beautiful color and figure.  Wonder who snagged those?  We thought at the time they would have made some really nice rifle stocks.