Birds eye maple

[Maineshops]

Why don’t I see any Birdseye maple stocks?  I did a search with no results. It seems like a good choice of wood to use. I’ve milled a lot of it for folks but not kept a piece big enough for a full stock . Just curious . Dan

[t.caster]

Several reasons I think.
-You don't see it in any original Colonial rifles. If so it is very rare. Curly or plain maple was preferred.
-It is difficult to work with. If not worked carefully the "eyes" can and will pop out, leaving a nice divot!
-Not much has been available for gunstocks. It has a bigger market for furniture makers.

That said I have built a Vincent rifle and my own Colonial smoothbore with it and they both turned out beautiful. I still have one fullstock blank to build something someday, maybe by request. My blanks came from the late Roy "Pa" Keeler, who had a bunch of it cut from our Upper Penninsula he told me.

[heinz]

Try Dunlop wood products. http://dunlapwoodcrafts.com/gunstocks

  I also got one from Pecatonica some years back.
It is scarce variety and can be difficult to work.  But it is pretty

[44-henry]

According to Brockway it was used on some English shotguns. He built a double flintlock using Birdseye maple that is illustrated in his book.

I have seen slabs of Birdseye at out local hardwood dealer that could be used for stockblanks. It is pretty wood, but as was mentioned not easy to work.

[Craig Wilcox]

Makes Jim-Dandy knife scales.  You can stain it the normal way, with AF, then one of the maple stains.  It does take a bit more time to really perfect the surface, a good time to use a hard rubber backer for sanding.  And DO burnish the wood.

[Daryl]

I've seen in it only used for knife scales and modern rifle stocks prior to this and not often, at that.

[FlintFan]

James Purdey used birds eye maple imported from the US in some of his earliest guns in the flint period.  They are stunning.  For whatever reason it seemed to fall out of style early in the percussion period.

[Fyrstyk]

Some of the original Hatfield rifles had birds eye maple stocks as a stock up-grade.  I have one in 45 caliber, and it is quite stunning.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I have used bird's eye for only one build.  It is a .50 cal target pistol using LePage components:  lock, breech, trigger, guard.  I built it about 45 years ago before I knew about AF, so the figure in the wood isn't as flamboyant as it could have been.  But it is still a nice looking piece of wood.  And a deadly shooter.

[wpalongrifle]

About twenty years ago i seen a Herman Rupp Original Rifle that was all Birdseye maple stained a brown/red. was at a show in Clarksburg Wv. or Pricketts Fort,,,,,Hopefully the owner can post some pics???

[Rwnblack]

I have 3 rifles with birds eye maple all made by a friend of mine, Dale Friesen from Piapot, Saskatchewan Canada.  I grew up in the area and spent a lot of time in his shop learning how to build and restore blackpowder rifles.  My favourite rifle I have owned for 34 years and am the 3rd owner.  It has the nicest wood I have seen and the pics may not do it justice.  The barrel looks stubby in the pictures, I must have taken them from an odd angle.  This one has a 32” barrel, the others are 42 to 44” long.  They are in 54, 50 and 36 cal and all are flinters.  I probably have shot the 54 a couple thousand times and it probably should be rewarded with a new barrel.  I bought the barrel but haven’t had the heart to swap it out.  It isn’t as accurate as it once was but back then I could see and shoot well.  May not be the rifles fault I can’t shoot silver dollars off hand at 50 yards any more....

[Craig Wilcox]

Rwn, that is a SUPERB piece of wood!  Absolutely spectacular, for sure.  And hard to believe it has seen that much shooting over the years.

But don't be shooting silver dollars - I collect them, and even a rough one will fetch $15 from a collector.  Slightly better, about $26+ each.  Big chunk of history and silver to be making holes in it.

Back in 1958, I was shooting British 1 pence - about the same size as a silver dollar, come to think.  But even that old piece of copper is worth well over it's weight as copper.

Wish I had that stock!

[Rwnblack]

Here is the 36 cal, a bit more basic but lots of fun. A pound of powder and lead goes a long way.   I bought this last year and am always on the hunt for more made by Dale.

[Rwnblack]

Here is my 50 cal Friesen.  Not very many birds eyes and he liked to use a varnish he affectionately called "snot".  Very durable but very pretty.  This one was made as a prize for the Calgary gun show in the early 1980's.  I used it in all of our local shoots last year and had lots of fun with it.  The previous owners didn't use it much as it has a cheap Dixie lock on it.  I did my best to tune it and installed a better touch hole liner and now it functions well.

Birds eye maple is very hard and dense but I like how they turn out.

I was about 12 and in Dales Shop when he finished the 54, just in time for deer season.  To test it out we went to a neighbors farm and filled Dales freezer with a nice white tail buck.  The new owner recieved a fully tested rifle!  Unfortunately Larry never could shoot it well so he sold it to my middle school teacher.  Wes removed the snot and gave it a nice finish.  He let me shoot it and I fell n love with it.  He sold it to me for a good price as a grad gift and I have used it since.  Not many school teachers allowed to do that now days.  This 50 cal I didn't find until about 8 years ago, i built a rifle for a friend and gave him extra cash to get it.

[rich pierce]

Really finely executed carving.

[Rwnblack]

I have two very nice pieces of birds eye maple but someone planed them down to 1 1/2” thick so too thin for a rifle.  I purchased a barrel and action for an underhammer that needs a very slender stock so I think I will use some of the wood for that.  It would be cool if I could use it for a flintlock pistol but I don’t think it is thick enough for that.  A friend of mine always laminates two pieces together to make stocks, I could try that but I have enough other nice wood I don’t think I need to resort to that yet.

[Eric Krewson]

A couple of shots of the stock of a gun that a great friend gave to me on his death bed, it has a Bill Large barrel and a Bob Roller lock.

 

[Kevin]

Greetings Everyone,

I just stumbled across a birds eye maple stock on an original rifle in "Rifles of the American Indians" by Gale, Ness, & Mikelson.  It's the Jacob Dickert piece on page 93.  They put it in the 1803 - 1811 timeframe.

Just adding to the conversation,
Kevin

[BruceH]

Here is one I am working on now.  The first coat of oil has been applied.  Hope to finish it in a few days.

[Hungry Horse]

 I bought a big old blank off one of the folks on this forum a few years ago. I only bought it because it had plenty of wood at the wrist, and butt, to make a club butt fowler. It’s a beautiful piece of wood, but it hard as a rock, and heavy as an anvil. I have worked up most of the parts for it, so I guess I gotta get started on the stock. I am anxious to get to the stock finishing, because I suspect the tannic acid treatment, and the aquafortis are going to make the grain really pop.

  Hungry Horse