Preferred stock wood?

[brokenhand]

Do you experienced gun builders think that sugar maple is generally going to be the preferred stock over a red maple stock, or is it pretty much going to come down to the individual piece of stock wood and it can go either way?  What about walnut and cherry for an colonial period gun? I haven't seen very many cherry stocked guns.  Anything I would want to know about carving these specifically? I realize that there are good and bad pieces of all these options, but just speaking generally?

[Ats5331]

I still consider myself a novice, but here’s what I have found out on the forum, chatting with Builder’s, and reading:

Sugar maple is a much harder wood than Red Maple. This could make it a bit tougher to carve. However, I feel like Red Maple can be a bit too soft at points, causing less experienced hands to slip up and make errors.

Red Maple finishes very well though.

If I made any errors in this statement, somebody please correct me! Happy building!

[Top Jaw]

Between the maples, Sugar Maple usually gets the nod. However, red maple from the northern states above the Ohio River that didn’t grow in a wet bottom, but higher up on a ridge, is often denser and harder, to the point of being comparable to sugar maple, at least in workability.  And red maple curl can often be more vibrant than sugar maple in general.  Plus the curly figure occurs much more often in Red than Sugar, so curly Red costs less.  My 2 cents.   

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

If the gun calls for it, and I had the opportunity to use it, I would prefer to stock a gun in English walnut...just to give an answer to the question.  For a longrifle though, hard and dense sugar maple is king.

[Ats5331]

Between the maples, Sugar Maple usually gets the nod. However, red maple from the northern states above the Ohio River that didn’t grow in a wet bottom, but higher up on a ridge, is often denser and harder, to the point of being comparable to sugar maple, at least in workability.  And red maple curl can often be more vibrant than sugar maple in general.  Plus the curly figure occurs much more often in Red than Sugar, so curly Red costs less.  My 2 cents.

Awesome stuff. This is information that I love to soak up. Find it fascinating

[brokenhand]

Thank you all for your responses. This is good information and most valuable to me.

[rich pierce]

I use what would have been used on a gun of that style and place and timeframe. I’ve grown tired of red maple but may soon change my mind as the piece of sugar I have will test me when hand inletting the barrel.

American walnut, plain red maple, and cherry can be worked very quickly and easily with hand tools.

[Eric Kettenburg]

I think if your tools are sharp as they should be, any of the traditional hardwoods will be just fine unless you get a piece of wood that grew in a swamp.

Except walnut.  I hate walnut. 

[Top Jaw]

I will add that bad red maple can be pretty bad.  Soft, fuzzy, and tough to carve & work.  Even though it may have beautiful curl sometimes.  Pass it by.

[Eric Kettenburg]

I will add that bad red maple can be pretty bad.  Soft, fuzzy, and tough to carve & work.  Even though it may have beautiful curl sometimes.  Pass it by.

I agree 100%.  I've had pieces of red maple now and then that I like to call "curly pine" but frankly spongier.  Yuck.

[Bill Raby]

   My current project is English walnut and I love the stuff. I think it carves better than even the best sugar maple. Removing large amounts of wood can be quite a chore. Expect to pay an extremely large amount of money if you want a lot of figure.

[Craig Wilcox]

I'm with Bill Raby and others who like to work with English Walnut.  I've built a lot of gunstocks with Oregon Walnut - it is softer, easier to work than English, and sometimes the color patterns are fantastic.
But I am currently working with a few pieces that Ron Scott obtained.  "English" walnut, true enough, but this is from Albania or close thereby.
It is hard, with a good tight, colorful grain pattern.  So far I have only inletted a wee bit in a pistol stock, and I only have one word for your tools:  SHARP!.  Makes me glad I have a couple good strops and lots of honing/polishing compound.  ZAM seems to work well; I also have some unknown white compound that works a charm.
Oh, I also have a chunk of quarter sawn stump wood.  Now that is gorgeous, but a real pain to work with!

[Tom Currie]

Cherry might be best used on a New England fowler or any build from the North East colonies. My best carving was done on the hardest piece of curly maple I've ever had. When ever I start another build I won't compromise on hardness. Sharp tools as Eric said is a must.

[Mike Brooks]

Study originals.

[BillF/TRF]

I have found when inletting that English Walnut seems to be a little more "chippy" than Sugar maple, especially on the corners where the tang meets the breech.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I find that carving English walnut with strong sharp chisels is like surgery.  It is very predictable and precise, but yields under the chisel much more easily than sugar maple.  I have never had a 'chippy' piece...lucky me.

[Mike Brooks]

English walnut is like all of the other stock woods, some good, some bad. Most all I have worked was excellent. Goby used to sell it dirt cheap 20 years ago. It's out of my price range now. I still have one piece left that will take a 56" barrel, Have to do a french gun with it before I croak....I better live another 20-30 years....

[BeanStationgunmaker]

I've been working on a Bonewitz style rifle out of red maple.Beautiful wood but alternating between soft and hard spots makes for a pain to carve.At least it's going to be pretty when done

[JLSawyer]

I am a bonafide novice with very little experience in anything gun building so I tend to agree with people who have more than me so with regards to the sugar maple vs. red maple debate I have to take the word of folks like Michael Barton of Tiger-Hunt Gunstock wood when he says the following...

“Red maple is often referred to as soft maple, however, this is only a relative description, for it is “soft” as compared to sugar maple. Red maple weighs in at 38 lbs. per cubic foot which is heavier than walnut. A good, dense piece of red maple will have similar qualities to sugar maple.

Another plus for red maple is its ratio of shrinkage to the growth rings both tangentially and radially. This quality makes it more stable than sugar maple. Red maple will usually show better contrast in its figure and accepts pigmented stain more readily.

Highly figured red maple is much more available than comparably figured sugar maple, therefore you will get more figure for the dollar when buying red maple. You won’t go wrong if you choose a good, dense piece of red maple”

I have also purchased several beautiful pieces of red maple from Allen Martin recently and they all very heavy and dense.