Stock wood

[Slow2Load]

Besides the obvious maple, cherry, walnut and I see now hickory, what other woods have bee used in stock making? Thanks

[Gene Carrell]

Try ash, mulberry, hackberry, apple, pear  and most fruit woods.  Some  stockwood  better than others.

[Acer Saccharum]

Beech and Elm. 

[rich pierce]

On the fringe, sassafras (too soft and not strong), butternut (same), chestnut (splintery), persimmon (rock hard, plain, usually small logs) and a few others.

[Jim Kibler]

There's really only three woods that work well, are readily available and are traditional.  And by traditional I mean  these three were certainly used better than 99% of the time.  These of course are maple, walnut and cherry. 

[pathfinder]

With the Emerald Ash Borer devastating the tree's here in lower Mich,We are getting A LOT of great stock wood. I have enough for @ 15 guns drying right now,along with Pear and some Mulberry.

I've a buddy who has made two gun's out of Persimon,it is rather plain looking,ie;no figure,but they still have a rather pleasing grain and the color with
nitric is gorgeous! So much so I'm thinking of picking up his .40 southern he's done.

[Slow2Load]

I cut a sugar maple last year. I have a lot of figured wood but most of it is too short for rifle stocks. Maybe half stocks or pistols. I've got access to other species though and was wondering what was do-able.

[Hefner]

Twenty years ago, I bought Hawaiian Koa wood to build a halfstock trade rifle.  The wood is used to make furniture in the Islands.  It is a very showy wood (maybe too much) and appears to look similar to black walnut in grain, density and workability.  I never got a chance to actually work with it. Koa is definitely not a traditional stock wood!  Has anyone used koa for any projects?

[Kermit]

Koa is used in The Islands for ukuleles, and there is no finer wood for a uke. It sometimes gets used for other instruments. I've used a lot of it in furniture, mostly as an "accent" wood or veneered panels on Greene & Greene style furniture. I rarely use it as solid wood. Too dear. Decent stuff is very hard to come by, and it is now illegal to cut a live standing koa tree, so what is cut now is either downed salvage wood or standing dead trees from what I'm told. The price keeps climbing higher while the quality plummets. I sometimes run across a stick or two in someone's shop that has been lurking for a long time. Otherwise I'm discouraging clients from using it. There are other woods in the acacia family that are reasonable substitutes, but not quite the same. If you've got any koa, don't let it go cheap!

Works about like black walnut. More open grained. I'd say it's unsuitable for a stock, unless you are trying to make a bench copy of a gun produced in Hawaii around 1750. And if you've got one of those, show us photos, please!

[Keb]

I collect & have made Windsor chairs. Since this thread is about wood, I thought I'd mention the wood used in antique American Windsor chairs. The main woods for traditional American made Windsors are pine or tulip poplar for the seat, oak or hickory for the bent wood pieces and maple for the turnings. I only mention this because these chairs last. My oldest is a branded bow-back side chair from 1790-96. I use this chair daily, too. I have a braced bow-back that may be older (1760-90) but I haven't been able to identify the maker yet. It's branded with a "I:C". A lot of makers have those initials but I've not found any of them that used that particular brand.

[Slow2Load]

Koa is also used in acoustic guitars. It is used on the back and sides. Bookmatched by resawing a piece so you have matching grain patterns then joining a common edge and glueing back together. Very pretty.

[bgf]

Don't forget birch.  If I recall correctly, there is some documentation for it (Moravian records?), although I don't think there is a birch stocked rifle in RCA. 

[Slow2Load]

As soon as the weather breaks, I'll have to get the saw out for something to feed the wood kiln. Thanks for all the suggestions. It makes the hunting easier.

[Brian Jordan]

Just a crazy thought, but what about Osage Orange? I guess if you could find / make a blank large enough it would make a cool looking southern poor boy rifle.

[Stophel]

there is one birch stocked gun in RCA, but I personally believe it's Scandinavian.  Keb, I would have presumed that elm would have been the preferred seat material.

[Jerry V Lape]

In the 1950s  there were a number of modern guns made with myrtle from Oregon.  Myrtle has some beautiful natural colors in select pieces but I don't know much about whether it is suitable for decorative carving.  Oregon state parks back then had quite a number of masonry picnic tables with three inch thick tops all varnished myrtle.  Wish I had a piece from one of those tops to experiment with as they had some fantastic color and movement in them.  I think the myrtle was over harvested and is now in short supply.  Maybe a member from Oregon can better inform us. 

[Keb]

...  Keb, I would have presumed that elm would have been the preferred seat material.

Elm along with beech was primarily used in making Windsor chairs in Europe. The "preferred" seat material on this continent was pine or poplar when it was still green. We all know nothing is absolute so I'm sure there were some American made Windsors with elm seats.
Yer pal, Keb

[kutter]

In the 1950s  there were a number of modern guns made with myrtle from Oregon.  Myrtle has some beautiful natural colors in select pieces but I don't know much about whether it is suitable for decorative carving.  Oregon state parks back then had quite a number of masonry picnic tables with three inch thick tops all varnished myrtle.  Wish I had a piece from one of those tops to experiment with as they had some fantastic color and movement in them.  I think the myrtle was over harvested and is now in short supply.  Maybe a member from Oregon can better inform us. 

I've never carved any,,but some years ago I checkered a few bolt action rifle stocks made from myrtle.
It didn't seem to cause any problems that I remember. It cut cleanly and was close pored enough to take 26 or 28 LPI IIRC.
I remember I didn't care for the extremely light colored streaks in the wood as it made my checkering look bad!,,but other than that I recall it as pretty tough stuff.
Very pretty color swirls & patterns in it. Very (19)60's & 70's for a bolt action.