Questions on a couple types of wood.

[trentOH]

Around my area, it seems most people can only think of trees as firewood. Just today I saw ads for firewood, which until a couple of days ago were standing trees, until our ice storm this week.

Question one: One ad was for black walnut, already cut in short lengths. What diameter of a walnut tree is generally needed to make a rifle stock, since that tree has two distinctive woods within it, the heartwood and the sapwood?

Question two: Another tree already chopped up was a Gingko. How well does this wood work as a gunstock, and again, how large diameter does the tree need to be? I don't remember ever seeing a gunstock of Ginkgo.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[Mike Brooks]

The last walnut I had sawed into stocks was about 3.5' in diameter. I got 15 or 16 full stocks out of it. I find the wood in large mature trees to be much harder. The best walnut I have ever worked has come from IA/IL. Ginko? I have seen rather large ones that were planted in yards, but they don't grow ' naturally in my area. Never messed with any of it. Keep in mind, not every tree HAS to be turned into a gunstock. Firewood is good too.

[Davemuzz]

"Cut in short length" may be key here. The log\cutting has to be long enough to get a stock cutting out of it.

[PPatch]

Ginkgo biloba is classed as a softwood, about equal to fir in density. In that sense it would be fine to work but easy to dent. Probably not worth your time to mess with for a gun stock.

You might get some pistol stocks from short lengths of black walnut but you'll need longer for stocks, and you do not want that outer layer in your stock.

dave

[webradbury]

Fun fact!  Ghinko is the only species in its genus. It is basically a living fossil. My forestry instructor told us if you wanted to know what trees looked like during the age of dinosaurs, look at the Ghinko.

[Goo]

If the wood is reasonably dense and the grain is nice try it and don't worry about it.
If it doesn't work out you will have learned what not to do, sometimes that's more valuable...........

[Craig Wilcox]

webradbury, my biology professor said the same thing!  I think there were some Ginkos growing over near the Apalachicola River in panhandle Florida, but never saw one elsewhere.

I am kind of the same mindset about experimenting with different woods.  Probably just a plank or two would suffice for experimenting.

[rich pierce]

I like to make guns that emulate period pieces and find stocking guns to be a bit of work, so don’t consider experimental woods with one exception.  I noted an original for sale stocked in hickory and tried to stock a gun in hickory.  Very bad idea.  I bet the original was plain ash and mis-identified.

[JBJ]

I think this says what needs to be said.

https://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/pg_ginkg.pdf

"Commercial use: The Ginkgo wood is of little value
due to its scarcity. It is lightweight, brittle, yellow
and in China and Japan, is used for chess sets,
chopping blocks and firewood. The leaves are
harvested for uses as a blood thinner and to treat
circulatory illnesses. "

J.B.

[webradbury]

And the fruit from the female trees stinks like heck when it rots on the ground!