Sawing out gun stocks

[Robby]

Monday, i am having a local saw mill cut up a sugar maple for gun stocks. It has curl from one end to the other, 10' long, about 30" at the bole, and 18-20" at the other end, these diameter dimensions I an doing from memory, but should be close. Of course I would like to get as much out of it as possible, so I'm asking for suggestions. The sawyer is well aware of what I am doing and has over 30 years experience, with the latest equipment. I'm pretty excited about this, my wife can't figure out why, HAH!!
How close to the "can't", or pith can you cut and not have wood that will warp badly?
Any suggestions on the layout of the cuts would be appreciated, Thank you.
Robby

[northmn]

First if you look at the annular rings of trees you will find a center, maybe 4-5 inches maybe not.  But that has to be cut out.  Your sawyer should know.  We had quite a discussion concerning quarter sawed vs plain sawed.  Depending on the tree you might get 3-5 gunstocks out of it.  The rest is for furniture wood.  Draw a 30" circle on a piece of paper and start laying out 2-3" wide boards to get an idea.  Quarter sawed would be a couple of pieces right off of center with the center piece cut out.  I have seen some trees where this piece will fall out when the log is split, others where it is not so defined and very small.  The others would be plain sawed off of the side of the center.  If the sawyer has 30 years experience he should know the ropes.

DP

[Long John]

You will get differing opinions on this so choose which ever makes the most sense to you.

The sawyers around here will put that log on the cradle and run a cut from eye to eye. (Maple does not have a "pith" per se but the logs do have eyes.)  He will then lay each half face down and cut from eye to eye again, giving you four quarters.  The first slab of each face of those quarters are "quarter sawn" planks.  From the dimensions you mentioned you should get 8 quarter sawn planks.  Note that the annular rings will not be perfectly perpendicular to the slab face but close enough.

Make sure that you coat the ends real well with paint and I like to coat the faces with commercial linseed oil.  This slows down the drying process but gives you a nicer plank with less internal stress and fewer checks.  I figure 1 year per inch of plank thickness for air-drying in a building plus 1 year for good measure.

Best Regards,

JMC

[Robby]

Thanks, I'm headed for the mill right now. I'll see if that is doable.
Robby

[northmn]

When I lay out from a plank, I often find it best to have the toe to the outside of the tree and the barrel channel to the inside. A good plank will give you two stocks however so that one will be the opposite.  Each tree and plank are an individual.  As Long john statd you need to seal the ends, and should do so for about four to five inches up the plank and not just the end grain.  Should be done ASAP.  You can speed up the drying process in several ways, but it will take about a month for the initial cure which seems to be best for normal air dry.  Good luck.

DP

[Acer Saccharum]

Quarter sawing can waste a lot of wood. You will get some quarter sawn blanks no matter how you saw it, and some planks will be in between, and some plank sawn. Not a big deal, in my opinion.

Air drying:
Do dry your wood slowly, and out of the sun and wind, tarped with a little venting, for several months. cut into stock blanks as soon as you can. paint all endgrain with a sealer or some kind, be it latex paint or titebond glue, or commercial wood sealant. Sticker the blanks up under clamp or pressure. Be sure to use stickers that are dry, so you don't develop mould. I use pine stickers.
If you wait to let the planks dry first, the wood will develop a lot of internal stress as it dries, causing a lot of waste. Let the wood dry in the shade for a couple of years before putting it in the attic or rafters of a garage.

don't know nuthin about kiln drying.

[northmn]

For a normal builder that may make one or two rifles a year using a faster drying process is OK for the first abuild or so.  It is a matter of personal preference and time.  It seems best to let them air dry for about a month, in which a lot of moisture leaves.  As stated in a shed or in the shade.  If it were not for kiln drying of some form there would not be any commercial stock wood available.  A good accelerated drying system requires heat and air flow.  Most commonly a thermosyphoning system which is nothing more than a hole on one end on the bottom to let in cold air and a hole in another on top to let hot air out.  Some like a solar system which permits a period of "stabiliztion" at night.  These can be made with a little ingenuity very inexpensively.  Another method is to use a "hotbox" with light bulbs like I have used.  This keeps the heat on for 24 hours.  Attics and rafters also somewhat qualify.  Air drying is somewhat limited as to the level of dryness, especially in some regions.  I did a gunstock using a hotbox last year and have seen no signs of any shrinkage, cracking or other drying problems after building the gun.  Dry time was March to June (which I admit I felt was rushed.  I have a piece of maple that might have made a halfstock that I  painted right away and air dried.  It still cracked.  Some work some do not.

DP

[Robby]

Well, I think I made out pretty good, The pictures show a lot of the saw kerf,but if you look beyond that, it has some nice tight curl. Ten feet long, and its there all the way. I haven't figured out how many stocks there are all together, probably eight to ten full stock, another six to eight half stock, many, many, pistol stocks. Thanks for sharing your advice.

[Long John]

You did real good!

Kiln drying is a process where the humidity in the air around the blank is brough up the the same moisture level as the interior of the log and then, at elevated temperature, the humidity is brought down at a rate where the log and the air stay at equilibrium.  Most of my clients are running kiln schedules that run 500 hours or more.  That's 500 hours from the time the kiln is loaded to the time that the hacks are removed.  This is for dimensioned hard wood at a nominal 20 % moisture - dry basis.

I have dried wood on a smaller scale with good results.  I made a box with heat lamps installed, put the stick in and filled it with steam.  With the heat lamps on I was getting about 150 degrees F and 100% relative humidity (which isn't absolute humidity - I have a table around here somewhere that converts - absolute humidity is what you need)  Each week I dropped the humidity a little bit by letting hot air out and cool air in.  In 8 weeks I had a reasonably dry plank with no cracks or checks.  Maybe I was lucky!

Acer is right about stickers - maple will sticker stain!  You can use pine firring or PVC pipe for stickers.

Good Luck!

JMC

[northmn]

I did not use the moisture additions, but could see their advantage.  There is a difference between green wood and wet wood.  For instance rain will help draw out the sap in a firewood pile when the sun shines on it afterwards.  I got my info from the "Traditional Bowyers Bible" with Paul Comstock as the auther talking about how he dries staves.  He even used a car and the heat one gets from a parked car.  Claimed the moisture would really fog up things.  It works for him.

DP