Author Topic: Bradford pear  (Read 1288 times)

Offline Dan Herda

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Bradford pear
« on: November 13, 2019, 05:45:01 PM »
Are there any known flintlock pistols that used bradford pear as the stockwood ( or rifles)?
Tia,Dan

Offline Mike Brooks

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Re: Bradford pear
« Reply #1 on: November 13, 2019, 05:54:53 PM »
Are there any known flintlock pistols that used bradford pear as the stockwood ( or rifles)?
Tia,Dan
You'll see some Euro guns stocked in fruit woods.
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Offline Stoner creek

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Re: Bradford pear
« Reply #2 on: November 13, 2019, 06:00:33 PM »
No original guns unless they are Japanese or Chinese.  This cultivar was introduced into this country in the 1960s. It’s native to the Far East. I wish that whoever brought that plant here would have left it over there. What a terrible and invasive species.
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Offline Jim Kibler

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Re: Bradford pear
« Reply #3 on: November 13, 2019, 06:04:53 PM »
I've used a couple of trees I believe were bradford pear.  Makes a super nice stock.  Hard, dense, fine grained, has a nice color and often has some figure.  In fact, I still have a handful of blanks that are pear, probably bradford.

Jim

Offline Scota4570

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Re: Bradford pear
« Reply #4 on: November 13, 2019, 06:57:37 PM »
Properties and discussion by wood workers .

http://www.wood-database.com/pear/


Offline T*O*F

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Re: Bradford pear
« Reply #5 on: November 13, 2019, 08:05:18 PM »
Forget it.  First off, Bradford pear is NOT a fruitwood.  I had the same idea when a storm took one of mine down.  While trying to slab it off, it rendered my bandsaw blade unusable.  It coated it with some kind of sticky substance that I was unable to remove, trying all kinds of different solvents.  The blade would no longer cut and I scrapped it.
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Offline G_T

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Re: Bradford pear
« Reply #6 on: November 14, 2019, 01:29:05 AM »
I've got a nice piece of Pear I got from Jim that will eventually be used in a mountain rifle, when I get around to it. Dense, hard, etc. Curl looks like the not-so-tight curl you'll get sometimes from Maple.

I've worked with lots of woods. Some are just a mess when green. Then they can be fine once they get a bit of age. Sometimes a tree grows in a silica rich location and picks it up. That'll destroy a blade! I had a 2" thick piece of a tropical hardwood (Zircote) that rounded the teeth on a new bandsaw blade to where it wouldn't cut, in 4" of cut. That's inches, not feet! Sometimes you just get unlucky. I might as well have been sawing a rock.

I prefer to keep wood around for a number of years before I make something from it. I think I've got Osage and Yew from 20+ years in my pile, for traditional bows. And lots of other species. I like wood to have some age before I work it. Let it get a bit more stable... It's a habit from making traditional bows.

Gerald