Curly red maple

[GANGGREEN]

I saw the discussion about Sassafras, Butternut and other woods as stock wood.   I recently saw a social media post about Butternut and asked if it was hard enough to be appropriate and I'm glad to see that it has been used to some degree.  It's really beautiful wood, I may have a small source and I wouldn't mind trying it. 

More to the point, I was recently at a small sawmill and inquired about curly maple. The owner has built a few rifles himself and as such, he keeps his eyes open.  He said that he hasn't found any decent curly hard maple, only soft, as if it was like finding a pile of sumac branches or something.  He claims that he gets lots of curly soft maple, sometimes very fancy stuff too, but he never keeps it because he's been led to believe that it's too soft for stock wood.

I told him what I believe to be true (and I'm far from an expert gunbuilder or wood guy), which is that hard maple and soft maple both have varying degrees of density and hardness and that soft maple can be very appropriate for gun stocks.  He seemed surprised to learn that and told me that he'll keep his eyes open for me.  Was my advice to him accurate or is his belief that Red/soft maple is rarely or never hard enough more correct?   

I suspect that it's still less common than he suggested, but I've got visions of him swimming in this premium soft maple that he's making pallets out of.   

[Stoner creek]

Red (soft) maple (Acer Rubrum) has been used since way back. Some is so soft that it is undesirable and others can be hard enough to do fine relief carving on. Just depends on the tree. The one thing your friend may have misunderstood could have been Silver Maple instead of red maple. I wouldn’t use Silver maple in a fireplace.

[GANGGREEN]

I suspect in his area that he's referring to Red maple and he just wasn't aware that it's been used for centuries for gun stocks.  I told him that he simply needs to test the wood and can do so as easily as by running his fingernail across it. He runs a sawmill and I'd think he could gauge the relative density and hardness of wood, but who knows. 

A follow up question that I have regarding any curly soft maple that this guy may find for me or my source of Butternut is about kiln drying.  I believe that I've read here (or elsewhere) that air drying is preferable for gun stocks, but is kiln drying also considered acceptable or is there a reason why air drying is so highly recommended for such things?

[David Price]

Some of the nicest stocks I have had were curly red maple, and very dense and hard.  You just have to test each piece because they range from very soft to very hard.  When you do find one with a lot of stripe and they are very hard,  you have the beginning of a very fine rifle.

David Price

[GANGGREEN]

Thanks.  Hopefully I'll get lucky and he'll find some suitable wood soon.   I have a small stash as it is and I'm not a prolific builder, so I'm not too concerned, just love nice wood and hate that some beautiful gun stock wood might end up used for lesser purposes.....

[Mike Brooks]

Butternut is incredibly soft, I'd never use it for a gunstock. I had a butternut blank here for about 30 years and decided it needed to be used. I could tell by the way it cut on the bandsaw it wasn't going to be worth a hoot so it went in the wood stove. As others Have pointed out, taking weight out of the barrel is the direction you want to go. My carolina guns go on the average 6lbs for a gun with a 48" barrel. I have built around 3 dozen of them. They may vary in weight + or - 2 OZ due to the weight of the wood , some really hard and some a little soft.

[GANGGREEN]

Thanks Mike, then I'll avoid it.  I know it's a beautiful carving wood and wouldn't mind trying to do some natural duck decoys with it, but I'm happy enough with curly maple and cherry gunstocks if that's the case.  Like you, I appreciate a slim, graceful southern gun and have several with several more planned.  Thanks.

[JLSawyer]

I just purchased four sticks of red maple from Allen Martin. They came from the same tree and have varying degrees of figure. I did the finger nail test on them and believe they will be fine. As to whether or not they will carve easily, that remains to be seen but Allen assured me they’ll do just fine and I take the man at his word.

I also tend 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”

[Jim Kibler]

Red maple probably comprises 95% of maple longrifle stocks today.  As long as it's selected for certain characteristics, including hardness (density), it makes a fine stock wood.  Sugar maple is still king in my view, but it's quite difficult to find curly sugar maple in any quantity.

Jim

[GANGGREEN]

Very interesting. I appreciate everyone's input and will keep my eyes open for decent soft maple gunstock wood.

[BeanStationgunmaker]

I got a couple of Red Maple stocks from Dunlap a while back.The one I'm working on is really curly and seems like it will carve good.So far I can't tell much difference from other stocks I've worked on.

[flehto]

The stocks on my last 3 LR builds were red maple and the blanks came from Dunlaps and were quite hard. They varied in grade but all carved nicely and although 2 of the 3  blanks had a lot of curl, that's not what I mainly buy for. When I first started building, bought the curly  sugar maple  blanks from Freddie  Harrison  and paid a lot  and after 3 guns  went to hard red maple for a lot less money......Fred

[Pukka Bundook]

I've used red maple a few times, Plenty hard and not much different to hard maple in my view.  (Speaking of the ones I've had )
More curl for your dollar, and lovely to work with.

This one I made for my son is red maple;

[rich pierce]

In my experience red maple stains differently with iron saturated aquafortis (ferric nitrate) giving a browner tone. YMMV.

[Pukka Bundook]

Rich,

I agree; The stock went dark with aquafortis in the above picture.

[GANGGREEN]

Again, I greatly appreciate everyone's comments. I'm headed to a mill this morning to actually look at a piece of American chestnut, but I'll certainly inquire about curly maple.