expensive wood

[Fly Navy]

^ that is some beautiful wood and the figure on them is to die for!

[alacran]

I like for my wood to be commensurate with my skill level.

[Leatherbark]

Other than shooting center, I do not like to stand out, so I guess it is my humble background but for some unknown reason I was always attracted to the six-cylinder Chevrolet, Ford, or Rambler with a 3 speed on the column and plain wood on guns.

Bob

[Bill Raby]

   If you are building a gun for yourself the price of the wood does not matter. You get something that can be enjoyed for several generations. A little while ago I spent $25,000 on a car. In 10 years its value is likely to be so low that I just give it away instead of trading it in. But that does not matter either because money spent to build a gun is entertainment money. When I buy gun parts I get to spend a year of free time out in the workshop and I will love every minute of it. Other people will spend a lot more money going on a cruise that lasts a week. When it is over all they have is a t-shirt. Spending a $1000, or $4000 on a blank is like going on a cruise and getting cabin that has a window. People that buy custom made guns often spend $5000 or a lot more and don't get to spend any time in the workshop. A lot of those guys riding around on bicycles wearing tights spend over $10,000 on the bicycle. They will spend hundreds of dollars on those silly hats that they wear. I don't see how spending some money on a really nice blank is such a big deal.

[Steeltrap]

"Rambler"....now there's a name you don't often hear about any more. Waayyyy back in a business class I took, the "Case" of why Rambler went out of business was presented to the class for analysis. The short story was that Rambler's first time car buyers average age was 65. That, in a time era where the average male lived to be 67-68. Thus.....no repeat business for Rambler.

As to the $1-K piece of wood....it won't make the firearm shoot any better. I may leave some with the impression that it's worth more than the same rifle stocked with X-tra fancy wood. But as the price drives up, the market narrows.

[bob in the woods]

From my stand point, Turkish walnut blanks have nothing whatsoever to do with this.
As a guitar maker I could spend 1000's on wood [ look up " the tree" ]
Doesn't turn my crank. I have lots of beautiful wood from stock that I find at various importers and then re saw myself. I know that there is and always will be a market for over the top wood and gold inlay and ...extra fancy everything, but looking at RCA 1 and 2, it just doesn't fit with my notion of a long rifle .  The question was whether or not a " $1000" blank will increase the value of a kit, and I'm thinking probably not that much. 

[Bob Roller]

Other than shooting center, I do not like to stand out, so I guess it is my humble background but for some unknown reason I was always attracted to the six-cylinder Chevrolet, Ford, or Rambler with a 3 speed on the column and plain wood on guns.

Bob

My very first car was a 1935 Packard convertible with an inline eight and weak mechanical brakes.The next was a one owner 1946 Plymouth 6 cylinder and good brakes.Common walnut was OK for the few guns I made with the exception of the piece from Russia that was very hard but very pretty,dark finish with silver BP and TG I think from a wrecked original.Now I think Balsa would be my limit. .
Bob Roller

[Daryl]

These are some $2500+ Turkish walnut blanks sized for modern shotgun stocks. Likely over double the price if you want something like this for a longrifle size stock blank. Maple is quite a lot cheaper. $1000 to $2000 for a maple blank is going to be an extremely nice piece of birdseye maple. It will not look anything like a $400 blank.

Those are way over the top. Bill.  Though, it is good to see them just for an idea of what's out there.

[Bob Roller]

These are some $2500+ Turkish walnut blanks sized for modern shotgun stocks. Likely over double the price if you want something like this for a longrifle size stock blank. Maple is quite a lot cheaper. $1000 to $2000 for a maple blank is going to be an extremely nice piece of birdseye maple. It will not look anything like a $400 blank.
[/quote

At one time I thought I had seen fancy wood but these are all over the topX10.Are they walnut or???. With my limited woodworking skills I would be afraid of even trying to make a rifle with any of them.When I used that piece of walnut thought to be Russian I went to my old High School shop teacher,Angelo Orsillo* and he let me use the big Tannewitz bandsaw to cut the profile.I had and still have no good way to profile a simple half stock rifle or even a pistol.My 2 bandsaws are low FPM** for metal (steel).I made a few ML rifles when I was in HS and nobody paid much attention to me or them and I kept a powerful repeating rifle in my wall locker and so did several others so they could have them handy to take deer hunting in a nearby county.The old HS building is now a magnificent relic of past building practices and Mr.Orsillo is long deceased and the shop area and the rest of the rooms are now high end apartments for people my age and older.
I'll be 87 on March 27.
*Mr.Orsillo was a major influence on me to develop skills in as many areas as possible and I was already 2 years into what turned out to be a lifetime friendship with Bill Large. and had attended Huntington East Trades School and took Wendell Cornette's Industrial math class where I learned to use a real Vernier caliper as well as common micrometers and depth micrometers.The automobile class was little benefit and when the instructor asked if anyone had worked on a car engine I told him I was rebuilding the 32 valve,twin cam engine head for a Duesenberg for a man in Cincinnati. who paid me the grand sum of $100.He did not believe me until he stopped by that same evening and saw the car that head went to and another running car. He said I was ahead of the curve at the ripe old age of 17.Ron Hall was his name.
Bob Roller
** FPM means "Feet per minute" band saw blade speeds.
*Angelo Orsillo was in the USAF in WW2 and on several occasions had been on the wrong end of a Bf109 with a fast fire cannon and had relatives in the Italian Army. He was part of a bomber crew on a B17.

Those are way over the top. Bill.  Though, it is good to see them just for an idea of what's out there.

[Daryl]

I've seen some pretty fancy new and old DR's on the Nitroexpress forum, but never anything like those stocks.

[Ron Scott]

I  get stock blanks (Walnut) from my supplier in Armenia with similar birds eye figure, but the figure needs to terminate about where the butt meets the wrist or there is no structural strength.

Cost of nice wood is not all about flash. Wood with good texture and grain layout will cost more that soft wood and bad wrist grain.

[Marcruger]

I would also consider carving.  To my eye, tight curled maple will visually “fight” with fine carving.  For an extensively carved gun, I would lean towards less fancy maple.  Jim Kibler did two Colonials that were shown at CLA.  His carving was so nice you did not notice the plain grain maple.

My comment on those Turkish walnut stocks? I wonder if they will crack and split on recoil? Many English big bore guns are wisely stocked in straight grain for strength.  My dad has a low cost shotgun that came with an AMAZING burled walnut stock. One day hanging on the wall rack it went “snap!” and the stock blew apart.  In a crazy, unfixable way.  Internal stressed we guess.

God bless, Marc