[Southpaw]

What I have noticed is when it looks like forearm and stock come from two pieces of different wood. A lot of times the for-end and stock came from same piece of wood at the factory when manufactured and will have the same finish, look, grain, feel etc. Also the patina and character of wood on one may not match on the two pieces. Checkering is a giveaway as well.

Like Brian said, if done right then its hard to tell since a high quality craftsman will make both pieces look the same.

I was looking at a nice Vulcan Parker 12 ga on 1 1/2 frame that was made in 1905. Gun looked pretty good and locked up tight and gunsmith that owned shop said the barrels were in good shape. Started looking at the stock. The grain of wood, patina, looked a little different. The wood on stock was straighter grained and did not look as worn as the forarm. Started looking at wood to metal finish and it looked good, but at the end of the day it was a restock.

BTw this gun shop also had a bunch of old guns. He had also just bought out a gunshop's old inventory of wood blanks from a Perazzi gun dealer that went out of business. He had a whole bunch of some incredible wood that had grain that looked almost unreal with the dark and swirling grain in the walnut. I would hope that the wood was unfinished enough to be used for something else.

BTw also agree with Dean and Brian. It is not easy and by no means am I an expert, but I am experienced with old wood since just about every piece of furniture in our home is antique family piece. It is hard to explain and just like playing poker there are tells that expert players will notice and its hard to explain. I think it also applies to picking horses on race day. Remember my granddad going to the track. He was not a big gambler but he knew horses. He would slide off and go to paddock and look at the horses and then place his small token bets and was most of the time was always in the money. He liked betting on the long shots to show or place and very rarely ever bet the favorites. He did score once bet a long shot to win. He would never tell us which horses he was betting on. Asked him one time to explain what he was looking for and he would just say the complete package and nothing about what went into the package. Understanding that, took a lifetime of working with horses and watching them move.