Would you make a stock out of this ??

[Tom]

Hi
I have this nice block of wood but it has cracks on both sides pictures attached.
Is this normal ?
Can they be filled or hidden ?
Or option three toss it in the trash and get a new one ?

Thank You, Tom

[Tom]

Another side

[B. Dudley]

I would be more concerned about what the rest of the blank looks like. All that crotch figure is ok in the butt. But the head and wrist should be straight grained.

As for the checks in the wood. The one side has a lot of fine checks and the obvious larger ones. Cracks like that are not all that uncommon in blanks with that type of figure. They can be filled. The thing to check is how deep those bigger ones are. They may work out to be smaller when shaping. Or they can get bigger.

[Tom]

Thanks Brian
The checks were actually bigger, I planned it down to try to get rid of them. But I'm about as far as I want to get with the planer and like you say I don't know how deep they are. I am kind of worried about shaping it down and relieving stress in the wood and causing it to check worse.
The grain in the wrist would be real nice straight with no checks.
Not sure what to do. Don't want to waist a bunch of time and have the butt crack up in six months.

Thanks for the help, Tom

[Robert Delk]

I'd go ahead and shape it up and see what develops. As checks go these can be filled to be almost invisible. I bought a few dozen unfinished stocks from the estate of a well known stocker and several were rejects where the flaws had gotten larger as he took off more wood. Another reason why GOOD wood is so expensive.Lots of promising wood turns out to have flaws that make it unusable for gun stocks. You should see the piles of duck call blanks I have accumulated from flawed larger pieces.

[B. Dudley]

Super glue works great for filling the fine checks. Sanding over it while wet will fill and color the cracks. And the glue will prevent them from opening up more down the road. I would recommend acriglass for the bigger ones.

Like I said before, the biggest concern is good grain flow in the head and wrist of you plan on using this blank.

[Kensal Rise]

Stop turning good stock wood into chips. Just shape out the stock and see what happens. Any flaws can be fixed as already stated. Although I personally detest Superglue for the purpose.

Frankly, if you knew how many high end gunstocks had plugs and fills, your faith would be ruined.

[wayne goerres]

The English were famous for patching places in new stocks. They threw almost nothing away.

[Tom]

Ok thanks guys
This is a first for me so I assumed the blank would be perfect. I will shape it up and deal with whatever shows through.

Tom