Wood

[gman]

A friend has just alerted me to a local mill that has a large amount of american
Black walnut that has been air drying for about eight years. The man says that there is a fair amount cut to generous gun stock width. I was thinking of buying some just to have available and was wondering if I could get some opinions on what to look for in a rough plank and get some advise to not pick blanks with a bad grain or flaw. Word is the price is probably very fair.
Thanks

[Patrick Hanna]

If it has been stored with the bark on the edges of the planks, it probably has some worm/borer holes. Look for obvious defects like end checking more than a couple inches long, small knots (which can be hard to see in rough sawn lumber), etc. Look for mold and rot (take a pocket knife and a block plane with you). Then look for any figured pieces which appeal to you. On highly figured pieces, make sure there is some clear grain where you can lay out the stock wrist. Given the choice, go for tightly spaced grain lines, but this isn't crucial. I'd look for vertical grain, but that's my preference. By that, I mean planks that are quarter sawn. If the wood has been stored stickered and weighted, with the bark off, and under cover of some sort, and with the ends painted or waxed, it's probably in decent shape. Bring your wood home and sticker it for storage. By that, I mean 3/4" strips of wood laid between each plank, about 8 or 12" apart. Weigh the top of the stack down with concrete blocks or similar. This is because the wood will re-acclimate to the environment in your storage area, and some of it will want to cup or twist. If possible, store it where the humidity is somewhat constant, like an indoor shop rather than a detached garage. If that's not possible, bring planks in a couple weeks before you want to work with them. About 30 years ago, I bought an entire pickup bed full of gunstock blanks from a local walnut mill. They were rejected for checks and knots in the wrong places. The guy was selling them for firewood! I used them for boxes, tool handles, small table tops, and showy, self-made veneers. I traded some of them for other wood. I just cut the last one into 1/8th inch head plates for guitars and mandolins late last winter. If you're a good scrounger and know what you're looking for, "found" wood is the bomb!

[Big D]

Today I just cut a large burl (12" x 18") from a choke cherry tree. I've slabbed it to about 1" thick, and have wrapped the slabs in saran wrap prior to stickering them. Has anyone else ever done this to slow the drying and minimize cracking/checking?

[Patrick Hanna]

John, I have never dealt with a burl cut into slabs, so I can't advise with any authority. I hope someone can. It seems to me you'd want the internal moisture to escape slowly. But you don't want to keep it trapped inside the plastic wrap. That's a sure path towards mold and other nasty stuff happening. I'd be more inclined to sticker UNwrapped slabs of your burl, and then maybe cover your stack with a large piece of plastic drop cloth, which I would remove for a couple of hours every day. Or maybe for a day every few days. The stickering is very important, because it lets air circulate all around the slabs. Then, pretty soon, I'd leave the stack uncovered but stickered in a sheltered environment--even if this was in a garage with wild temperature swings. If you can go right to a sheltered environment, I'd unwrap the slices and not even cover them at all. But I'd keep the stack stickered and weighed down. That's just what I would do. Other wood scroungers might have better methods. You've got a real potential treasure in that burl! I genuinely wish you the best with it.

I should also say that it's very important to look at your wood stash at least once a month for the first year, and re-stack it. When you do this, move your stickers slightly to one side or the other. The reason: If they are left in one place for a year, they can also trap moisture, and mold can begin to grow between the stickers and your prized wood burl. ...or your prized walnut gunstock blanks. You see what I mean. You don't want to unstack your stash five years from now and find cross-stripes of mold growing across your prized wood every ten inches. Monitor it faithfully and restack it once a month or so. The rule of thumb used to be one year of air drying for each inch of slab thickness. I frankly don't know how true this old axiom is. Drying environments are each so unique, I think we have to adjust our wood stashes according to our storage areas.

You guys would not believe how much 30-year-old wood I have stacked up in the rafters of my garage, where it is subject to brutal temperature swings. It was thoroughly air dried before I stashed it there. I would NEVER have stashed green wood up there. I always bring it into the shop for a few weeks before using it. For that reason, I never have any problems with it. I should also state that I have re-inforced the roof trusses in my storage areas!

[gman]

here are some pictures of a 4 foot rough cut off the end of a 14 foo plank. dimensions are 2 1/2" X 7" x 4'. I want to verify what I have as I am no woodworker. My Father builds shutzen rifles etc and I may send some to him.
there is much more of this that may be available. I have yet to see the warehouse but am reliably told it is approx. seven years since cut and is sticker ed and in a dry place. I am going to go there and pick through it. I would aprreciate opinions.
thanks

[B. Dudley]

Looks like you have some very nice figure in that one piece. That would be excellent in the buttons of a stock.

Anything that is highly figured, look for at least an area with some straight grain for the head and wrist area. Behind that, it doesn't matter. Quarter sawn is preferred over board sawn as it is stronger and less prone to warping as it dries.

The larger the tree was to start with, the better off the blank will be. Looking at the grain on the ends will tell more.

[tom tutwiler]

Good layout trumps everything else. If it doesn't flow good through the wrist area it won't work. I prefer quartersawn because the figure is more consistent from side to side.

Here are some pictures of a circassian blank I sold on this forum not long ago. Notice the really nice grain flow on the top (3rd picture) and the flow on the bottom (4th picture) specifically in the wrist area. Also notice on the first two pictures (left and right sides) of the blank the grain flows directly into receiver dead on. From a structural standpoint this is about as good as it gets:









PS. I bought a few nice looking blanks are few years ago that looked great from the sides (both sides). However it cut across the wrist at about a 30 degree angle. I ended up cutting them into forearm blanks.

[gman]

Thanks to both of you for your replys. I am learning a lot here. I used to send a lot of birds eye maple from vermont to my dad out west for stocks and still have a habit of keeping my eye out for nice wood. This cache caught my attention. I plan to go there in the coming weeks.
Thanks again.

[ED J, MORGAN]

Depending on frame size, I think 2 1/2" thick is too thin for a Parker style double gun blank.

[B. Dudley]

2.5" thick is just fine for most any shotgun stock. As thin as 2" thick will usually work fine.