doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DIY Gunsmithing @ doublegunshop.com Rosewood Stock?

Anyone ever stock a rifle in Rosewood? Would love to see some pictures! The two I've found two on the net and they look pretty cool.
https://doantrevor.com/2013/08/22/3000-mauser-with-rosewood-stock-complete/
https://www.morphyauctions.com/jamesdjul...od-stock-47615/

Here's another Henry.
https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/67/1034/new-haven-arms-co-henry-rifle

Rosewood for gun stocks. I do think this is going down the road of what do we give the man who has everything, eye candy may be?
Rosewood does not have a lot going for it in reality for gun stocks, it is far heavier when you compare it with walnut it does not stand up to shock very well, easy stock cast changing could be between no chance and disaster. Maybe it could be the end for the light traditional English splinter fore end straight hand stock carry me all day game gun if it became popular. More importantly it is slow growing most varieties are on the CITES in danger or protected list. IMHO not for us folks who live in the real world and shoot working guns, it is for those who have more money than synaptic gap function.
Finally the worlds gunmakers for better or worse have had the choice of timbers from the worlds vast array of potential gun stock timber's though Walnut is still the first go to choice, that must mean something mustn't it?

I thought Banana boxes were Perazzi's first choice?

What about Bird's Eye Maple and Birch for very cheap mass produced guns such as air rifles?

Walnut has to be favourite.

Next time you see a discarded rosewood banana box I'd like to know about it.

SRH

Stan ,
Do I detect a Perazzi collector ?
No accounting for taste , even when poor.

So I guess my question should have been, �If you happened upon a blank of rosewood big enough to make into a rifle stock, what do you do with it?�

In that case I would turn all of it into Victorian pattern guncase Turnscrews with a few Flintlock versions thrown in for good measure. Though I would have to be dishonest enough to say they where all genuine. The consequences would be that it would make a number of people happy rather than just one. Though my bank manager may get that glint of human kindness in that glass eye of his when I deposit the profits of my enterprise.

I have a 338-06 AI that was stocked with one of the old Herter's rosewood stocks, many years ago. The stock is very dark and there is enough "oil" in the wood that it is it's own finish( just polish it). The weight is appreciated on the 338, but I wouldn't want it on a lighter caliber rifle. The question about rosewood being "controlled"
is well taken;just ask "Gibson Guitar".
Mike

There are a bunch of different woods that're called Rosewood. If someone could confirm that it's Brazilian Rosewood, and it's legal, maybe it would be worth multiple quality walnut blanks.

I'd cut it up into a bunch of forend caps, grip caps and butt plates...Geo

I have an 80% blank (rosewood) for a SR Mauser. I have not decided what to do with it. Dense and HEAVY. Finish is another issue.

Nope .............just a competition shooter who owns one Perazzi. But, that's not the point. The point is ....... what did the original poster's question have, even remotely, to do with what kind of wood is on a plain Jane Perazzi?

Answer, clearly, nothing.

Do I detect a Perazzi basher?

SRH

No, not a Perazzi basher at all just pulling your leg Stan.
Interestingly enough I wonder why of all the trees that grow Walnut is a favourite for gunstocks , surely there must be other choices in this wide world?

Happen to have any pictures of it? I think mine will go on the wood pile until I can find a worthy project for it.

Ive heard reference to solid rosewood stocks in gunsmithing kinks and also in monty kennedys book on checkering - just to say it has been done!

Husqvarna stocked guns in at least three different woods ............birch, beech and walnut.

I have a 1947 model Husqvarna Mauser sporting rifle (.220 Swift) that is stocked in what they called Arctic Birch, but it is really Silver Birch I believe. I've had it for many years and it seems to be a stable wood, and it doesn't seem to be much different than black walnut in density, though usually somewhat lighter in color.

SRH

Stan, I also have 2 Husqvarna Mausers stocked in birch or whatever, seems to be stable and they shoot well. They are stained to try to emulate walnut, I wonder why? If you were buying your Husqvarna today and had a choice of birch or walnut for the stock which would you take?

I'd stick with the birch, James. I love pretty walnut, but the birch is just something a little different, and I think it's kinda neat that it grew in Scandinavia before being transformed into a gunstock, and ending up down he'ah. If they stained mine, they didn't use much. It looks nothing like walnut but is pleasing to the eye to me. Not blonde, but not dark either.

I've got an old Lyman 25X LWBR scope on mine. Fun to take potshots at crows with it so far away that they think they're safe. I had to glass bed the action and first few inches of barrel, float the rest of the barrel and put in a Timney trigger to get it to shoot to suit me. It does pretty fair for a tiny barrel like that. Minute of crow, or better. 52 grainers are what it likes best.

SRH

If it was Brazilian, and I had the necessary documentation, I would send it off to Martin guitar in Nazareth, Pennsylvania and have them build me a D28.

Gunmakers and stockers have had hundreds of years to try using many different woods. The tried and true near universal choice is Juglans Regia, or English walnut, whenever it is available. No other wood has so many of the desirable attributes of proper strength, weight, ease of machining, carving, and checkering, and overall beauty.

In many cases, the choice of wood has been governed by what is readily available. Early American gun makers used a lot of Red maple, sugar maple or wild cherry. Black Walnut is a very good wood that can have spectacular grain and figure, but stock makers will still prefer the English (or French, Turkish, Circassian, Italian, or whatever other names the same species goes by) because it is generally easier to carve or machine, and takes checkering better. Most American gun makers used Black Walnut simply because it was and still is cheaper and more readily available here. Many other species have been used for gun stocks including mesquite, beech, birch, myrtle, yama, bubinga, ash, mahogany, and others.

I have one field grade Syracuse Lefever that has a very unusual butt stock and forend. It looks 100% Lefever in almost every respect except for the fact that it clearly is not stocked in English walnut. It looks to me like very close grained quartersawn white oak, which is commonly used for flooring and whiskey and wine barrels. It has no serial number under the trigger guard as original factory stocks do. I've thought about replacing it, but I have wondered if it might be a "Lunch Box Special" that was "appropriated" by a Lefever employee in pieces, and stocked at home with whatever wood happened to be available. Whoever did the work was no stranger to gunstock making, but the choice of wood is a mystery.

fruit woods were used by stock makers in the past a bit more - i have a piece of pear wood which is probably just big enough to get a stock out of - pear wood takes a fine carving and is very nice to work with hand tools - i have some bits and bobs sat about and may cobble together something from it just as an unusual project if time allows

Being from the South I tend to really appreciate some of the species that grow here more predominantly than other regions of the country, like longleaf pine. It is, of course, not suitable for gunstocks, but I have wondered whether pecan would be a suitable gunstock wood. It is very hard, and dense, and is used to make furniture often. We have a bedroom set made of pecan, and it has great color and character. Pecan is a nut tree, like walnut, and is used for spoon and bowl sets by woodworkers often, and it makes beautiful kitchen cabinets.

Anyone ever heard of it being used to stock a gun?

SRH

Pecan is terrible firewood. As it burns it pops sparks all over the room...Geo

To burn pecan, it should be split and stacked, then aged for at least a year. Other wise, it will act as you say. If aged, it doesn't do that nearly as badly. My saw mill buddies won't saw pecan for lumber, and to my protest that furniture and cabinets are made from it; they claim the local (Ala.)wood is no good, that the nice wood comes from other areas. I tried to have them saw some when they sawed cedar, walnut( not gunstock size) and black locust for me. Pecan is burned here quite a bit for BBQ and smoking meat, however.
Mike

...Gunstock woods....
There is nothing new under the sun.
There is a book by Virgil M. Davis
"Gunstock woods and other fine timbers", published
by SouthLandPress,Inc. 1987, in limited edition,
no ISBN
I bought it a one of the west-coast-trade-shows in
the 1990's.
It has ALL the questions and ALL the answers re gunstock-wood.
..
Please note that ALL the rosewoods (lat. Dalbergia)
are on Cites, plus Red-Sandal-wood ( lat.
Pterocarpus-Santalinus),Bubinga, Pernambuc,..
Not because of you and me but because of the
new wealthy Chinese middle class crazy for
these precious wood beauties.
Madagascar has the highest bio-/rosewoods-diversity
in the world,
44 indigenous trunk-building trees, not found anywhere else .
You have no chance to get one gram of these purplish/red beauties, its all POWERS RESERVED PRC.
...
Anyhow, you have the best gunstock-wood-choice before your house-door, go to Calico in Santa Rosa/California. There is nothing comparable
to their yellow/black-marbled Californian walnut or their Claro.
Cheers
Felix Neuberger

Pecan wood from that part of the country probably grows on sandy soil and eats up saw blades.
Chuck

Bodock?

Rosewood blank along with a pretty piece of Claro I just picked up.