doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Death Wood

Death Wood is the type of blank a person would kill for. This one is maple, but it is nice. It has been planed, no sanding, with a shot of clear lacquer to show the grain. I will be carving it in a few days. I know most folks hate maple, but the figure sure looks good! The more it is sanded (meaning finer grit) the better it looks. This wood shows more figure and takes on a darker color when given a nice oil finish, and the grain still is a killer! Yep, the tiger goes all the way through.

When Ray Price still had Cochise custom Guns in Sierra Vista, AZ, prior to moving his operation to Washington state, he often had a border patrolman named Cooper work part time for him. He was an artisan in his own right and built some beautiful flintlocks and shortened Mod 92 Winchesters, ala "Wanted Dead or Alive" TV show (it was the '70s). He stocked them in beautiful tiger tail similar to your blank and used a stain which consisted of tar diluted in mineral spirits, followed with a grain filled finish of LINSPEED oil. They were fabulous and rivaled any walnut stock I've ever seen for depth of beauty.

Whoa! Neat information. I will give it a try on some cutoffs from the blank. This wood has a real red tint as you can see, comes from the soil mineral content.

Josh Randle was my favorite back in the TV "Wanted Dead or Alive" days. Hated it when Steve McQueen passed.

I have a lot of this wood, air cured 15 years, my private stash.

I have tons of witches brew formulas for stock finish, but I am on the eternal search for a really good Holy Grail Maple finish.

Thanks!!