Personal taste is of course the major factor in what one likes or doesn't like in most anything, including stock woods. "Personally" I don't think any other wood than Curly Maple looks quite right on an American Long Rifle. I do not really care for it on most modern guns. I have yet to see a piece of Bird's Eye maple made into a stock that I truly liked. A gentleman with whom I became great friends who was a Master Machinist & did gunsmithing on the side built a .222 Rem varmint rifle for his daughter. He had done an absolutely fantastic job of fit & finish & I told him so. I just never told him that truly I did not care for the end result.
Another gentleman I worked with at another shop enjoyed working with Rocks. He had an old Ethan Allen single shot cap lock pistol on which the grips were gone. He made new ones of Jade for it. When he told me about it I tried hard not to sound disparaging in any way but I guess he picked up that I also did not sound overly impressed either. He brought in in one day & at lunch time carried me out to his truck & showed it to me. Upon seeing it I did become greatly impressed. I had simply been unable to imagine that an old pistol stocked in Green Rock was going to look good but it was Absolutely Stunning. It did not look in any way Gaudy but had simple Elegance. He also did a Colt SAA in Tiger Eye rock but I never had the opportunity of seeing it, always wanted to but he had gifted it to his son by the time I knew him.
