doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Root and stump wood for gunstock use?/\

Hi Gang:

Would this type of wood be suitable for a shotgun stock? I see many of these blanks for sale on EBay but the growth rings are at right angles to the bore of the gun. Would they work on a gun that has a bolt through the stock? These are pretty blanks but I wonder about the strength through the grip.

Are these blanks suitable for shotgun use?


TIA,

Franchi

Root/stump blanks provide the finest figure for gunstocks (except for feather which is found at the intersection of limb with the main trunk). Here are a couple of black/bastogne blanks I will be using for a matched pair: You do need to look for proper grain flow in the grip/head of the stock however for a non thru bolt blank.

best regards,
JBP

Mr. Patton --- now they are going to make up into one outstanding set. Are you going to make up two 12'ss or a 12 - 20 set ? What action will you be using ?

There's a prior thread here from perhaps a month or so ago in which someone asked about cutting a walnut stump he had into gunstock blanks. I answered there with my own experiences of doing the same thing and ending up with about 35 very good to excellent 3"+ thick blanks. That took place a few years ago, and I have since used some of the wood and am very happy with it. I still have the remainder. A few others also gave their experiences, including Pete, our resident wood guru. The roots may not offer much to you, unless they are exceptionally large roots, but a large walnut stump certainly will. The roots may well make knife scales, pen blanks, or such. All the wood will need to be properly sawn, the ends sealed, and the wood dried properly before it can be used, but you'll have some nice wood.

Greetings Mr.Hurst,

I will be stocking pair of consecutive serial # 10 ga H&R ( A&D patent boxlock ) 10 bores - each should weigh ~ just under 9 #s each. Prof Gaddy rebrowned the barrels a special plum color the year before he passed on. They should prove to be a unique multipurpose brace and a treasured remembrance of Oscar.
best regards,
JBP

Sometimes root wood is punky and sometimes it does not stabilize. However, it also may be very good. Judge each piece upon its own merits.

In the 18th century with flintlock rifles and fowling pieces primarily from Pennsylvania, it wasn't uncommon to have a stock made from a flat sawn blank cut out of the lower butt and stump. It was the practice to dig down to just below the root collar a foot or so below ground line and cut the tree down from this point. This added more strength in the wrist or that area between the breech and the stock comb. This was especially common with American Black Cherry, the most common stock wood used in New England, and also the weakest of the stock woods used.

Even today master builders of flintlocks building "high-end" pieces will use a stump cut flat sawn blank to get that flow of grain down through the wrist. It is awesomely pleasing to look at, and it adds significant strength! But with modern shotguns I don't think the added strength would be all that important, and the pleasing affect of the grain turning down through the wrist wouldn't be that noticable. But this is just my opinion, and I may be wrong. If anyone is interested in picking up a stock blank from a butt-stump cut tree, I can put you in contact with a couple of friends who specialize in producing these blanks.

Since you don't provide pictures of the blanks you are considering, I wonder if you may be confusing grain flow with growth rings or figure or fiddleback. The pics Mr. Patton provides exhibit fiddleback perpindicular to the recoil forces, but proper flow through the wrist and head areas. Unfortunatley, many wood sellers are not well versed in layout to produce a sound gunstock. It is often tough to tell if a blank is flat or quarter sawn, dense or porous, sound or punky from a couple small pictures. I've bought a few blanks off E-bay, but passed on many that were too tough to judge for suitability. I have made a few plexiglass templates that I can lay on a blank or slab to see if it will be usable. My two-piece templates are made to encompass most quality older American side and boxlock doubles. Many sawmill operators are surprised to see that a rather large walnut slab may barely yield one suitable two piece stock. The waste pile is always larger than the good pile.

JB --- thats sounds like a great project and those blanks will match perfectly. Are you going to have Mr. Doug do the stockwork or havn't you decided yet ?

Hi:

Kindly give me the information to enable me to contact your friends who have sump wood for sale.

Franchi