doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Question about stock finish

Hi guys,

I recently purchased a SLE SxS with a little fiddle back or tiger stripe figure on the butt stock. The gun is in pretty good shape with only a little wear on the bluing of the trigger guard and some off the case colors near the hinge pin. The checkering looks impeccable and has fresh wood exposed. The finish on the stock has what looks to be normal minimal hunting and handling wear.

My question is that the surface of the butt stock looks and feels slightly wavy (slight up and down). That is to say, it is higher over the fiddle back portion (darker) and lower over the clearer portion of the butt stock. I have never seen this on a stock and am wondering if this is normal with this kind of fiddle back, if it came from the factory this way, or if someone refinished the stock and did not use a sanding block.

Your thoughts?

Thanks in advance,

David

Hi, I have the same thing with the stock on my Parker Repro. My gun was new from the factory, so with mine I know it was not refinished.

I'm curious also.

Thanks and all the best!

David, I don't have any stocks with that type of wood, but I have made furniture with this type of fiddleback figure. It is not uncommon when finished to feel the fiddleback. Also takes very sharp planer blades to not rip it when starting out. Sanding will take off the softer of the two and you will still get this affect.

A mahogany table I made has this type of figure and yes you can feel the difference.

I would also say that this does not happen to all with this type of figure.

David:
Much depends on how "much" you can feel the fiddleback. It's amazing what dimensions the human hand can sense. But generally, a good stocker will create a dead smooth surface, regardless of figure. By the look of your gun, it has been restocked or refinished. Probably by a non-pro.

Yes, it is common. The dark stripes are harder, so they resist being worked or sanded and the light colored areas are softer so they work easier to sand or plane..

When I was fresh out of high school, I worked at a lumber co. that made bowling alley wood for AMF and Brunswick. There is maple in the area you run on and lay the ball down, then it becomes yellow pine until you get to the pin deck where it is again maple. In making these alley's, all wood that had any curl,birds-eye or figure to it's grain, was cut out and discarded. The reason being is that this grain in the wood would make the ball do strange things. We know what caused it, it was the hard and soft spots in the wood grain that made the ball follow the grain. It would be this way with any species of wood. Now I look back and think of all those beautiful muzzleloader stocks that were burned to make steam to run the power plant.

They do a lot of machine finishing on modern stocks. To get strong curl flat requires hand finishing and great care.
bill

Thank you for the responses.

Greg, I can see in the pictures you posted of your Parker Reproduction how the light rises and falls with the fiddle back figure and that is exactly what the light does on the gun I just purchased. It is what caught my attention and cause me to notice the uneven surface.

Kensal, while I do not discount the possibility of someone refinishing the stock, I know that the stock is original and that it has never been removed from the action. All the screw heads are in perfect condition. Straight screw heads are one of the things that make or break the appearance of a gun for me. I do most of my own gunsmithing and am very meticulous about such things. Also, I saw no evidence of the metal being proud in any location, just the opposite the wood is a little proud in all the right places. What is possible however is that someone sanded below the checkering without a sanding block and then re-oiled the stock.

Finally the gun was made in Spain and is a from one of the big 5, making it a handmade and hand stocked gun. Don't know if that helps.

Thanks again,

David

It's not necessarily just a poor job of preparation. Some grain changes dimensionally with the moisture content of the wood. I've finished stocks that were sanded smooth and dead flat only to have the surface change in that fashion months later. I believe top coated finishes (poly & lacquer) after dry sanding as factories or high volume shops are wont to do, are more prone to it than penetrating oil finishes applied with wet sanding.
In fact, in a couple instances where it occurred for me I wasn't able to completely eliminate the phenomenon with a refinish.

I'm with JDW on this one. I don't think it speaks negatively of the wood or craftsmanship, it's just the properties of the type of wood used.

I have two pieces of amazing furniture, made from incredibly figured wood, dried for longer than I've been alive, worked by true craftsman that are sadly more and more rare with every passing day. The one table, reflects like a sheet of glass, but isn't perfectly smooth to the touch. I can feel the grain 'waves'.

If anything, it may speak to why specific grain patterns are more widely used than others, even though your fiddleback and other various curly grains are really pretty.

David, you have heard some good explanations. And to tell you the truth, when you take it out to shoot and especially around a group of people, kiss it, because anything that beautiful needs a kiss.