doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com To enhance grain or not enhance grain.

I have had a custom Fox upgrade done and the gun came out very nicely. However the blank I used turned out to be a one sided wonder. The blank lost all of its figure on the right side once it was shaped.
Maybe I am being too critical but I was expecting the same smokey grain on both sides and after spending the money on this gun and not having eye popping grain on both sides, I am looking at the process done by Mark Larson.
Who has had him enhance a stock? How did it look?
Really just want the plainer side to match the nice side.
Or should I leave it alone?
Just bugs me that I spent what I spent on a blank and it just isn�t what I expected grain wise. The gun is my pride and joy. The smith who did the gun did a fantastic job, no complaints there No one has control over the wood once it starts to get shaped.
right side, the plain side

left side, the nice side

The birds won�t notice the grain. Sounds like you got a great job, congrats. If the wood is sound, and you shoot it well, maybe that is enough.
Only comparison that relates to me I can make is I won�t buy the fake battery cover that goes on my old car to make a current spec battery look like an old Delco �Eye� battery. It�s fake.

Good luck.

Best,
Ted

Yeah, it will be cool at first, but knowing it�s fake will haunt you, remember the tale Tell Heart! �It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night.� Poe

Brian, post a picture of the buttstock from both sides. I think we can give you better thoughts after taking a look. PS. Happy New Year.

If(?) you go with the grain enhancement approach, maybe there's a way to pick up some natural grain contrast on the plain side. Then, have somewhat lesser enhancements added, rather than fully match the figured side. If you'd be inclined to, it would be interesting to see what the blank and its end grain looked like. I think about anyone could be disappointed, hopefully there's a flip side to that coin. Best of luck with it.

Is there any chance that shaving 1/8" off the right side may expose some better figure? Mark Lawson's work is not cheap.

I would be very happy with that!!

Brian, I guess you have the right side and left side labels turned around. I really like Mark Larson's work and he's done two or three for me where a stock spacer was added . Very nice work and quite durable.

Your stock, the real left, is better than I expected it to be from your description. If I did anything at all, I might darken the foreword half of the left side to more closely match the rear left and the right side. The grain and pattern seem quite nice to me.

I'm still trying to figure out what's wrong with the "plain side"? It looks great to me, both sides do. Mark does fantastic grain painting, but your stock is nature's masterwork. Why mess with it?...Geo

I wouldn't spend another penny on it, Brian. That left side is much better than I expected it to look given your level of disappointment. Seldom does a stock have perfectly equal amounts of figure on both sides, and much of it is "in the eye of the beholder" anyway. Perhaps, considering that there are no two stock blanks in the world that are the same, or equal, would help your assessment of it. Think of it as the only one that has ever existed that looks exactly like that. It's unique.

I think it looks very nice as is, and would be proud to own it as is.

SRH