Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Opinion needed on stock layout

First let me say I HATE trying to layout a flat sawn blank. That said I was sent this gorgeous piece of Cherry for a muzzle loader stock.

As I said the blank is basically flat sawn. Looking at the end grain there is a slight bow that runs along the flat patches of grain.

My plan is to lay the stock along the flat patches thus along the line of the curve. Hopefully giving me the most marbling.

Thoughts???

I'm sure many of you have laid out this type blank and heck free advice is cheap.

I would lay the comb parallel and as close to the blank edge as possible in the area with the most figure possible.

The loose curl figure will be highlighted on the shoulders of the comb that way and look best. Much of my opinion on that is based on turning wood for a lot of decades and the vertical grain areas will show the most figure.

That is a very nice piece of cherry!

Thanks

I think I need to look again as well as take some better pictures in the sun. If you don't mind I'll send them to you to make sure you see them.

I normally have no issue laying out a quarter or 3/4 sawn blank. Easy for me to see the grain.
Am I over thinking the flat sawn grain?? Should I be laying it out just like I would for a normal blank?

As you can see some sap wood for the most part not more than 1/4" deep so won't effect the layout much.



If I ignored the flat grain I would flip and capture the C/D end with the A/C being the top line.

Thoughts?

I agree with that idea.

Thanks

Don't have the experience of others here but flipping it to put the butt on the right of the lower photo is what I would do. You have the curl and the grain going on more on that end.
Especially on a muzzle loader you have the furniture, checkering or inlays in the fore end to compensate for less figure.

I would also give it a swipe with potassium permanganate to see what that does while still a board. I would be tempted to go with an aquavit and steel wool solution but very lightly. As far as flat sawn you are usually ok strength wise if you generally conform to the grain.

The figure is so good on that blank just an oil finish will make it pop.

Due to the angle of the light relative to the wood and camera the one end looks a little flatter... that would go away in hand.

Yep it is amazing how a little angle makes the gain so much different. With light at more of a 90degree both ends are real darn close. As to the finish not my stock. I just remove about 98% of the wood.