There are way too many considerations to go into all the different points about which is best for your application and taste, but start with a few simple points to ponder.

When you spend that kind of money for a piece of wood you should be looking at the exact piece of wood, not a grade. Grading is inexact and highly subjective. I find sellers tend to grade far higher than I... wink Think about the grader holding a piece of wood that should make exhibition grade, until he notices serious run-out in the wrist grain. If you were building a DGR that would be a deal killer, but what about that 22Hornet? How should he grade it? By "expected grade rules" (there are none) he should not be able to sell it as a utility blank even. But it will sell for a lot more than that.

Bastogne generally sells for more than English of like grade and quite a bit more than claro. The seller likely shifts grade to make up the difference.

The maple is even farther out of whack. But to go there you have some extra considerations. All quilted maple is bigleaf. The figure type is not found in any of the hard maples. It varies tremendously in density and amount of figure. Slight changes in the orientation of the blank make huge changes in what the stock will look like. While not quilt this picture shows a couple bigleaf stocks oriented 90 degrees from each other... They were side-by-side in the tree.
[Linked Image]

True quilt, oriented properly and cut from a dense stick will have tremendous depth and a wind-ruffled-water-like appearance. It will be pricey, but worth it. What will the blank you are considering really look like?

Sorry about the rambling, but there really are lots and lots more considerations... And your tastes are the only ones that really matter.
art


Mark Begich, Joaquin Jackson, and Heller resistance... Three huge reasons to worry about the NRA.