Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Cool material for forend tip

Thinking of having one put on my 358 Hawkeye.
I have access to dark burley walnut and a couple other exotic hard wood, and also some ram horn, elephant ivory, mastodon ivory , and walrus baculum, even some hippo teeth...

Straight Ebony looks best to me...

Just about any dark or reddish exotic hardwood works. Burled walnut would be fine. Buffalo horn is traditional.

Ivory (or maple) forend tips don't do anything for me, but some folks still like that sort of thing.

Oosik is too porous and would require filling with epoxy and bubbles turn it into a nightmare unless done wonder pressure.

Rams horn is hollow and will likewise give you fits. Most horn is boiled and run through a press to make it shorter and thicker while getting rid of the hollow. They can literally make it any length and width and height they want, given the volume of horn. A PITA to just wing it.

Ivory dyed black is pretty good looking.

There are a lot of woods that should be avoided just because they are too soft. I have used burly redwood on a few tips on ultralight hunting rifles... The redwood does not resist damage the way a fore end tip is supposed to. But it is pretty.

Get someone with good critical color sense... women see color better than men... to look at it to see if it clashes. Some woods look good but do not look good together.

Years ago I had Karnis put an ebony tip on my .358 Hawkeye. I've always liked it and would highly recommend. Maybe I'll figure out the photo posting rigmarole and get a pic up.

I might do ebony with an ivory spacer and a mastadon grip cap.

I would go with Buffalo Horn. Lots of beautiful wood in the world but no matter what you pick,if you go very far from traditional it will just look tacky to some people,no matter how it looks to you. Whatever you choose,I would have a knife made to match.

carbon fiber =]

Hard to get a solid piece large enough short of boiling and pressing...

This. Stick with ebony.

In that case,stabilized ebony.

I once got a good deal on an Oberndorf Mauser custom in .35 Whelen at an estate sale. The grip cap and forearm tip were elephant ivory. Took me a while to get used to it but now I like it. FWIW, it is currently my favorite rifle. For the OP, probably ebony or some other dark wood would work.
Paul B.

My buddy has an extensive supply. A full cape set.

If a classic rifle go traditional. Ebony grip caps look great with a small ivory diamond and are still within the classic mode. A small diamond on the fore end checkering and grips can look good too. Much beyond that it could go bad quickly. Now on a Weatherby or Winslow rifle knock your socks off.

Me I would use those materials on knife handles and not monkey with good taste on the rifle.

Here's something you don't see too often, pewter.

Sonoran ironwood would do nicely..

Yup, as longs as the colors do not clash with the walnut... some walnuts with strong green tones do not look good with deep orange-red.

Bastogne is an example of a walnut with strong green.

Would the walrus baculum fall under the "hard wood" category?

I have rosewood forend tip and grip cap on a 700Classic. Looks sharp. I imagine the burl walnut would look good as well.

A vote for the hippo tooth