Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Stock From Own Tree

Good point, Jeff.

I would find a guy with a portable chain saw mill and guarantee him that you'll cover the cost of his replacement chain(s) if he strikes buried iron in the wood. Every locale seems to have one of those guys scurrying around. (A regular saw mill still wouldn't touch it because of my earlier warnings. A big circular saw blade or monstrous band saw blade is hellaciously expensive and the won't risk it, not to mention the risk to life and limb if those blades hit iron. Of course it may also depend on how hungry they are...)

That stock looks pretty nice, but you may have missed the fact the grain is running exactly the wrong direction for any strength in the wrist area where it is thinnest and weakest. I have a couple pieces just like that taken out of a walnut tree at the fork and they are beautiful, but weak. One is on a .22, so no recoil, but I managed to break it at the wrist just bumping into a door right after I finished it. After a few adult words, I got to repair it and strengthen the wrist with some long dowels to the point you need to know where the break is to identify it. The second piece is the book end to the first and is waiting for a 52C that is going to get sporterized very soon.
I love the look of the root ball pieces and highly figured pieces found in the fork of the trees, but I've also found they are the least stable and weakest of all the wood in the tree and will tend to move quite a bit if exposed to moisture or long, hot days. Layout of the stock on these pieces is critical before cutting, shaping, and inletting. If it is a hunting rifle you want to depend on, these woods probably aren't the best choice. If it is a safe queen, it's probably great as long as it doesn't dry out too much in the safe.....

Bob

That stock looks pretty nice, but you may have missed the fact the grain is running exactly the wrong direction for any strength in the wrist area where it is thinnest and weakest. I have a couple pieces just like that taken out of a walnut tree at the fork and they are beautiful, but weak. One is on a .22, so no recoil, but I managed to break it at the wrist just bumping into a door right after I finished it. After a few adult words, I got to repair it and strengthen the wrist with some long dowels to the point you need to know where the break is to identify it. The second piece is the book end to the first and is waiting for a 52C that is going to get sporterized very soon.
I love the look of the root ball pieces and highly figured pieces found in the fork of the trees, but I've also found they are the least stable and weakest of all the wood in the tree and will tend to move quite a bit if exposed to moisture or long, hot days. Layout of the stock on these pieces is critical before cutting, shaping, and inletting. If it is a hunting rifle you want to depend on, these woods probably aren't the best choice. If it is a safe queen, it's probably great as long as it doesn't dry out too much in the safe.....

Bob


Been there, done that.
Band saw mills don't take kindly to cutting heavy metal objects embedded in trees, which is why most saw millers will use a metal detector on a tree before agreeing to cut it these days. We have found old bullets, railroad spikes, nails, bicycle frames, and lots of other interesting things grown into large trees even after a metal detector missed them. You would be surprised at what a circular mill will cut through. We once had what we thought was a white oak cut up (turned out to be black oak) and the saw cut completely through a railroad spike embedded in the center of the tree. That time cost me $25 to replace his removable teeth and he went back to work. In the end, the tree was deemed scrap and abandoned, but this can be typical of cutting up trees in an urban environment. Be prepared for some expenditure. Hopefully, the tree you are cutting up is worth the risk.

Bob

As Sheister pointed out that is not wood from the root burly but rather from a crotch. It is oriented backwards from the usual, with the crotch figure running right through the grip. Normally the fore end is wood from one side of the crotch. It is absolutely a strength issue.

The tap root is not what one is looking for in the stump. The curving wood at the butt where the roots spread creates naturally appropriate grain flow for strong stocks.

Stock makers will not use wood that has not been dry for at least 10 years, generally. Each time wood gets down to the very dry end of things it takes a set. When it gets a bit wet it will move some, but less than it did before. Each new cycle will improve its stability.

Yet no comment about the actual facts about wood... something you clearly know very little about. Your Buck knife technique is too special to let fade away...

Your geography is every bit the match of your wood knowledge.

Photos of the blank in this thread show a gorgeous blank from the stump area of a tree. It is well laid out and a beautiful thing. The curve in the grain in the butt is the sweep of the root.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/12968358#Post12968358

In my business I deal with log buyers and a few years ago one gave me the card of a man that buys Black walnut for gun stock production. Later I cut a nice Black walnut and called the man. He asked for a pic of the butt. This is my hired man and the tree butt.



He called me and said if I would have cut deeper into the "root bowl" he would have inspected closer and gave me a offer to purchase.

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Thanks for the post Roundoak, and the quote.

Yes the term "Root Bowl" common for any one who knows anything about the subject, and isn't just a fool and liar.

Lots of ways to mishear what someone said and it is possible the guy even used the term. I have never heard it used but there are two similar words used sometimes (not really correctly either) to help explain the use. They would be "root burl" as there often is unusual growth that looks burly, but that really does not describe the situation. Also "root ball" which is closer, but only from a horticultural view when replanting trees. No where will you find "root bowl" used to describe stump wood on a tree.

Have heard it myself.
But then, some think,
that this IS the middle of nowhere.

I’ve heard and seen the term “root ball” used especially when referring to replanting a potted plant or something along those lines. Same thing when a tree is uprooted exposing the “root ball”.

1 : a concave usually nearly hemispherical vessel : a rounded container that is usually larger than a cup a soup bowl a set of mixing bowls; specifically : a drinking vessel (as for wine)
2 : the contents of a bowl ate a bowl of rice
3 : a bowl-shaped or concave part: such as
a : the hollow of a spoon or tobacco pipe
b : the receptacle of a toilet cleaning toilet bowls
4 a : a natural formation or geographical region shaped like a bowl
b : a bowl-shaped structure; especially : an athletic stadium
5 football : a postseason game between specially invited teams college bowl games

There is another term "bole" which means "trunk" in tree technology. It does not include roots and generally refers to the unbuttressed area of the tree where most loggers cut.

Please show mean anything wrong with what I stated. You are attacking me rather than defending what you have stated. You absolutely know there is nothing wrong with what I stated because you have researched and found it correct leaving only this option...

Being admittedly ignorant about a lot of wood and stock issues (just use synthetic anyway), I had to Google "root bowl".

Quite a bit of information here.

FWIW.

There are a few people on "the upper part of the Kenai Peninsula" that don't know Art.

Then again they know the upper KP is not Anchorage.

I recommend this:

Art has always been straight forward with me. As mentioned, you need to excavate underground and save the part under ground and up.
I don't know the technical term.

I have the utmost respect for the previous posters and their knowledge of this subject. However, none of you guys were there when the tree was cut if I remember correctly. No one helped me cut the trunk 4" above ground level and help me dig the stump up, by hand with a shovel and axe. The stump was about four feet or so below ground level. In the end I had a stump and trunk section that was a little less than 8'. The tap root narrowed down fairly quickly as expected, yielding one chance at a cut with any figure at all...we did the best we could. That piece of wood was to be used by a man that was like a second father to me...he planted the walnut himself on his farm in upstate South Carolina when he was a child. It was his dream to make a gunstock when the tree matured. Fast forward about 60 or so years and he was in his 70's and losing his battle with cancer after the tree had been downed a few years prior. Among other things my buddy Sammy gave me was all the wood from his tree when it became apparent he would not live to see his gunstock made. His instructions to me was to make one for myself from the root section of the tree, where most of the figure was. The tree was fairly straight and feather crotch wood from the trunk/branch junction was not in great supply. Lots of straight grained walnut...plain stuff....as you might expect.

Years later when that piece was cleaned up and planed the figure really popped. I understand the grain flow, while gorgeous, was not conducive to being worked up for a 416 Rigby. It took me a year to work up the stock and have it presentable looking. Prior to full length glass bedding, I recognized that the wrist would more than likely be weak. I drilled out a 5/8" hole from where the rear of the receiver would be bedded, through the wrist, down to as close to the rosewood grip cap as I dared. Into the hole I poured Acraglass (not the gel) and squished in a 1/2" round aluminum rod about 4-4 1/2"long and let it set up. There was a tiny piece sticking out afterwards that required a little mill work to allow the rear receiver lug to bed properly. Then the receiver and barrel were bedded in Acraglass as well. Stock was cleaned up and treated with two coats of Thompson's Water Seal. After drying for a week, I sanded in a teak oil finish using Daly's Sea Fin teak oil @ 120, 220, 400, 600, 800, 1200 and 2000 grits....two sanded in coats at each grit.

The stock has never "moved" on me in right at 30 years and the 30/06 has accounted for bunches of deer with no splits, cracks or warping. She holds her zero year after year! I've never had to adjust the scope when checking the zero each fall. I felt that an oil finish would show off the figure the best. However, I am the very first person in line to admit that, while beautiful, it won't be as waterproof as one of the many poly finishes on the market today. That's the reason I worked in two coats of Water Seal before the oil...that trick has worked wonders for me on many stock refinishing jobs over the years. As stated before, I did everything myself excepting the checkering...I sure don't have the skill nor the patience for that. The guy that checkered it said "don't bring me any more of that wood...it was hard as hell on my tools".

This figure did come from the stump because I dug it up and helped with cutting the slabs. It is not from a crotch...not this time!

Here is the last deer it took:

Cool Beans!

Sounds like you did the job right the first time and the wood was cooperative. Just to be clear, I never did mention I thought the wood was from a crotch or stump, I was referring to my stock, which was definitely from a crotch and has the same grain running perpendicular to the grip.
I'd be curious to know what is in Thompson's Water Seal? Seems like I heard somewhere it had silicone in it, which I try to avoid like the plague in finishing of any type. Can't argue with your finish results, however..

My stock has also stayed pretty stable over the years, but it has spent an awful lot of time in my gunsafe with a Goldenrod in it so it is plenty dry. The sister blank is in the shop, which is also dry so it will be ready to use at any time. Can't remember when I cut down that tree, but it had to be at least 30 years ago. The butt of the large tree on the site was 54"- 68" at the crotch. The small tree was 38" at the base. Didn't have the equipment to take out the stump or I would have. Most walnuts don't have what would technically be called a tap root, but some pretty impressive root masses nonetheless that will lend themselves to very nice wood if you can harvest it without totally destroying the root pieces. Also, most cutters hate to cut up the root as they almost always contain rocks, sand, and a darned nasty list of who knows what grown up in the wood.
I'll see if I can find a pic of the one I did finish. Can't seem to download the pics. Files are too big and I don't know how to resize them at the moment...

Bob

Never heard the term either, but then again there's no accounting for colloquial ignoring of standard terms used in the English language.

Who was it who coined the term " musket grain" to refer to improper grain flow through the wrist? Linden? Shellhamer? If I had a chunk of sentimentally important wood with stunning butt figure but musket grain through the wrist I would save it for a .22 safe queen.

Gotcha, the previous poster said “As Sheister pointed out, that is not wood from the root burly (sic) but rather from a crotch....”

I figured it referred to my stock, which I dang sure knew grew below ground. I’m good at making assumptions at times.

It’s all good...hope the OP gets some pretty maple out of that tree...could be pretty.

Incidentally, my buddy had a killer small ring Mauser made into a 257 Bob from one of the trunk slabs years before. Wood is plain as day. But she’s a pretty little thing and is a tack driver with 100 grain Partitions. I coveted that rifle in my younger days and before he passed, he gave it to me. Buried him on a Thursday, two days before our rifle opener. That Saturday I took the rifle to the stand, knowing a nice buck would show up...just knew it. The sun was just starting to peek over the horizon...pink light. About a hundred yards away there he stood and the rifle started one of the craziest strings of good luck I’ve ever seen. Every animal I’ve ever shot has fell straight to the ground. I’ve never tracked a single animal shot with her in 30 years.