Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters ash stock

I just had a four foot diameter ash log sawed in Minnesota. I grew up with that tree....it was large when I can first remember it as a young kid.

I've decided it needs at least one gunstock made from it and had two nice blanks sawed....sorry, no pics.....

Since I've never used ash for this before, I'm asking for any advice you folks can offer....yes....I know it's fairly dense and therefore heavy...what's your advice?

Not so different in density from maple or birch.

Plenty of traditional muzzleloaders have been stocked with ash. Is the wood properly dried and ready to be worked or is it recently cut? Do you want to do the work yourself or have someone else do it? If you're wanting a project I recommend going with Custom Rifle Stocks in Aaronsburg, PA.

Like you, I had a piece of wood from a sugar maple on my aunt and uncle's place, a tree we'd all walk by every time we went hunting. An ice storm took it down and I eventually had CRS profile me out a stock set for a Ruger No. 3 project. I'm in the home stretch with it now and its been very satisfying.

I have used ash for a few home projects. I think it would make a fine stock, please follow up with some picks of the finished stock if you decide to do it.

I wonder what the wood drying time is compared to Maple or Walnut...Isn't it usually measured in years?...Many years...

Without being kiln dried, wood will cure about an inch per year, if stored in good conditions.

We used a lot of ash trim in the house. A lot of nice grain. Should look good on a rifle. I'll second pabucktail's recommendation for Custom Rilfe Stocks. If they don't have a pattern you like, they'll duplicate yours.

I will have this kiln dried to 6% and then routed by Dennis Olson of Plains Montana. He has done many for me and I've always been happy with his work.

I will take the blanks to the Amish in Augusta Wisconsin for the kiln drying and suspect that will be about March before I can have a blank routed.

That's about the time to go salmon fishing on Lake Superior.

I've done a few customs before including my own checkering so now the thing I need to do is to find an action to put in it....let me see if I can find some photos

Here is a Maple stock I built for a Howa 1500













[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

Dang! You've got skills! That's pretty.

Really interesting stock, the first spalted one I have seen. Lots of guitars but unusual on a rifle stock. I like a light suigi or flame finish on ash axes and baseball bats. If done very subtlety it enhances the grain and color. Overdone it looks cheap. Ash responds well to potassium permanganate too, same thing as the flame needs to be very subtle or it looks bad. It is easy to sand back to almost bare wood.

Nice work Vapodog! How easily does maple checker compared to walnut? How many LPI is that stock? I've never done any checkering but plan to get some tools and have a go at it.

Not Vapo but if anything it takes checkering even better than Walnut. It is harder but more homogeneous. The birdseye or fiddleback figure can be more difficult but no more so than walnut burl.

here is a photo of three ash stocks that were kiln dried in Wisconsin

the photos don't do the wood justice. One is being routed in Montana now. I'll post a photo when it arrives.

I would be tempted to do a very light stain more of a wash coat to increase the contrast, but the grain is so nice on those already maybe oil alone will make them pop, then what ever is your finish of choice. Might be worth testing on the scrap wood. Oil, diluted spirit stain and finish only. I would also look at some muzzle loaders for comparison. Some of these were treated with Aquavit, Iron Oxide and vinegar, Potassium permanganate and flame finishes.

I hope you saved some of the straighter grain wood for axe handles or other tool handles. The lower two I can picture the stock already, the upper one doesn't have as obvious a layout on it.

We still have some ash pole corral at the family farm, and I cut some for repairs and for gatesticks in barbed wire gates every few years. When green, it is very supple. A green gatestick will bow into a C shape in a short time under tension. An ash gatestick allowed to season for two or three years is strong, won't bow, and lasts forever.

In corral poles, they are best installed green. They season over the decades to as hard as iron! A 50 year old ash pole needs to be drilled for the spike to hold it to a post if you need to reinstall it. They get a little brittle then, occasionally break at the thin end. .

I know you asked about gunstocks, but from this experience I would say that a good piece of ash, dried properly, would make a fine stock. I would not make the wrist too thin, though.

[/QUOTE][/quote]

This is the first modern type rifle I've seen with a Spalted Maple stock. Nice!

Ash is of course a particularly open grained "ring-porous hardwood" so you will have a bigger job getting the grain filled smooth than you would with typical walnut. But if you can get a quarter-sawn piece out of your log it should make a stable, rock-hard, stock. Might not take very fine checkering though. Please update if you proceed.
cheers,
Rex

fissile...