Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters ash stock

Nice, it that white ash?

Stunning result

it was grown in southern Minnesota.....that's all I know about it.

progress update

I finally got inletting screws from Brownells and inletted the bottom metal to fit the barreled action. l also installed a scope 3-9 power.



The rifle went to the range for testing.....



here's the result with TTSX 120 grain and a modest charge of CFE223.....a full 100 yards.....I'm happier than a kitten in a creamery.

I'd say yes. I have made enough ash canoe paddles to recognize white ash grain. Black ash has a totally different grain structure and splits easily. Although it could be green ash. I had a forestry professor tell me that to tell the difference between green ash and white ash, you have to look at your feet. If your feet are wet, it's green ash. If they're dry, it's white ash.

Very handsome and beautifully done.

Great job Vapodog! Thanks for taking us along on this project.

Beautiful job!

This clock is black ash, not that close detail.

Beautiful.

It's finally done. I'll post a couple more photos in a few minutes.

Looks great--and apparently shoots great!

How did you feel about ability of the ash to take checkering? I ask because of checkering a wide variety of wood, including Claro walnut and Oregon maple, which were OK but not my favorite.

last two photos

Prior to this I've checkered several types of walnut and maple. Ash (or at least this stuff) checkered nicely when I was going across the grain or even mostly across the grain. But seemed like spongy cutting with the grain as the cutter (carbide from Ullman) wanted to not bite into the wood. This forced me to increase pressure with my fingers and they get quite tired in a hurry.

I have two more stocks just like this coming up and maybe by the time I'm finished with them the term "ash" will take on an entirely different meaning than it does now.

Aha!

That's exactly what I wanted to know....

Here is a piece of spalted maple that I built last year. It checkered quite nicely.

[

Oh, yeah!

Maple can checker very well--and also be pretty soft. Depends a lot on the kind of maple, and where it's grown--just like other woods, including walnuts.

Not wanting highjack a splendid thread on ash stocks.

That clock was $100Ca at a garage sale at Eagle river, Ontario last year. My lovely wife took the works to a repair man, and bought that fancy lyre, I don't want to know what that all cost!

Sorry, back to the thread.

The first two are of a stock I did for a friend, way back when. The wood was a spectacular figured piece of Claro walnut, but checkering it was so "soggy" I settled on 18 LPI. It was still a kind of PITA.

The last is a piece of New Zealand-grown European walnut, on a rifle I stocked for myself. It was hard and consistent enough to easily take finer checkering, if I recall correctly 22 LPI. (It's also the only rifle I stocked that I still have, a 6.5x55 on an FN action, with a 3-position Dave Gentry safety he installed a couple years before he passed away.)

Eventually did not have enough "spare" time to do stocks, and noticed my checkering patterns on my own rifles were getting smaller and smaller, indicating a certain level of burn-out. But it was fun while it lasted!

Surprisingly I have a grandfather's clock exactly like that. It was built from amarican black walnut in about 1965. It quit working and was taken to a guy that repaired it.....a bit past $400 repair bill. If you bought the clock for $100 canadian, you owe the seller a big kiss!!!

Specctacular.....John, did you do the checkering?