Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What type of wood is this blank ?

$180 out the door on the blank. I think I will have a stock much nicer than I was going to be able to afford to begin with.

As far as the the rifle, it is a .280 on a Mauser 98 so no big kicker here.

You did very well indeed. The blank is worth considerably more than you paid.

Tom

Glad to see I did ok. Now I think I am going to change my plans and match this wood with a nice polished blue job.

Anyone need a Lilja 7mm 9T blank? As is from Lilja

Throw a little liquid on that bad boy and let's see some pics!

I'll get that done tonight and see what we have.

Here you go.

[img][IMG]http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d17/Sweet16Owner/stockandbarrel009.jpg[/img][/img]

That looks nice. The right side will look particularly good.

With nearly dead sraight grain and very thin annual rings it will be a dense and subtle thing; a very nice thing, actually.

The blank has no limits for any action, any cartridge, anywhere.

The edge of the blank shows quite a bit of fiddleback, which shows best on the quartersawn plane. It will have lots of stuff going on when cut.

What does it weigh and what are the dimensions so we can get a feel for how dense it is... Looks like a very dense piece. Typical French grown European walnut ran to the dense side of things.

For $180 you should have trouble sleeping nights...
art

The blank weighs 8.10 lbs
OAL is 36.5",butt end is 7", forend is 3" and thickness is 2.6-2.7.

I do have trouble sleeping........but it is because I can't wait to see what this hunk o wood turns out to be.

Now I wish I had the money to pick up the other chunk he had.

Beautiful blank you have!!

Wow!!!

Running some guess numbers at it puts the specific gravity way high! In the world of fancy rosewoods and such. Chances are I guessed quite a bit off on my approximations of size, but even at that my numbers are so high the blank has to be a dense sucker!

Dense is very good in walnut... The stockmaker can do anything with it... making it slim and sleek will leave plenty for strength.

The other thing which cannot be shown on the net is the depth really dense woods have. In good sunshine with a little liquid on top it should look like the light is coming from inside the wood. It is the intangible factor turning a subtle blank into one bringing MUCH more money and confusing those that have not seen the difference. It will only be seen in dense examples however.

While it probably will not hurt it, you should probably stop throwing water on it. Mineral spirits, paint thinner, etc will do the same but will not swell the wood.

The old-time gunmakers got to use blanks like yours and that is how they got away with sanding-in their oil finishes. The pores are so tiny the sanding slurry gets wiped off the top. It is an exceptional blank with incredible potential in a very elegant and subtle way.
art

In addition to the above comments, this blank has a nice reddish tint which is seldom seen in modern woods. Most of the Juglans regia that I have seen in the past few years has a honey or brown color, and one must use a stain to obtain the desirable red color. This blank will finish up superbly. Again, congratulations on a fine purchase.

While it probably will not hurt it, you should probably stop throwing water on it. Mineral spirits, paint thinner, etc will do the same but will not swell the wood.

Hopefully, isopropyl is ok. It seem to dry quite quick.

I took it over to my gunsmith and he mentioned the density as well.
He rated it at XX which suprised me , but again that is all subjective.

I am kinda torn between a dull oil finish or a shiny finish. I can make cases for both types.

I really think this is to nice of wood to use on an old deer rifle but it is mine and I am gonna use it.

Beauteous piece of wood. I still have a can of lighter fluid in the shop that I use to wet unfinished wood. It flashes off and dries fast and I've never had it stain or whisker. It does a great job of showing off the grain and color.

Good acquisition.

Yup, euro blanks cut are different than american blanks cut. typical american blanks are slab cut for max yield with some thought to layout, but not completely.
I've seen more and more blanks go from 2.5 a few years ago to 2.25 and now more and more blanks just a hair over 2". Think 2x4 and what those sizes were and now are-
nice blank, ya done good!

expect something like this
This what it looked like in blank form



this finished, showing same side

Probably should have asked, rather than assuming it was water...

I hate grading systems trying to make every blank fit a particular "rating" as it is entirely too subjective for that. The minute the depth comes into play in a blank reason and grade go completely out the window.

I have an incredible piece of Turkish with subtle black lines and a hint of fiddle. But when a little liquid hits it is like looking into a well.

Thinking we just had major action on the volcano as the house just shook BIG TIME!

Gotta go see what happened...
art rocking

Very nice!

dang it...got 'em backwards, LOL, wanted to show blank to finish

spot on about the finish- literally a couple of coats of oil and the pores are filled.
Theres little chance claro could survive the heavy recoil of a double gun with paper thin fingers as on an action with real sideplates, eh?

Shawingggggg!!!!!!!
I got wood over wood.

Someone here has a sig line that says "Life is to short to hunt with an ugly gun" I guess I won't have to worry about that anymore.

And it will look better when I can get the chekering done.