Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Favorite woods for gunstocks?

Rick was too nice to say it on another thread, so I thought it would be a good idea to take my opinions and start another thread before I started a stock/gun making Jihad on this board.
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<br>What is your favorite wood for a custom stock and how do you like it finished? Is there a favorite checkering style you prefer?
<br>How about details like grip caps, tips, recoil pads, inlays, etc... do you like embellishment or just simple, straightforward lines? Glossy finish like the brownings or satin finish like the Weatherbys?
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<br>How about your rifle work? Do you like engraving, half octagon, half round barrels, gloss blue or soft blue? Bead blasted finish?
<br>Do you prefer the style as depicted in the David Miller example in Rick's thread or something more subdued?
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<br>Just trying to get some input going on what is interesting to each of us. Don't be shy, step up and let us have it. You can even go ahead and give me heck for my opinions, if it will make you feel better. You wouldn't be the first! - Sheister

Favorite wood for gunstocks? FIBERGLASS!!!

Mesquite. A nice skinny stock, with fine chekering, an "english" style pad, and 3 flush mounts for a CW/Cling sling. All metal SS, and black oxide/NP3.
<br> No. I don't own such a rifle. Mesquite is too heavy, and I'm too cheap. I have to make do with McM stocks. Boo Hoo !
<br> However, I just happen to have a favorite O/U shotgun that deserves a better piece of wood. And an excellent stock maker buddy. When the market starts treating me well again. E

I prefer a well seasoned blank,in a swirl figure,from the McMillan Family Tree....................

I prefer something like this picture, however do to current financial status I'll have to wait! One of my favorite parts of RIFLE magazine is the custom feature they often have a 1-2 page layout for showcasing different stockmakers/engravers. I like Fleur de Lis a lot too!!!
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<br>Mike
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Sheister
<br>You have had to put up with my dronings about finish, so I won't go back there, except to say egg-shell luster oil finish, but for wood it has to be the prettiest piece I can get my hands on at the moment...
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<br>Any walnut has to be in serious contention for any stock, anytime, with good english varieties at the top, bastogne close behind. The best myrtle is right in there as well.
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<br>For a light rifle you cannot beat western bigleaf maple, but it hardly works on a big recoiling piece, but then the weight would be a problem there too.
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<br>Mesquite is nice stuff, but I have been having trouble trying to get a figured piece of it for years. Believe I might be on to some now...
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<br>I like ebony for forend tips and grip caps, horn for buttplates. A sissy pad is ok when it goes on a serious recoiling unit, but otherwise they are too ugly for my tastes. ( I did put one on my new 375 AI though)
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<br>Checkering is wasted if it is too fine, it is there to grip, so make it grippable. I almost always make some version of fleur de leis for my own and the style has changed over the years, which I think is a good thing.
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<br>Falling asleep at the keyboard... more later
<br>art

Personally, when I can afford it, I will invest in a VERY nice piece of English walnut- light background with dark chocolate streaks and grain that runs properly through the grip when cut to shape.
<br>I'm with Art on the checkering, it must have grip more than look fine, but the pattern must also be executed properly to look good, even if it is a rather plain pattern.
<br>I like a relatively small grip, even though I have large hands, but large enough to handle the recoil of the piece it is attached to. Ebony grip caps and foreend tips are may favorite, but I have maple burl, walnut burl, Cocobolo and Rosewood as well on my pieces.
<br>Butt pads depend on the caliber. Light calibers are fine with a thin metal or rubber pad- no plastic for me. The heavier recoilers need a Pachmayer Decellerator to tame them- no muzzle brakes for me (and my ears).
<br>After church, I can probably drone on about other refinements I'd like to see on my idea of a favorite style. More later- Sheister

What LPI do y'all consider grippable???
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<br>Enquiring minds need to know...
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<br>Mike

I like 22 LPI checkering on my shotguns and rifles. Fine enough to be pretty, but still has enough "valley" to have texture. I like Fleur de Lis patterns, but I like them somewhat reserved, too large doesn't seem to flow well to my eye. I also am becoming more and more enamored with slimmer stock dimensions, particularly in the fore end. Not in the case of big bores, though, for obvious reasons, although even there, I would prefer a slimmer fore end profile, and make up for it with the barrel weight. I like the look of what I call swept back pistol grips, sort of on the order of what is called a semi-pistol grip in shotguns. Probably in my mind, but they seem to mount better for me.
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<br>My tastes vary from marble swirl English to dark with heavy color flow lines, but make it English if I have my choice. I like American Black if the piece is really nice, somehow seems traditional for American firearms. I know, lots of the modern guys think it is junk, but 40 years ago, a lot of the then "gurus" said the same thing about English.
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<br>IMO, there is better wood available to the average wood butcher than ever before, but like all good stuff, quality doesn't come cheap.
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<br>The best stocks being made now are worlds better in detail work and inletting quality than most of the best stocks of 40 years ago.
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My preference is not finer than 20 lpi. for a hunting rifle. If I lived and hunted in an area where a fellow wasn't wearing mits or gloves for half the season then 22-24 might be O.K. . Don't know. It takes good solid wood to hold finer than 20 lpi. when used in the field not to mention the difficulty of checkering a piece of soft wood with finer lines than should be used. 20 looks pretty good if done cleanly. Even 18 is good for a knock about hunting rifle and gives you an excellent grip even with gloves on.

Thanks guys!
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<br>I have to wear gloves during all of gun season, the first half for bugs, the second half for cool/cold weather...
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<br>Mike

Art, I tried a modified version of your stock finish this week end. Finding that my oven is not of suffciant size to heat up a stock in I chose to forego the heat. I mixed up a batch of West System and applied it to a stock with a body filler trowel. Limber plastic with a beveled edge about 1-3/4 inches wide. I applied small amounts of the epoxy and firmly pushed it into the wood. One coat was all that I could do as the material sets up rather quickley when it is thin, not viscosity thin but thickness thin, I preped the wood to a very smooth surface with out closing the pores up in my usual fashon, that is rubbed with a piece if cow leg bone. Tonite I sanded about half of the stock, a bit premature, but the forearm was set the hardest so I sanded with 220 grit then polished up with superfine steel wool. The stock sealed up real well and has a nice satin finish look, will sand the rest in a day or so time permitting. I plan to apply a finish coat using the tried and true finger method to get the thinnist and most even coat possible. When finished a light buffing with steel wool to knock off the gloss and leave a satin finish. West System really brings out the grain and figure in the wood leaving a deep finish that is a smooth as glass. I have a stock for a project that is a real beaut of a hunk of wood. I think I have found the finish for this one. Water proof, tough and attractive. I will still use turpinetine, bee's wax and spar varnish on my muzzleloaders, for show.
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<br>Bullwnkl.

Skip the English, French and Bastogne. Go with AAA or Exhibition Claro.
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