Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Beginners Guide to Picking a stock blank

Wondering if you guys would pass on some knowledge on picking out a stock blank for a custom stick. I hear comments like "Layout is more important than figure"...though I understand the terms "layout" and "figure", I don't understand how to identify proper layout on a blank.
I see various lengths and thickness when looking at blanks...what length is needed for the typical sporter style stock? What thickness would be a minimum to be able to have a proper cheekpiece?

For a blank there are several things you want to look for. First and foremost look for proper layout. The grain should flow nicely through the butt and run straight or preferably follow the curve of the grip. it should run straight from the grip clear through the forearm tip. Although it is considered acceptable to have a some small upturn in the forearm. When i shop for a blank I prefer to look for a perfectly quarter sawn blank although I have bought and used slab sawn before. I like the grain in the butt to turn down towards the toe. To me figure is secondary to layout. look for a 35" long blank. They say you can do a cheek piece with 2 1/4" thick but give the stock maker some wiggle room adn try and find 2 1/2" or thicker if you can. The best way to look for proper layout is to make yourself a template by tracing your stock onto something you can use as an overlay. I have seen a lot of guys use cardboard but I prefer a piece of clear plastic sheeting so that I can see the wood under the template and adjust it for best layout. A friend of mine made a scaled down template that fits his computer monitor. he enlarges the photo of a blank to the proper scale on his monitor using the dimensions supplied by the seller. he then lays his template over the photo on the monitor and can see how it will lay out for a stock. It really helps him when blank shopping via the computer.

This is a great place to start.

http://www.dressels.com/

Dimensions are listed and layout is great on the wood they have pictured. Call and speak to Sharon Dressel, very nice folks and more than happy to help.

Simple rules:

Forend, the grain needs to run straight or turn up slightly near the end. Not only does it look better but it also contributes to a more stable stock.

Grip (most important area), the grain can run straight through this area (looking from the side) but idealy it needs to turn down a little. More importantly, you need to make sure the grain doesn't turn out anywhere in this area looking at it from the top. This is where most stocks break from bad layout. Just make sure you have a nice straight grain line from the back of the action to the start of the butt.

Butt, this is open to what you like. The only thing I try to stay away from is blanks that are laidout with the grain turning up in the butt area. These never look right to me when finished.

Nice layout: straight through the forend, turned down in the grip and the butt turns down a little more.


Bad layout: grain turns down in the forend, cross grain in the grip area. Bark pocket in the butt area.




While a badly laid out blank can be used successfully (I used the one in the example above) you'll get a lot nicer stock if you bypass it and sacrifice a little figure for a better layout. You'll hear the comment many times "grain doesn't follow figure" this is true but,,, except for the base of the tree (butt area) figure does pretty much follow grain.

Just remember when shopping for a stock blank, grain flow on the top and bottom of the stock are as important as what you see on the sides and straight is best. it'll also give you an idea of what's on the iside of the blank. IMPORTANT TIP> The more figure lines you see on the top and bottom of the blank the more figure you'll see after the stock is turned.

Last, there are three different cuts when it comes to stock blanks; slab, rift and quater cut. All three can make a great stock but there are differences. Most of what you'll see will be slab cut.

Slab cut: They get more blanks out of a tree with this cut but it will also create layout problems a lot of the time. Sometimes trying to figure out what a slab cut stock will look like after it's turned can be nothing more than a complete guess. A plain stock blank may have a lot of figure on the inside or it may have next to none. You can also get "one sided stocks" where one side will have nice figure and the other will look plain or have much less figure. IMO, slab cut stocks are the least stable because they tend to move from side to side and not up and down. Your chances of getting a finished stock that both sides don't match are greatest with a slab cut blank.

Rift cut: These are a cross between slab and quarter cut and are sold as true quarter cut most of the time. The nice thing about these is they very much resemble true quarter cut wood, are stable and what you see on the outside is usually on the inside. Usually your better pieces of 1 piece rifle wood are rift cut.

Quarter cut This is a rarer cut than most people realize and mainly used on two piece stocks where the seller can get enough stocks out of the tree to justify the cost.



This is only a start, but it should help you get started shopping.

Terry

These posts helped a ton! Thanks for the detailed explaination and pics Terry!

Thanks for explaining the different cuts. I've always wondered what the terminology meant

Terry's post should be made a sticky.

Here is a few slabs that I have picked up...

The middle piece of English and the 700 on the right are out together right now getting restocked. (ignore the prices on any of them, not even close to what I paid). The piece of crotch Black walnut will likely end up on a rifle and not a two piece stock as is laid out on it... I was just seeing if I could fit two stock out of it and if the layout would match for a possible pair. On that note, almost all Black walnut you see cut with a huge crotch in it, are cut backward and would make terrible stocks, its hard to find one where the grain actually flows into the crotch in a way that makes for a good layout.





some pictures of the other sides... not a fancy fancy stock but just enough to figure to be interesting and well laid out...





here are a few pieces of English that came out of Turkey For two piece stocks),

The first one (from the left) is nearly perfectly quarter sawn, the second one is actually rift sawn but has so much "junk" (meant in a good way) in it that the grain just runs all over but I think it will actually end up working out for an incredible stock. The bottom two are both slab sawn though most would think they are quarter sawn from the side... thats why you need pictures from the top (as shown)...



the top of one of the two pieces on the right


The end of the rift sawn piece.

[img]http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg272/lohmaraj/stock%20blanks%20and%20wood/IMG_0818.jpg[/img]

the end of the quarter sawn piece

[img]http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg272/lohmaraj/stock%20blanks%20and%20wood/IMG_0824.jpg[/img]

side views of the quarter sawn piece

[img]http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg272/lohmaraj/stock%20blanks%20and%20wood/IMG_0820.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg272/lohmaraj/stock%20blanks%20and%20wood/IMG_0819.jpg[/img]

Great posts! Truly informative. Thanks to everyone!

if you are looking to get some good info on stock making, les brooks has offered thumb drives with LOTS of info on them covering stock making, checkering and metal work. it is $30 bux well spent IMO.

The question of quarter v. rift v. flat sawn is both confusing and somewhat contentious. Sometimes it is very hard to tell, as in the blank below.



In addition, a blank can be quarter sawn in the butt and have grain flow far more consistent with flat sawn in the forend.

Finally, I have had AGCG gunsmiths tell me that they don't really care about quarter v. flat sawn, and can make perfectly fine stocks out of either. As a result, it has dropped way down my list of criteria.

One feature that does not get much play is density, which is typically correlated with strength. Roger Vardy in Australia has his website sortable by density. I mean, why put a heavy dense blank on a 7x57, and end up with a much heavier gun than need be? But density cannot be determined over the web.

good points Utah, many of my stock blanks are quarter sawn on one end and riff sawn on the other...

actually from what I have seen the best stocks tend to be quarter sawn through the wrist and then twist and be either riff or slab sawn through the butt for a combination of strength and then character.

OK, help out a slow learner here . . . how can a stock be quarter sawn on one end and riff sawn on the other??? Looking at the diagram above, it's hard for me to picture that.

imagine if the grain rings of the stock were beginning to turn to enter a large branch (or root). The actual cut may not have changed but the appearance in the grain lines of the blank will appear as it was cut one way on one end, and another way on the other end.

Gotcha - makes perfect sense! I was reading it as a change of actual cuts!