Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Maple blanks---Pacific, Quilted, Shelled.....

Here is some quilted [shelled] maple from our local forests that I was considering having laminated into one stock blank, or incorporating with other maple to make two blanks. It is big-leafed maple otherwise known as Pacific maple. I have two blanks and both are about 2 1/16 inch thick. I only picture one here, but they are from the same log. Although I love this wood, it might be a little gaudy for me!

Have any of you used this wood on stocks?

I've got a piece of Quilt that I'm working on for handgun grips, if I ever get around to it. Don't think I could put that on a rifle though. I think it might be a little soft for a rifle as well, if a hard recoiling rifle, though I have seen some done on small caliber rifles before.

Looks great as pony wall finish or railing though!

333
I love it for rifle stocks and have several right now including a Mark X mauser in burly 25-06 and Miss T's 7 in 7-08. Both blanks were from the same chunk, but oriented 90 degrees from each other. Makes for some pretty spectacular stocks.

Have used it for an extremely lightweight 30-06 that has seen much use and is still going strong. I hog a little extra wood out when bedding and ensure they are put together snugly and have had no difficulties of any kind. the strength to weight ratio is incredible.

With an epoxy seal coat the wood is tough, hard and easily repaired. The only objection is trying to checker the stuff too finely... Keep it at 18-20 lpi and it works fine enough.

No one has looked at Miss T's 7-08 and called it gaudy yet.
art

Her stock is Spectacular- I was impressed

Gaudy? As they say, beauty's in the eye. I adore that wood. If I could afford it, I'd be trying my hardest to buy it from you. (Drooling right now and thinking part time job) Then when my brother drives up to visit his daughter in Fairbanks, drop it and a barreled action at Sitka's place. Isn't it thick enough as is? Why laminate?

Here are a couple shots of the two stocks mentioned. They are from the same chunk which was cut at about 5'x5'x8". It dried for several years before being reduced to blanks and drying for another several years. The remains are good for another rifle and two-piece blank and are about 14 years from the stump.

I gave pak a piece for his SKB SXS, but it still needs work. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />





The lower is the Seven and the Mark X is the upper. As I posted above, the Seven is a boardsawn orientation, where the other is quartersawn. Both have an epoxy base coat and Tru-oil on top.

I have seen many broken wrists on many stocks and I have seen some bigleaf maple challenged by thin wrists on 12ga doubles, for example, and have never seen a bigleaf stock break. I do not like the idea or the execution of laminating stock wood, but it will be more stable. Bigleaf stability is not the issue though, IMO.

Also, tight figure like curl, quilt or feather actual strengthens the wood. There is an almost direct correlation between specific gravity of the wood and its strength. Figured wood is always in the denser end of a given species' specific gravity spectrum.
art

Note the checkering is cleaner, at 20lpi on the mauser than on the Seven at 18lpi. That is due to the orientation. There are more scraping cuts with the checkering tool in boardsawn orientation than the quartersawn.
art

Excellent rifles Sitka! I love the color of the maple from the Pac Nor West. The wood you see on my post came from a fallen tree outside of Redding Calif, where the temperature gets well over 110 degrees every year. A duplicator told me that if I did not want a cheeck piece I would be fine with these at 2 1/16 inch thick for a stock.

333
I never use a duplicator, just start cutting from scratch. It takes a little longer, but I feel like I get to know the wood a lot better by the time I get to the critical final fitting and make it tighter for it...

I do not need 2" on most stocks... I seldom make cheekpieces.
art

I also have a piece that is the same as the lower stock( 1st pic), for my custom Win 52. Both, of my projects, need work. Right now I'm project poor around this house. Someday I make those stocks right. Tomorrow's project is a batch of King salmon in the smoker. Yesterday's was a bunch of smoked cheese. Art has the most extensive stock wood inventory imaginable.pak

Well, I'm a no-count, lying, dirty dog... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />
I do have one very "interesting" maple stocked rifle that I think is a real beaut. Not a big game rifle, though.

My Weatherby XXII






Purty, ain't it? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

pak
Shhhhhhh! I don't want Miss T to notice those piles! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
art

Yup, it is purty!

As interesting as the rifle stocks are, they have nothing on my guitar, which has the most beautiful fiddleback maple top and back.... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Sitka, The king is out and drying. Silver is very good, King is wonderful. I have a few peices reserved for you, M & R.pak

Rorschach would have something to say about someone that confuses prison bar figure with the beauty of free expression! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Or better, the flowers of Georgia O'Keeffe which can certainly be found in good burl! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

pak
Will be going right past your place tomorrow morning, will call before we head uptown, and thank you VERY much!
art

I certainly like Burl, feathering and birdseye in maple. I find the quilted stuff is extraordinary, but not for rifle stocks. That's just me, I'd love to have that on my guitar or woodwork on furniture or trimwork about the house. It really is wonderful. Tigerstripping isn't prison bars, it's immitating the zebra, dontcha know, or the annuli on a sheep's horns!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Though have seen some dark stained maple on rifles that was really nice. I prefer walnut, though. I love the mineral streaking and marble as long as the grain is correct through the forearm, action, and wrist.

Cannot imagine limiting myself to only walnut stocked rifles... I love walnut, but there is also room for myrtle, maples, cherry and others to go WITH a slew of assorted walnuts... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

One of the all time best looking stocks I�ve seen was a quilted maple that had been dark stained before finishing. Kind of a walnut stain which left lighter highlights on the quilts�Very cool, very nice looking�I may do one myself some time.