I had a large pecan tree get blown down in my yard recently. My grandparents planted the tree so I have thought about having the trunk sawed into thick slabs and having a stock or two made as an heirloom. I also inherited a revolver from my grandfather so I thought about getting some grips made.

Anyone own either and would post some pics?

That sounds like a really cool idea. I've never seen one but that doesn't make it any less cool. Good luck.

Sounds like a cool idea. My only experience with pecan wood is for flooring. It was brittle and prone to splits. Much more so than walnut.

Just be sure to let the wood cure! Good luck!

Sorry, but not a good idea...

Pistol/revolver grips are doable, but not particularly easily.

Wood for stocks has a very specific set of requirements and pecan covers almost all of them well... But that little thing about longitudinal shock rsistance...

Tough, hard, dense, flexible, shock resistant, and so much more just cannot overcome "Unstable in service" and that is why you will never see a pecan stock.

There are cases where it could work, like a stock for a very low-recoiling rifle. But the simple fact is the wood is so unstable the stock will be a problem at some point.

And all of the above presumes the wood will be cut and cared for as it dries and settles in over at least 10 years.

Pecan is far less stable than the rest of the hickories, too.

There are many uses for hickory every bit as difficult and technical as gun stocks, but the physical properties match up.

The work-around could be some sort of laminate, but that kinda defeats your purpose. It makes good picture frames and display boxes, though.

We made some custom knives for a good customer using pecan that he supplied. That stuff was a real pain to get dry and stabilized. It was beautiful wood when finally finished, but never will we use customer supplied pecan again.

Some early Savage 99s had "fruitwood" stocks, and the consesus among the collectors is they were pecan. I had one, and found the wood clear and consistent, but unremarkable grain character, like beech, only softer.

I'd be firing up the smoker

I highly doubt the ID of pecan as fruit wood on 99s. I have seen beech and apple on 99s.

It would take a long time to use up that much pecan...

It makes great flooring...

Not really....I generally grill with it, instead of charcoal, as well. I take all the pecan chunks I can get.

Plus you can throw some in the fire pit to keep your butt warm while you're smoking a butt.

If you want to try to build a stock out of the pecan for heirloom reasons, you might stock something like a pre-64 in .220 Rocket or .240 Wby. Neither of those would likely generate the recoil that would cause you the problems that Art is predicting..

This is kind of the way I was leaning, maybe matching stocks for the pair. My gunsmith does a lot of stock work and I've talked to him about this project. He gave me similar advice that it will work, but I'd want to keep my cartridge choices on the lower end of the recoil spectrum. Anyway, it will be a few years down the road for any of this to come to fruition since it will take a long time for the wood to dry. I was just hoping someone out there might have a photo of one to give me an idea of what to expect.

If you cut blanks, make sure you wax the ends and cut them plenty thick. You want them drying slowly to minimize cracking from the ends and surface checking (although excessively quick drying may not be too much a problem in Mississippi.) But if you set back some blanks, and then they don't work out, you are not out anything.

I say give it a try. My father make jewelry boxes/pistol cases out of a tree that fell in his parents' yard and gifted them to his kids and grandkids.

The wood we made the knife handles out of was very light in color with some pink tints. The pieces the guy gave us to work with had a good bit of crotch wood that had good figure and the pink color. It would make a great looking stock if the blanks could be cut so that some of the figure from the crotch could be placed correctly.

I would try it if it had some figure. You could soak it in epoxy and that would stabilize it but I don't think that's needed. I would stain it slightly red/brown walnut as it is kinda of light and bland colored otherwise. Great on the grill or smoker.

All of the smaller pieces, stuff too small to cut into lumber, went to the deer camp. Used some of it to smoke some whole chickens last week. Good stuff!

We should have plenty of it for smoking purposes to easily last all season.

Pecan is turning into a rare wood these days. You have some good ideas about that tree, and congratulations about both taking care of the tree and receiving the gun from your grandparents.

I make handmade knives. Many of my creations are made with stabilized pecan handles. The pecan wood I have rivals and fiddleback walnut you might run across...got some nice crotch wood as well. Both are dead ringers for walnut. I'll try and post a few pics.

By all means try and save your pecan, but when you slab it up, make sure you seal the ends completely. Pecan is actually a type of hickory and it'll split like crazy during dry down.

If it is not too late dig up the root crown this is almost sure to have more grain and figure to it than the trunk. It's a pain and you can go through several chain saw blades hitting rocks but once done it is worth it. Do it by hand and high pressure hose or rent an air chisel.

Carbide chains and a pressure-washer are your friends...

Thanks Tate

I have a large Pecan tree and have wondered about using some for a rifle stock.

Thanks to you guys who have experience w/Pecan. I learned from this thread.

Jerry

A stock for an old 22lr like a 52 or 511 etc might be cool also.

Pecan and Mesquite mixed together is my favorite bbq wood.

Can a stock be made from mesquite wood?