Those of you who have a copy of Jim Carmichel's Book of The Rifle, there is a chapter on stock wood and Stockmakers containing lots of great information on wood and craftsmen. By the way, one of the beautiful rifles pictured was crafted for Dave Petzal by Winston Churchill of stock making fame, not British politics. Another good read is Checkering & Carving of Gunstocks by the late great Momty Kennedy.

Carmichel's book, written in 1985, mentions synthetic stocks as being the wave of the future. It appears he was right, but I still love beautiful wood, and glad I own mt share. Kindest Regards

I think another type of figure in maple is called curly maple. I have seen pictures of some old muskets that had beautiful maple stocks.

I've seen some European rifles with gun stocks that appeared to have wood of the same grade and looks that you would use to frame a house. I wonder what that's called?

@ idahoguy - I think that's called "Russian"

Birdseye maple is beautiful and I see blanks for sale all the time but be aware that it's not very strong. I have seen two of these break at the comb. One was even a thumbhole stock.

Birch has a tendency to twist as it ages, therefore it is not a good choice for gunstocks. Dave, probably what you are thinking is stained birch is actually red alder or even poplar (very hard to differentiate the two woods). The stuff is steady (no twisting) and easily machined (one of the softer hardwoods) but swells easily, usually works its way loose from the action (especially two piece stocks), and any time the stain gets scratched it leaves an unslightly blond scar. Back in the late sixties and seventies when the race was on among the major gunmakers to see who could make the cheapest crummiest piece of crap guns with which to flood the market, walnut stained alder stocks were very common. Rarely are they hand checkered. Because the wood is so soft I doubt it would hold up. The checkering is usually pressed in with a machine (and butt ugly!).

There are many types of mahogany. Some are exceedingly beautiful but most of these species are now endangered and importation is restricted or banned. Phillipine mahogany is the stuff doors are made of. Like alder, it's really too soft for gun stocks, in my opinion. It can be quite grainy and I doubt anyone could hand checker the stuff.

I've got two large sections of Olive tree trunk that are large enough to make at least a few stocks. I just don't know anyone personally who can/will do it. My 'smith has no experience with olive and says he doesn't know anyone who does, but he's looking. The trees were just cut down a couple months ago.

These trees are 60-plus years old that had to be removed. I didn't pay a dime to have them removed, as that cost was picked up by two carving partners who specialize in olive wood to make bowls, salad utensils, etc. It is gorgeous wood, and the carvers were all too happy to pay for the tree removal in exchange for most of the wood. I know it cost at least $1,800 to remove those trees.

Believe many old Remington 1100's were stocked with mahogany. Light weight.

There was a self taught gunsmith that lived way back in the mountains when I was first staioned in the county I live in now. He made almost all of his gunstocks out of cherry. Some of the prettiest stocks that I have ever seen he made. I would love to have a stock made out of that dark cherry. It didn't have a lot of figure in the wood but the lustre was great. He passed away about 20 years ago before I could get a stock made for one of my rifles.

to all: I think you can make a gunstock out of nearly any wood. The question is, how good will it be? Years ago I handled a sporter rifle with a rosewood stock, and the thing weighed something like 13 pounds. Africa has probably a dozen species of hardwoods, and I mean hard, that we've never heard of, that might make terrific stocks.

I have little experience with gun stocks but at the SCI convention in Vegas last winter I saw gun stocks which should hang in the Louvre. Amazing what some of these guys can do with a hunk of wood.

hey dave,
what about ash? they use it for baseball bats, hard as hell.

pressureglued laminated bamboo methinks.. after using wood for anything has been outlawed offcourse :P

@ Ontario Honker --- For many years Mossberg, Marlin, as well as other manufacturers, listed some of their 'cheaper' line of guns as having a birch stock. The Model 60 and a lot of the Glenfield line come to mind as a couple of these. A lot of others also touted that their guns had a 'hardwood' stock. Unsure of what wood it actually was.
But it sure wasn't walnut. Mostly due to the cost of the wood.

"Walnut finished hardwood" offered on some economy-grade rifles is usually birch wood stained the color of walnut. Trouble is that the walnut color is only skin deep, and every little ding shows up as a white spot.

Many years ago a friend brought me a nice stock he had gotten his hands on somehow. Beautiful wood, weighed a ton and he asks me to checker it for him. I tried. Brand new checkering cutters barely scratched it! it was like trying to checker a diamond. He said he was told it was fancy walnut, I think it might have been Mesquite. And it WAS a pain in the a$$!

Bruisedsausage,
I've always wondered about Osage Orange. I grew up around hedge rows of it, that's what some farmers used to keep their cattle in back in the day because of the way it tangled around. God forbid a stupid cow managed to get in it, may as well butcher it there. It was the toughest wood to cut.
It looked 'stringy' to me for a stock but damn is it tough.

Duckdog, I got a blank of tiger maple that been in my gun room since the early 80's. Going to put a Kelby action in it next summer. Deadeye, what part of Pa is your friends from? I know some that do the same that live north of Pittsburgh

We have a piece of furniture made from mulberry that was cut from the family farm. The craftsman that made it said that while it was beautiful to look at, he would never, ever, have anything to do with mulberry again. Has anyone seen a stock or forend made of mulberry?

One of the nicest stocks I've ever seen was 100% birdeye maple with a light varnish finish holding a 6.5x55mm Sweedish Mauser, freshly reblued and quite a good looking piece of hardware. Those slow-growth woods with tight grain, properly aged, still make great stocks, even though they're a rare find.

To Tom-Tom, Mulberry is closely related to Osage Orange. IIRC, the Mulberry is just a little "softer' but plenty tough, stable and heavy.

I tried making a set of grips for a Ruger revolver out of American walnut. I must have made 20 of them. They were unstable and would shrink. I bought some Brazilian cherry and made a set out of that. It is a very hard wood, stable, and is dark in color, but not as dark as walnut. It has a very light reddish tint to it. Those grips turned out very nice. I left them smooth since I don't have a checkering tool set.

I used to make doors and I have used Brazilian Cherry it is harder than Oak. You can burn drill bits up on the stuff fast. I wonder why stocks have never been made out of Mahogany. Everyone makes doors out of it because it never moves or warps, is easy to work with, and insects hate it.

What is an ad teeling us to support Obama doing on your e-mail? He wants to outlaw guns! The gun nuts must really be nuts!