Thread: Mahogany for rifle stock?

Sort of timber it will be made of

Yeah I understand it won’t be as nice to look at as walnut, thing is I have it readily available, and it will be my first attempt. So something functional and not terrible looking is my goal. I can always upgrade later taking into account lessons learnt from my first attempt.

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

Mahogany Yuk !, like tacky 1970's furniture . If not traditional walnut, NZ native would be the way. Rata would be quite something to look at but being a mertle would be heavy.

Originally Posted by Bhess

Yeah I understand it won’t be as nice to look at as walnut, thing is I have it readily available, and it will be my first attempt. So something functional and not terrible looking is my goal. I can always upgrade later taking into account lessons learnt from my first attempt.

I have a couple of friends with antique mahogany tables and they look very nice with a fine grain. It is some of that course grained 1970's stuff - must be a different species that can look bad. Well finished and polished to a glass surface it might look stunning

That looks like it will come up nice, got any spare? haha

I'd say go for it. The biggest thing will be finding a bit with the correct grain flow through the wrist.

I've got a 22 target stock in totara, it is quite functional but did develop a Crack, and the gunsmith wasn't very keen on it as it didn't "carve" like walnut.

Now if I was looking to do a real NZ timber stock I'd look long and hard till I found the right bit of Kowhai, lightish, strong and wonderful grain. Paul Adam's (a West Coast bushman) told me his old people (Ngai Tahu) preferred it for walking and hill sticks if they could find the right bit. He gave my dad a bit to make a dog trails stick out of and it's fantastic.

Originally Posted by Tentman

I'd say go for it. The biggest thing will be finding a bit with the correct grain flow through the wrist.

I've got a 22 target stock in totara, it is quite functional but did develop a Crack, and the gunsmith wasn't very keen on it as it didn't "carve" like walnut.

Now if I was looking to do a real NZ timber stock I'd look long and hard till I found the right bit of Kowhai, lightish, strong and wonderful grain. Paul Adam's (a West Coast bushman) told me his old people (Ngai Tahu) preferred it for walking and hill sticks if they could find the right bit. He gave my dad a bit to make a dog trails stick out of and it's fantastic.

Kowhai is nice, just hard to get decent sized bits that aren't full of grub holes from what I have seen.
I would love to do one out of Rewarewa, but its not the nicest to work with, I did a knife handle out of it that looks great

To my eye, if the timber was stained to take the natural pinkish colour away it would look fine. I have some oxide powders that I add to boiled linseed that work very well for getting nice tones

Kauri in my opinion would be too soft to suit a rifle stock, dents very easily.
Agree on the comment about maire, have some lined up for overnight. The Rolls Royce of firewood but you've gotta be careful not to overdo it as it's very hard on fireboxes/grates. The density and hardness is waay up there.

Originally Posted by 6x47

Kauri in my opinion would be too soft to suit a rifle stock, dents very easily.
Agree on the comment about maire, have some lined up for overnight. The Rolls Royce of firewood but you've gotta be careful not to overdo it as it's very hard on fireboxes/grates. The density and hardness is waay up there.

this has been a neat thread - some great comments - yes fire wood came home when I was Ranger Waioeka Gorge and deer wife had filled pot belly with Puriri post off cuts and the poor thing was glowing red - now how about kanuka - I know the axe chopper boys used it for racing axe handles and many are big enough to mill stock sized slabs

The only source of kauri I can think of is swamp kauri and that’s very soft and light plus as said dents very easily


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Kanuka (IF you can get a millable size trunk) is about opposite to kauri, ie too dense/heavy. I've made fishing mates clubs from kanuka on the lathe, sure deals to "unco-operative" fish.

I once used some super-dense Asian hardwood that came off a pallet for turning a club. It was so dense that it immediately sunk when accidentally dropped in the water.

Mahogany has been widely used in the furniture industry for decades!
Now you can ask yourself why!
Straight and even grain, dimensional stable and not warping!
If you don’t like the looks of it - now that’s another story.

I’ve made them from mahogany, elm, Tasmanian Blackwood. The Blackwood is the nicest of those, even nicer than walnut at times - relatively close to Hawaiian koa. The Blackwood is heavy tho, but if you wanted to try it I have a straight grain blank you can have if you pay the shipping only

That’s a super generous offer thanks. I’ll give it a nudge with what I’ve got and see how it goes.

Couple of pics of my stock build. First coat of oil on the exterior. Need to fine sand a bit more and bed it.
Will finish with more oil and then furniture wax most likely.
By no means perfect but light, functional and not too hard on the eye.
Pretty happy with first attempt.