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Has anyone used mahogany as a rifle stock?
Looking at the specs it looks suitable in terms of stability etc. Will attempt at making my first stock in the near future and have access to a large supply of well seasoned 60+ years mahogany.
Any drawbacks? I understand it probably won’t be as light as walnut but that’s not an issue as if it goes well I might make another out of a walnut blank. Thanks in advance
I've got one a mate made for me 55years ago. A bit heavier but stable and strong. Never had any problems with it.
Good to know. Cheers
I have an english hammer shotgun with a mahogany butt. It is heavier but its very stable and finishes well
You can always hollow out the butt section and barrel channel if you want to save some weight
Yep I built a mahogany stock for a Omark action target rifle. easy to work with and very stable. Go for it.
Always go with the grain and use very sharp tools.
Ask me how I know.
so what have we got in NZ suitable - I know red beech has been used - maple used in states likely rare here - kauri ?? - Matai ?? - totara ?? be interesting to know
Honey suckle has nice grain.
Honey suckle is not a stable wood it suffers from cell collapse while drying. found this out the hard way when I milled some.Quote:
Originally Posted by SmokeyJason
yup very brittle honey suckle and quite often to get good grain it is cut on the quarter grain and used as very thin slices - I reckon kauri could be worth a look
by honey suckle you fellas mean rewarewa???? my older brother got a set of riot batterns made from it ...for martial arts.....it dented aussie hardwood.... Ive seen lee enfield stock done with it.... guess its all a matter of getting correctly seasoned piece.
totora would be light and easy to carve BUT splits really easily....guess it would be stronger than paulownia so might just work.
matai would be heavy..also splits super easily
mairie...you would need to be a massacist to attempt it with a wood that hard
Rata would look great if could keep the purple hue
Tawa would be plain as very willow like
our boy Tasman has a nice T3 with rimu stock he built himself....
Yep Rewarewa. Beautiful wood when quarter sawn but hard to work withQuote:
Originally Posted by Micky Duck
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.
well what about kauri - was ships spars and masts early days - pohutukawa used for bow sprits but likely just to heavy- ake ake hard as hell but diameter of trunk to small - maybe laminated - didnt our NZ made .22 Bradley was it ?? I remember them being advertised with NZ red beech stocks - kanuka can grow big enoughQuote:
Originally Posted by Moa Hunter
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Moa Hunter
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 stunningQuote:
Originally Posted by Bhess
Attachment 229368
Sort of timber it will be made of
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.
Kowhai is nice, just hard to get decent sized bits that aren't full of grub holes from what I have seen.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tentman
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
Attachment 229377
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.
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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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 slabsQuote:
Originally Posted by 6x47
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.
Attachment 236475Attachment 236472
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.
Well, that came out pretty bloody good! Well done.
Rewarewa is very unstable having a massive sensitivity to moisture changes.
Tawa was used extensively for flooring , sarking and furniture , known as NZ Oak. I think iy would make good rifle stocks once properly milled and seasoned.
Podocarps all too soft including kauri. Kaik and silver pine soft. Kamahi is a hardwood and as for kowhai, might be worth a look. Puriri extremely stable and dense, but very heavy.. Lamination increases options of most of the above and could result in very attractive and strong stocks.
That looks nice, certainly different.
