Thread: Question regarding wooden stocks

What would be the best wood to make a custom wooden stock for an older rifle? ie what would be the nicest wood to use and hardest to obtain in NZ? I'd like to try make one out of something really nice! Any ideas?

Walnut?

Swamp ash

https://cookwoods.com

awesome site. Cheers mate. Will take a look through

Rewarewa-NZ Honey Suckle has grain honey combed like oak but harder than hobs of hell
would look great but would take a lot of hard graft to get it into shape.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Rewarewa-NZ Honey Suckle has grain honey combed like oak but harder than hobs of hell
would look great but would take a lot of hard graft to get it into shape.

It is beautiful timber alright.

It is only available in the smaller sizes as it shrinks like buggery & generally goes from a Rectangle to a Rhombus type shape once dried...

I love nicely grained walnut. Go into a gunshop and see what the really nice guns stocks are made from. Some of the Turkish walnut is beautiful.

Yeah i was checking the walnut ones out on that website. Crazy prices for the wood but it does look very nice!!

Check out this guy on trademe Walnut rifle stock | Trade Me not quite as expensive

As a side drift, i saw a knife making article the other day (maybe "the shed" magazine, but not sure), and the guy put the wood for the handles in a tank filled with some kind of densifying liquid and then pulled a vacum in the tank. A amazing amount of bubbles came out from the wood, and it was some kind of hard wood to start with. Then afetr releasing the vacum, he heated the wood up some how to activate/set the stuff. I think it increased the weight a bit, but made the wood bloody hard and resist dents etc.... Maybe you could do it to a stock to look after it?
And please post pics when you start!

There is a wood specialist City timber on Thorton Quay. in Wellington. A workmate just bought a piece of Green Oak to make a stock for $27!

Laminating different timbers together is another option for you, can come up with some pretty neat looking stocks with a bit of imagination.
Cheers

I have messed with plenty of stuff over my time and I wont bother with anything else but walnut now.
I invest too much time and energy into making a stock to use a bit of cheap rubbish.
I think $250 minimum for a stock is about rite.
greg

What he said. I also play around with stocks and have a really nice peice of walnut in the shed right now. Lovely colour and grain but it has decided to twist which has left me slightly peeved as it was stored the right way