Thread: LVL stock

Planning on scratching out a stock, the stock is for a specific horseback hunting rig,

What are peoples thoughts about using Nelson pine LVL.

I was thinking it would be a good choice for it's stability, once sealed and painted.

Interesting to hear some opinions.

Cheers,
Willy

Why not, you won't know till you try it.

It won't be the lightest stock in the world but LVL does the job. I've never tried doing chequering in pine, have gone with a random dimpled grip pattern.

plywood/laminate stock will be more stable...possibly heavier... pine is boring but if thats what you want to use and have...why not.

Hmmm that stock looks ever so familiar Joe haha

I'm surprised Ry let's you look at it It's not even your gun anymore.

Haha never was haha it still lives in my lock up haha

Cheers for the input guys, I'm going to have a bit of a play, not sure how dense lvl is compared to the likes of walnut.

Not overly dense in terms of the grain. I find it easier to do the inletting when the top and sides of the stock are still square. Get the action sitting in nicely then shape the outside of the stock.
Have a go, you'll learn a lot as you go.

I carved a large fruit bowl out of a left over piece of LVL and it came up nicely after a few coats of Danish oil(sorry, no photos). Don't see why it wouldn't be good as a laminated stock.

I would avoid plywood. I made a stock from it once and it was a bastard to work because of the varying grain direction between layers and it was also too flexible since a lot of the grain is in the wrong direction for a rifle stock.

For the amount of effort that goes into even a basic stock, I reckon its worth getting hold of something stronger like a bit of beech or ash, pine is very soft and easy to damage.

LVL is not just plywood.
"NelsonPine LVL is a structural engineered wood product manufactured from rotary peeled veneers, assembled with parallel grain orientation and bonded with an exterior structural adhesive."
Sounds a bit like what laminated stocks are made of.

The individual veneers are not dense being pine but the finished product as a whole is quite dense and heavy.

I bring home offcuts from lintels usually 250x90mm and use them as log splitting blocks, I get about a year out of one before it splits in half and that's a lot of hits from a hand log splitter on logs.