Gunstock blanks: how to buy the best

Shooting Industry, Oct, 1990 by Ron Swartley

Gunstock Blanks

The tracking down of good blanks of fine walnut (or maple, myrtle, or other suitable wood) for the making of custom gunstocks is something of an art these days. Most of the stock blanks used by gun manufacturers and those offering semi-inletted replacement stocks are much simpler to buy, because the wood is pretty much all of the same quality -- plain in color and figure, and with no great pains expended in the drying process. But for the gunsmith, gun shop owner, enthusiast, professional stockmaker, and other gun fancier interested in top grade stock blanks, the selection job isn't quite so easy. It's much like buying a fine thoroughbred horse in that if you know what to look for, and choose wisely, you stand a good chance of buying a winner. Dale Goens, the noted master stockmaker (he's built well over 1,000 rifle and shotguns stocks for fine long guns in a distinguishes career) has had extensive experience in the buying of stock blanks.

"When talking quality in gunstock wood, we're talking quality as seen by the true perfectionist," Goens says. "The best in color, figure, and strong grain pattern, as only nit picky wood fanciers know them."

The great majority of gunstocks are made from the wood of the walnut tree, although there will always be devotees of maple, myrtle, and exotic woods like mesquite. There are several varieties of walnut used by stockmakers today. Thin-shelled English walnut, claro, black, and a hybrid known as bastogne, constitute the bulk of them. (There has always been confusion and debate over the names of various walnut woods. Circassian, French, "California French," and others.) All of these have exceptional qualities of strength at reasonable weight, ease of shaping and finishing, stability over time, and at least the potential for attractive figure and color. Goens has a personal preference for English walnut, but he has made stocks from just about every conceivable gunstock wood.

In the history of firearms, walnut has been the most universally accepted for high quality stocks. Whatever the name they go by, they're grown all over the world. Not unexpectedly, walnut trees grown in some parts of the world seem to make better high grade gunstocks than those grown in other parts. Which particular area grows the best is largely a matter of individual opinion, and a subject of some controversy. You'll find that with today's burgeoning trade between nations, stock blanks (not only walnut) arrive in the U.S. from New Zealand, Greece, the Caucasus, France, Belgium, and everywhere between. In the U.S. the greatest volume of blanks -- and in many experts' opinions, thebest -- come from California, where there are many wood sawyers specializing in the finding and cutting of suitable walnut trees. These wood cutters have developed a knack for finding good trees and having the ability to cut the wood precisely to fit the gunstock format. Most trees are found in old walnut orchards. The best cutters are fooled sometimes, finding a tree that has high quality wood growing next to one that looks the same, but turns out to be a dead loss. Most of the blanks are rather plain, and end up as assembly line stocks for the big gun manufacturers. But most of the time, even the plain ones don't go directly to the buyers before a drying process takes place. And here is where the practitioners of fine stockmaking part company with the users of the "plain vanilla" wood. For the method in which a stock blank is dried significantly determines how much quality it ends up with. "Rapid drying can't help but reduce the color possibilities, make the wood fibers more brittle and unstable, and increase the chances of cracking," says Goens. It's a view which is universally accepted among professional stockmakers. Most blanks are fast dried in a kiln for a few months prior to sale, and with a plain one it doesn't matter so much if there is a loss of color, or if the wood isn't supple enough to take precision checkering. It'll end up pretty plain no matter what you do to it. But with a stock fitted to an expensive long gun -- one that has beautiful color and figure --rapid drying usually won't do. So this is the first thing the prospective buyer of a high grade blank may want to determine about a piece of wood. How long was it dried, and for how long? If it was kiln dried, that could end the negotiations right there (though not necessarily). It the blank has been strictly air dried, ask the seller for how long a time. If the reply you get is 7 or 8 years, it may pay to be a bit skeptical, especially if you don't know the reputation of the wood dealer. Time is money these days, and for a stock blank dealer to keep his wood around for so long without it producing income, would be somewhat unusual. "The first think I do when I get a new stock blank home is to weight it," says Goens. "The I weigh it again 6 months later. If I find the blank has lost a lot of weight right off the bat, I know the seller was probably fibbing when he told me it had 6 or 7 years of air dry time on it." Goens, as a personal practice, lets his blanks air dry for several additional years in his Cedar Crest, New Mexico shop after purchase. "a piece of wood is never doen moving even after four years of drying time," he maintains. "The more time on it before you cut into it, the better." Most reputable stock blank suppliers will have two to three years of air dry time on wood before it's sold, and most stockmakers will in turn let it hang for several more years after that.