A little bit of eye candy for you folks

[Scorch]

A few jobs I recently completed. Enjoy!

Remington 700 in fiddleback maple, absolutely beautiful piece of wood!


Winchester 1886 Lightweight Rifle XX Fancy American black walnut. That is a really nice piece of wood.


Something a little less classic and a little more fun. Remington 700 single shot in 22-6mm.


And finally, a nice little Winchester Low Wall.

Hope you like it!

[Nine the Ranger]

I think that last Winchester is my favorite.

Gotta love that classic look.

[dos0711]

I'm a lever fan so the 1886 gets my vote! Very nice!

[impalacustom]

Is that 86 a takedown? What caliber. What caliber is the 85? Did you do the case hardening and bluing?

[Hunter Customs]

Scorch,
I like all of them, beautiful work.
There's nothing like a fine piece of wood to compliment a fine firearm.
Thanks for the pictures.

Best Regards
Bob Hunter

[mrawesome22]

The first 700 :thumbup:

Sent from a Linux kernel.

[WillyKern69]

Very Nice.

[Brian Pfleuger]

Excellent! The bluish green thing isn't my style but it's still a very nice gun. Love the wood in that first one. :drool:

[Scorch]

Thanks everyone for the comments.

Is that 86 a takedown? What caliber. What caliber is the 85? Did you do the case hardening and bluing?

The 1886 is indeed a takedown, it is an original Winchester 1886 Lightweight Rifle after all. Caliber was originally .33 WCF, the barrel has been rebored and rechambered to .348 Winchester. The wood was redone similar to Winchester factory design.

The Winchester 1885 Low Wall is a 22LR. I did the wood, John Taylor at Taylor Machine did the metal work, the bluing is done by another shop, the color case hardening is original factory.

[flashhole]

Very nice. I've often wondered why we don't see more maple stocks. That top pic is a beauty.

[BIG P]

EYE CANDY INDEED,Thanks for sharing,Very nice.

[Inspector3711]

Nice work Scorch. Man I just love maple. The wife has a very nice maple 12 string guitar. I can just sit and stare at that thing.

[hootey]

Nice, very nice, quality work such as shown here, is very hard find these days. You are a true craftsman....

[bigautomatic]

They are all beautiful, but I'd give my left pinky toe for that low wall. Love it!

[G.I.DAVE]

WHOA!

That Winchester is fantastic!

[4V50 Gary]

Is that a Winchester A-5 scope on the Winchester?

[Scorch]

Is that a Winchester A-5 scope on the Winchester?

I don't know. The customer took the pic after he had put the sights back on the rifle, and he is a better photographer than I am, so I used his picture.

[FrankenMauser]

That's a great piece of Maple.

I always talk about putting some good looking Maple on a rifle. But... when I see one, I always think the wood is too light.
Then again... I have been curing a giant chunk of Maple for 3 years, because I can't bring myself to get rid of it. It has a great Fiddleback section at one end, transitioning to straight grain at the other. I lust over wrapping that wood around one of my rifles. ...but I'll never do it. The color is too light.

My grandfather has an absolutely breathtaking piece of Bird's Eye Maple on a Springfield. It is simply amazing. ...but the color is too light for the rifle.

My father somehow snagged a fantastic piece of Fiddleback Maple (with some quilted areas) as a "factory second" a year, or so, ago. It looks amazing. ...but the color is too light for the rifle.


The Low Wall's wood is too dark, but makes me drool.

I have issues...

[Scorch]

I always talk about putting some good looking Maple on a rifle. But... when I see one, I always think the wood is too light.

That stock was almost white, about like basswood or tulipwood if you are familiar with those, much too light to see the figure or grain. Once you learn how, it is easy to bring out a little bit of color in a light piece of maple. If I had kept going it would look almost like highly figured walnut, but the customer wanted blond wood so that's what he got. So go ahead, don't be afraid of the light.

[fishduck]

The topic EYE Candy was right on target...

[maas]

You can't beat winchesters, especially when they're as purty as those!

[zukiphile]

Scorch, a question on the 700 stock, if you don't mind.

Where a stock has the grain running vertically, as the one in your picture does, is it less resistant to bending stresses? Is it more likely to break?

[infmp32]

Gorgeous looking rifles, Scorch. Well done.

[FrankenMauser]

Where a stock has the grain running vertically, as the one in your picture does, is it less resistant to bending stresses? Is it more likely to break?

The grain is actually running the length of the stock, like on any other properly selected stock blank.

But... Fiddleback Maple is called such, due to the wavy lines in the grain. They produce light and dark stripes, due to differences in light reflection.

You might also see it referred to as "Tiger Stripe Maple" or "Curly Maple".

The grain still runs in the normal direction, but the grain structure has unique reflective properties.

Another (expensive) variation of Maple is Quilted Maple, which generally blows everyone's mind when they see it.

[Scorch]

Where a stock has the grain running vertically, as the one in your picture does, is it less resistant to bending stresses? Is it more likely to break?

As Frankenmauser pointed out, the grain runs lengthwise (from the butt to the forend). This is typical of rifle stocks and is done for shear strength (the amount of force that would be required to break the stock into two pieces). The figure is wavy grain, a natural characteristic of the wood in high-stress areas of the tree that makes it less likely to break across the grain (actually kind of like corrugated cardboard. Ever try to tear corrugated?). The figure appears when you cut a straight line through the wavy grain. The figure can sometimes cause issues with warping, but typically only if it is uneven from one side of the stock to the other.

Figured woods are often called soundwoods, because their structure makes them vibrate much more consistently and longer than straight grained wood, and these types of wood are often used in musical instruments. Figured wood is somewhat rare, I have read estimates that less than 3% of hardwood lumber exhibits figure, although in maple it is quite common. Typically, the more figure a piece of wood has, the more you pay for it. In addition to fiddleback maple, there is curly, pillow/quilted, and "flame maple" (an extreme combination of wavy, curly, and pillow) that looks like flames (duh).

Class is over.