Rifles are stocked with synthetics because at one time they were all wood and people were buying synthetic stocks to replace them. It was probably the biggest after market item for rifles after optics. After a couple years of this manufacturers got the idea if we just put synthetic stocks on the rifles ourselves people will buy our rifles because its already got the stock that a lot of people really want. Eventually it pushed wood aside because they really sold. It was not the case where they pushed synthetics on the public and told them to pound sand if they did not like it. They were giving the public what they wanted.Maple CAN make a very serviceable, very nice looking stock. But it is more expensive, harder to work with, and heavier. In spite of that at one time it was the preferred wood for stocks. No reason it couldn't be used today as long as someone is willing to pay the price and deal with more weight.
Walnut wasn't chosen as the preferred wood because it was pretty. It became the standard because it was the cheapest readily available wood that met most of the qualities stock makers needed. Not too hard, nor too soft. Fairly light weight and strong for it's weight.
But over the years good walnut is getting very hard to find and expensive. Synthetics today are more common for exactly the same reason walnut was initially chosen. It is the cheapest alternative.
bushmaster1313 asked:
It seems that plain maple is not used as much as plain walnut.
How come?
Interesting. I have always thought that wooden bats (what I will always consider to be the only proper baseball bats), especially those used by MLB, were ash.If you need more evidence just watch the bats break in in Major League Baseball. Though not all maple, a significant percentage are -- with the majority of the remainder being ash, I think.
How would Myrtlewood hold up? Too soft?
I look at this a little differently since I grew up in the furniture refinishing business. I'm not thrilled with maple or walnut because I grew up with it, I do wonder why some gunsmiths/manufacturers or stock/grip distributors don't buy a small supply of some "exotic" woods and try them. I consider cocobolo pretty common but how about some tulip wood, snake wood, basswood, red heart, purple heart, osage orange or even English yew? I've only worked with these woods in a non-gun way so I don't know if they could handle the stress but if that was my business I would find out and see if someone wanted to buy it.
Given your training, would you want to jump in here and talk about if birdseye will hold up to impact, vs. straight grain, vs. burled/figured?Seasoned maple...
is alot harder than walnut. I did a birdseye stock back in the 60s and I will never do another one. Walnut is a dream to work with compared to maple. I learned my stock making at Trinidad St Jr College. Class of 64....chris3
\It seems that plain maple is not used as much as plain walnut.
How come?
Maple is beautiful but not as strong as walnut. I have a custom rifle that the smith fitted with a fantastic maple stock. Broke on first shot.
I used to work in a woodworking shop.
It's a guess, but i bet maple isn't used much because it's tough on tools. Most maples are harder than walnuts. It would be labor intensive making a stock by hand and tough on bits machining it for mass production.
While it is harder than walnut, it does tend to split easier along the grain than walnut like others have suggested.
That's interesting. Never heard that before. I have a .204 in Myrtle wood but the blank had been shed cured for over thirty years. And I sealed the barrel channel, etc. and Never take it out in any wet weather. Built it as a keepsake for a family member.Myrtle wood is hard as all get out and not easy to work plus its always "alive". It will never stabilize so acts like wet wood all the time.
I once bought a stock for an M1 Carbine that was supposedly made out of birch. Rather than follow tradition and either 1) saturate it with boiled linseed oil, or 2) stain with an artificial walnut pigment dark and then varnish it, I elected to finish it without a pigment using tung oil; lightly sanded and buffed between coats. The result was a stock whose color I can only equate to brass after being tumbled with steel pins that looked like it was under water.
I liked it. Mostly because I had made it. My mother, charitably, said it was "nice". My father, mercifully, refused to say anything.