New Toy...in the making..(pics added)

[hunt4570]

 A while ago I got a nice thumbhole stock set in a trade here.Unfinished looks to be Fiddle back Maple or real close...I did not have a carbine barrel,just pistol barrels.well I did have a super 16 in 223 that my daughter used to hunt with when she was younger,but I didn't want to fit the forearm to that barrel.
  I wanted to get a carbine barrel to hunt elk with since I had moved to Colorado.I've been looking around for something although not very hard...and the other day a 23" 375JDJ complete with die's and some brass came up for sale here and well....I bought it..Whoohoo..
  So now I'll have a little project, I need to finish fitting the stock to the action and Barrel,freefloating the forearm,finishing the stock set,working up some loads,and doing a bit of playing around with it..
  I haven't recieved the bbl yet,but when I do I'm going to get some pictures taken of the before...all the way through the finish. I'll post some here..
  Any suggestions on this project? How about a good finish?

[eskimo36]

My encore stocks are finished with hand rubbed Watco Teak Oil.  It makes a very hard smooth matte finish and shows the wood very well.

[hunt4570]

And where can you get the Watco Teak oil?

[Ladobe]

Watco products are usually available at all of the super home improvement stores (Lowes, Home Depot, etc).

Since maple is not an oily hardwood like so many of the exotic hardwoods are (I only use teak oil on oily woods), I'd finish it with many hand rubbed coats of pure tung oil myself.  Just build the finish as deep and as hard as you want it, followed by a couple of handrubbed coats of pure carnauba wax.   Analine dye is a best choice if you want to highlight the fiddleback before finishing since it doesn't plug the figure like stain does.

[hunt4570]

Thanks Ladobe..

[hunt4570]

Here (hopefully) are a couple pics..If you can give me a positive ID on the wood I'd appreciate it..

[Keith L]

It is hard for me from that picture, but a guess is figured maple.

[hunt4570]

Almost looks Tiger(ish) to me..

[Ladobe]

I ran your images through my photo program to try to get a better look at the grain.    Looks to be straight grain hard maple with some random fiddleback in maybe a 2A select grade.   Will be a good strong stock that I'd suggest highlighting just a little so the random figure shows better but isn't prominent.

Some examples to show you what you can do with figured maple...

5A grade Bengal Tiger Maple highlighted with dark brown aniline dye.


4A grade Fiddleback Maple highlighted with honey umber aniline dye.


Some 5A and 4A exhibition grade rifle blanks.


The two rifle stocks were done by my sawyer friend that harvested the tree all these blanks came from.   I still have 3 of the 5A/4A blanks in storage.

[hunt4570]

   Those are great looking..I like the umber color best out of those two..
     Two questions.  Can you also get the aniline dye at a home depot type place..and you say to highlight with the dye, are you talking rub on/wipe off or is there more to it. Thanks..