Question......

[Dirt Bag]

We put the window template on this blank upside down.......The flow up through the wrist is still good. Have never laid one out this way.... always tried to get the grain flow to come up from the toe, and sweep up into the grip. Would appriciate some advice on cutting it this way. How 'bout it Gunut.....??  Seems like some of the pictures of the old high grade Winchesters in Madis' book show stocks laid out this way.  It sure would look nice, but all that I've learned says don't do it.

Getting those dark stripes to flow with the lines of the gun is so important...... Sure can make a gun look better. See how the grain sort of turns in the pistol grip and hits straight on the rear of the reciever?  Should we try it??
  Whaddaya think??  And thanx in advance.
         As always, hoping this finds everyone well;
                                                                                D.B.

[Rangr44]

That's a pretty nice stick - but I don't think i'd make the stock is that position, only to see the toe chip off, the first time (or second) the gun went, or was placed, butt-down a little too hard somewhere/someday.

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[gunnut69]

That is a pretty blank but I fail to see the reason for positioning it that way.. Simply rotating the toe down will straighten the flow thru the bottom of the stock, eliminating the problem with the toe being short grained while only weakening the wrist a tiny bit... Of course this all from a single picture and I would much prefer a look in person.. Pivot the stock mid pisto grip and lower it a bit perhaps. Will capture more of that lovely flair (fiddleback?) and get further from the more open grain in the top of the butt. Remember that fiddlenback doesn't hurt the strength of the wood at all and is usually quite stabile...

[Dirt Bag]

   We can't really give you any good reason Gunut, except that this is the way better side of the blank, and we'd like to see it on the right hand side of the rifle.Picture don't show it as you can't tilt it to catch the light, but the nicest fiddleback is in the pattern. Guess we just liked the look of the grain turning like it does through the grip. We'd put a repro red Win. pad on it....... so the toe chipping off don't worry us too much.
   I know what you mean about having the blank in your hands...... wish we could do that when we are looking at wood on this monitor.  Probably end up buying and stashing more than we could ever use up. 
    Just something about the lay of those stripes looks good to us........
                                  Thanks again, and have a good one;
                                                                                              D.B.

[gunnut69]

Yea I know what you mean.. I too sometimes am glad for the restraint imposed by the monitor.. I still would picot the pattern counter clock wise a bit. It would eliminate the musket grain in the toe and shouldn't hurt the beauty factor much, perhaps leave the head of the pattern tight and drop the butt down a bit.. No matter how you do it it looks to be a real beauty.. If all else fails I'd reenforce the toe by drilling a couple of holes (where they will be covered by the butt plate) at an upward angle thru the grain flow to help attach the toe piece to the rest of the wood..  As long as grain flow is good thru the wrist all should be well. I've even reenforced the wrist of a stock by boring a hole from inside the inletting at the rear anddown the wrist.. Then the hole pored full of epoxy which is allowed to flow to the bottom of the hole. If this is pored into the bottom of the hole the air beneath will not be trapped.. The last thing is to insert the dowel. This strengthens the reenforce and pushes more air from the hole. Lastly masking tape will seal to avoid run out and then clean up including removing the excess.  I try to allow the epoxy to seal the hole, not allowing the dowel to show.. The inletting can then be accomplished as normal but the weak grain is much stronger with this in place. Make the hole fairly large in diameter as it will add the the effectiveness. A role of fiber glass cloth saturated with the epoxy can be inserted first but getting the air out can become difficult.

[grout-scout]

Do you have a matching piece for the front? Post some more pics when you get it all finished, I bet it'll look sweet.