Nice blank
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Black walnut! I'm laminating a 1/2" piece of walnut inbetween the bookmatched pair and then the wood that came from under the fore-end part will be laminated to the fore-end to make it thick enough for a 3" flat fore-end.
Sadly it won't end up being mine
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I will, however, stock my Winchester 670 with something nice.
Sadly it won't end up being mine
.I will, however, stock my Winchester 670 with something nice
.Have you done one of these thick lamination stocks before? Where did you find that pretty piece of walnut? I see a good portion of home builders gluing together pieces to work up a blank based on necessity because the thicker pieces for a blank are too expensive or too hard to locate... it is nice to see someone doing it for how cool it can look!
I've done several thick lamination stocks with layers ranging from 1/8" to 1/2" thick and really like the things that can be done with them. With the thinner laminations, I celebrate the variance in grain and go for some different looks, even using more than one species of wood. With the thicker laminations, if you have a large enough supply, you can often pick through and find matching layers that will almost look like a solid piece of wood when glued together.
Another thing I like about doing these laminated stocks is that you can often "Pre-inlet" portions of the stock before the layers are glued together.
The stock in the photo was made with 3/16" thick layers of walnut picking out random pieces with fun grain patterns alternating with relatively straight grain.
I've done several thick lamination stocks with layers ranging from 1/8" to 1/2" thick and really like the things that can be done with them. With the thinner laminations, I celebrate the variance in grain and go for some different looks, even using more than one species of wood. With the thicker laminations, if you have a large enough supply, you can often pick through and find matching layers that will almost look like a solid piece of wood when glued together.
Another thing I like about doing these laminated stocks is that you can often "Pre-inlet" portions of the stock before the layers are glued together.
The stock in the photo was made with 3/16" thick layers of walnut picking out random pieces with fun grain patterns alternating with relatively straight grain.
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Well, I typically laminate thicker hardwoods with carbon fiber for benchrest stocks. This means four 3/4" boards with three layers of carbon fiber, or a 2 1/4" blank split with a 3/4" board in the middle with two layers of carbon fiber.
Here's some photos I just got of a top-quality rimfire benchrest rifle with a stock made from a blank I laminated.
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The show wood is english walnut, the core is butternut, and the fore-end has black walnut on the sides.
It's better to laminate up a thick blank like this than try to find a 3" thick blank... cutting out a big single hunk of wood like that exposes you to many more risks and a laminated stock will end up being stronger and more stable (especially with carbon fiber- give it a shot).
A friend actually just told me he's got a bunch of black walnut lumber stacked up in his attic and it's all between 1/4"-3/4" thick. I'm buying every single suitable piece. I would like to make a few stocks with more layers.
Here's some photos I just got of a top-quality rimfire benchrest rifle with a stock made from a blank I laminated.
The show wood is english walnut, the core is butternut, and the fore-end has black walnut on the sides.
It's better to laminate up a thick blank like this than try to find a 3" thick blank... cutting out a big single hunk of wood like that exposes you to many more risks and a laminated stock will end up being stronger and more stable (especially with carbon fiber- give it a shot).
A friend actually just told me he's got a bunch of black walnut lumber stacked up in his attic and it's all between 1/4"-3/4" thick. I'm buying every single suitable piece. I would like to make a few stocks with more layers.
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Well, if you take a look at that top photo, you can see that only a minimal amount of the nice wood is covered up (just along the fore-end). Plywood? I suppose all laminates are plywoods. Plywoods that have superior physical properties to a single hunk of wood and look pretty darn good too.
It's not for everyone, but enough people agree with me that there will be more and more out there soon.
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In addition to using very nice blanks to make benchrest rifles, you can make laminated stocks with lightweight woods that would otherwise be unsuitable for stocks and carbon fiber. Here's the materials for what will eventually be a pair of ultralight benchrest rifles. The goal is to have a finished rifle that weighs less than 24 oz... this will allow me to use a Suhl 150 factory barreled action with a certain scope and tuner setup and have a finished rifle that weighs less than 10.5 lbs.
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It's not for everyone, but enough people agree with me that there will be more and more out there soon.
In addition to using very nice blanks to make benchrest rifles, you can make laminated stocks with lightweight woods that would otherwise be unsuitable for stocks and carbon fiber. Here's the materials for what will eventually be a pair of ultralight benchrest rifles. The goal is to have a finished rifle that weighs less than 24 oz... this will allow me to use a Suhl 150 factory barreled action with a certain scope and tuner setup and have a finished rifle that weighs less than 10.5 lbs.
This is not a "plywood" stock.
"Plywood is a type of manufactured wood made from thin sheets of wood . The layers are glued together so that adjacent plies have their wood grain at right angles to each other for greater strength." Wikipedia
Since the layers are niether thin nor at right angles, this is necessarily defined as laminated.
Your finished product looks VERY NICE. Can't wait to see how the current project turns out. Post lots of progres photos.
Is the butternut used as a way to shave weight? I whittled a thick layer laminate stock completely from butternut one time. It is very light but the softness of the wood makes it easy to dent or scratch.
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Yes- and this is why it's in the middle of the blank and not the outside. These rifles still need to weigh below a certain amount and having a piece of wood in the blank much lighter than the walnut helps considerably. Other woods used like this are catalapa and paulownia. A couple guys make balsa and carbon fiber stocks with a carbon fiber skin (beautiful stocks, and that means something coming from a wood guy). They are, however, very easily dent-able and don't take kindly to abuse. Safe queens? No... they are range kings. The less a stock weighs, the more metal you can use with the rifle- this means more barrel, more scope, or more tuner (whatever you want).
This is what they look like:
http://schupbachs.smugmug.com/Other/New-LV/IMG7688/983628864_YXd9J-M.jpg
http://schupbachs.smugmug.com/Other/New-LV/IMG7689/983628930_9LZ5d-M.jpg
http://www.6mmbr.com/gunweek018.html
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That's a beautiful piece of wood!!! Gonna look nice
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This thing is going to be a monster.
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Two layers of black walnut, two layers of rock maple, and two layers of black cherry- with 5 layers of medium-weight twill weave carbon fiber. The maple is probably the best stuff I've used yet... and I cut it from a blank big enough for me to use it in at least three more stocks.
Two layers of black walnut, two layers of rock maple, and two layers of black cherry- with 5 layers of medium-weight twill weave carbon fiber. The maple is probably the best stuff I've used yet... and I cut it from a blank big enough for me to use it in at least three more stocks.
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Thank you so much for the photos, especially for the first one. I really enjoyed it.
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