Walnut Stock Problem

[welshwarrior]

Pm replied to

 

[bewsher500]

is it the qood hardness or the colour that bothers you?

IMO the colour could easily be sorted with a decent stain.
apply along the colour lines in very light multiple coats. more you add the darker it will go where you want it darker.
match the dark wood to the new stained lighter wood.
Stain rather than "colour treaments". should be watery liquid not the fence and garden furniture "one stop shop" stuff that is like paint.
Wickes, Jewsons, B&Q all do them in 250ml tins. I use dark oak mostly as it gives me some control on depth and colour

first needs stripping and smoothing if you do plan that
grain filler is often overlooked and will massively enhance any final finish
I also wouldn't put tru-oil on stocks
walnut oil, (Phillips make a small bottle for just the job that will see you through several stocks for £7 on eBay)

​not as tricky as it sounds

 

[Olaf]

I'd say what you've got here is the by-product of poor stock blank selection by the manufacturer. IMHO, you're looking at a piece of sapwood with only a small amount of heartwood running through it due to the way it's been cut. Often, these cheaper ends would be supplied steamed to darken the sapwood but I'm guessing that's not been the carried out either, so over time you're getting more and more visible discrepancy between the two

whilst I mean no disrespect, this is a very low end bit of walnut which if for an air rifle would probably be acceptable, but if for a RF or CF would be a considerable no-no.

Absolutely agree, its heartwood that's visible on one side and butternut (young growth) that's on the other. It won't be a very stable stock. That bit of wood will have been taken from the very top centre board of a through and through sawn log. What you want is a stock that's been cut from a blank taken from closer to the centre of the log, the reason being that wood moves tangentially and thus if its taken from the centre board of a log it will remain stable as the wood will move in its thickness rather than its width.
Drop me a pm if you need to know more and I can explain, I'm a Cabinet Maker.

Kind regards, Olaf

 

[Southernfairy]

My Weihrauch did exactly the same. .17 HMR with the heavy barrel...... wasn't desperately impressed and still having the argument.

 

[Nobleman]

Yes it is the colour that bothers me, its neither one thing or the other and still evolving and changing as time goes by however it has now gone to someone who knows what he is talking about and what he is doing so hopefully it will come back resembling something more like a Walnut Stock should do.
If it had been a blank canvas so to speak I would have had a go myself, but as a first attempt at stock refinishing I think this piece of wood was way beyond my capabilities.

 

[Southernfairy]

Get onto Hull and have a go, about bloody time they pulled their fingers out.

 

[Nobleman]

Get onto Hull and have a go, about bloody time they pulled their fingers out.

I done that and got the response I was expecting which was they could not find anything wrong and it was entirely natural, after learning a few things today and also off the forum im not letting go that easily, I even told the RFD I didn't want it and he agreed to give me my money back which says something in itself however I changed my mind and although I don't regret having it I don't like to be fobbed off and told lies.
The bottom line is it can be sorted to a point so that's the main thing, I hope you get sorted with yours.

 

[8x57]

You are fortunate that you got a reply from Hull Cartridge Company, they have never replied to my enquiries about rifles that they are supposed to be the importers of. Never mind it's their loss because I took my money elsewhere and bought another make. I understood that they were supposed to be a good company but not in my experience so can't see me buying any of their products at any time in the future.

 

[welshwarrior]

You are fortunate that you got a reply from Hull Cartridge Company, they have never replied to my enquiries about rifles that they are supposed to be the importers of. Never mind it's their loss because I took my money elsewhere and bought another make. I understood that they were supposed to be a good company but not in my experience so can't see me buying any of their products at any time in the future.

Ive never found them positive in regards to guns or cartridges so I also voted with my feet. But the stock will be ok cosmetically it will be fixed and the grain sealed after a colour match something the manufacture forgot to do. A good bedding job then will make it as stable as possible.

Not perfect but a useable and cosmetically pleasing solution.

 

[Brithunter]

This is nothing new really and it's down to cost once more. Good Walnut is very expensive now and sadly a lot of what was once used for guns stocks is not being eaten up by Boat builders and car makers for their higher level trims. At one time gun makers would have a large stock of wood on hand to make sure it was seasoned correctly but how many large gun makers actually make their own stocks now? Most it seems are bought in from the likes of Sile whom have been making gun stocks for many decades.

I own a BSA Martini model 12/15 with very nice figuring one side of the butt stock but the other side is quite plain. It is the same colour however right through. I also own this Model 2 Brno:-





of 1965 vintage. Notice the difference in figuring in the stock. This shows the heart wood and younger wood rather well and despite this the stock is stable and has remained straight through over half a century.

 

[welshwarrior]

It's been going on for a while wife has a beretta 20 bore like it and I've noticed that Browning have started using branch wood over the last 10 years for grade 1 forends stained up.

Its wrong but they have to save money by cutting corners somewhere.

 

[Arbshot]

I had a Tikka rifle with a streak of black heartwood running through the stock on one side, this is natural, it often darkens with age, I oiled the stock as it was very dry and light in colour elsewhere, I would do the same to this stock. The high grain figuring in expensive gunstocks is achieved by using walnut from the bottom of the tree trunk, especially the stump in the ground.