Henry Rifle Forums

I haven't been doing any woodworking for over a year, but yesterday I decided I need to start making some sawdust again. So dug through my wood stash and found a piece that I liked. Not sure what it is or when or where I got it, but I think it would make some nice grip panels. It's a 10"x3"x3" quarter round, and is quite dense, hard, and heavy - weighs 1.14 lbs. So I should be able to get at least 2 and possibly 3 or 4 grip sets out of it if I'm careful. Below are the two show faces and approx how much wood would be needed for each set. There is some checking on the ends and since every cut will reduce the 3x3 width it will take some planning and careful cutting. Kinda like cutting diamonds. I won't start cutting on this until the weather warms up some, so don't expect to see anything until Spring. When I do, I'll be using hand tools almost exclusively to minimize waste. The kerf from a table or band saw blade would turn too much of it into sawdust.

Beautiful. I used to know the major woods, but all the anesthesia...
It's quartersawn something, oak maybe? But beautiful.

You can fill those cracks with epoxy, even dye the epoxy, or use sawdust from the wood to color it, and use most of that board. I would consider using sawdust from a darker wood like ebony or black walnut. When you stain the grips use a light stain to make the grips pop, and the darker epoxy will really stand out as an accent.

BrokenolMarine wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 12, 2023 10:41 am

You can fill those cracks with epoxy, even dye the epoxy, or use sawdust from the wood to color it, and use most of that board. I would consider using sawdust from a darker wood like ebony or black walnut. When you stain the grips use a light stain to make the grips pop, and the darker epoxy will really stand out as an accent.

The black lines on the show face aren't cracks. It's some spalting. I likely won't stain at all, but those decisions and others will have to wait till I cut the blanks.

GunnyGene wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 12, 2023 10:54 am

BrokenolMarine wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 12, 2023 10:41 am

You can fill those cracks with epoxy, even dye the epoxy, or use sawdust from the wood to color it, and use most of that board. I would consider using sawdust from a darker wood like ebony or black walnut. When you stain the grips use a light stain to make the grips pop, and the darker epoxy will really stand out as an accent.

The black lines on the show face aren't cracks. It's some spalting. I likely won't stain at all, but those decisions and others will have to wait till I cut the blanks.

I love spalted wood, I just finished a spalted knife for myself. Golden Oak stain made the grain come alive!

Beautiful wood, I made my father a rifle rack out of Birdseye maple around 1978 in shop class and what you have looks similar

Oldbrass wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 12, 2023 1:21 pm

Beautiful wood, I made my father a rifle rack out of Birdseye maple around 1978 in shop class and what you have looks similar

It may be some variety of maple (there's dozens), but I don't really care what species it is since it's very doubtful I'll ever run across anything similar again.

Weather was nice today, so cut the slabs. No cracks luckily. Colors are off in the pic, I think because of the LED lighting (bluish). They're not as ugly as they look. I can squeeze 2 sets out of the bottom slab if I don't screw up (traced them in), and one out each of the other 2.

This project is starting to look good. I think when you're done you will have some classy looking grips. Can't wait to see the final product.

Paul

Been doing some research on the wood species. It's Sycamore ( Platanus occidentalis ). Primarily grows in Eastern US.

https://www.wood-database.com/sycamore/