Need some input from you guys
As many of you already know. I have making grips and forearm sets for our talon/condor guns.. I have had a few request from members for exotic woods and laminates… My goal here is to find out how many of you are interested and in what material. I am already making them out of maple for 125.00 a set unfinished.. Any additional input on design or anything else would be greatly appreciated…I am currently working on a one piece stck design as well and would like to know how man people are interested in those…thanks ..oh by the way check out my special in the “for sale” section.
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Hiya J3…
You and I traded a pm or two about this…
I’m a hack-wannabe woodworker, and I’m a huge fan of the “exotic” woods.
I put “exotic” in quotations because it’s just a term that’s used these days to define a wood that isn’t native to the U.S.
Tiger Maple is also known as Curly Maple, and it isn’t really exotic, unless you find some balls-out-one-of-a-kind old growth specimen. Right now, I can drive five miles down the road to the local mill… they’ve probably got a few thousand board feet of 5/4 and 6/4 Tiger Maple ready to go, it’s just up to me to sort through it to find the boards with the best figure. About as expensive per lineal foot as the 4/4 red oak planks you find at Home Depot. (about $9 per, give or take a buck)
Birds-Eye Maple qualifies as exotic, I guess. Lots harder to find and more expensive, but still not out of reach. (this is my personal fave, and with a BLO finish and clearcoat that looks like it’s a foot deep, I’m thinking it’d be the cat’s ass on an AF gun)
The other stuff (cocobolo, zebrawood, purpleheart, ebony, etc) all are also readily available at any decent mill. There’s plenty of sources on the internet that’ll ship it to you. Hell, even your local Rocklers carries it.
And given the minimum amount of stock needed to make an AF handgrip/forearm, I’d say it’s something you should experiment with.
The challenge is that 8/4 stock in all the above varieties is what’s tough to find, and when you do, it’s what makes the project expensive. Laminating a couple 5/8s together would probably be the best way to go.
Just for a final touch, maybe go with a 1/8″ slice of Mother of Pearl or Ebony sandwiched between the two pieces…. 😯
OK, enough babbling. The weather is about to break, and this thread reminds me it’s about to be woodworking season again! Woo-hoo! Time to make some sawdust! 😆
that is a duracoat spray i found at Lowes a few years ago.. it is very tough and has a great texture. Well I liked it anyway’s.. The main reason, some of the AF guns have had a purple tint to them and i thought that total black finish realy brought out the purple tint..So the grayish black color of that spray really toned it down.. They also make a sand stone type color. If i ever get the time I thought of doing a digital desert camo on the gun and the sandstone finish on the grips…
i personally love the maple ones 😈 by the way what is the coating you used on this?
Although the look of a fancy grade wood stock can leave an admirer nearly
speechless, the static, non-warping allure of laminate is just too good to pass
up, imo. Impervious (or nearly so) to temperature drops, humidity changes,
etc… Laminate is hard to beat (unless metal reinforced composite is an
option.)
And laminate too can look very nice. 😉
I love the look of laminates wood if done right and beech is a nice compromise to walnut due to the cost and it’s hard but heavy.
Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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I have some 2 3/4″ thk x 9″ honduran mohogany for sale if any one is intrested.
One piece is 14′ long
And 4 others around 4′.
PM me if that strikes your fancy.
I am planning on making a gun stock for my camera with one of them.
Sweet wood, mills like butter.