Bargin???

[flexi]

Hi all i have just purchased some more Walnut its from the same source as before....these are off cuts from gun stocks and if i cut correctly it should give 8 nice 20mm blanks ( @ £10 each what was i thinking) anyway i got shown a selection of blanks for the shotguns....750mm 50x200 prices from £400 up to £1k thats just the wood!!! I will just stick to my pens...the last stock i made in 2000 was maple and £30 ...

 

[Neil]

Mark,

Im at a bit of a loss to work out what youre paying or what you are going to charge once you have processed the wood.

A good source of stock wood is to talk to firearms dealers who are certified to destroy arms, they frequently have old stocks. I still have about ten walnut stocks that were part of a consignment of gun stocks that ended up being owned by the Russian mafia. There were two container loads of them. They were eventually sold off in East Anglia for £750 for as many as you could get in a ford transit. I paid between £5 and £10 for them. Wood destined for, or considered for use as Shotgun stocks is hideously overpriced. A good source of quality walnut can be found here: Home | Prime Timber | Specialist Suppliers of Wood to Businesses, Instrument Makers and Individuals Andy Fellows is the proprietor and he knows his stuff and the stuff he sells is expensive but the very best that you can get. George knows him as well.

 

[bellringer]

In a shotgun the money is a lot of the time in the wood

 

[flexi]

Hi Neil...the 2 pieces are 50 x 60 and 50 x 78 ...the guy had them marked up at £60 each to make stock extensions (grain in the wrong direction ??) After a chat £40 each... i agree that old stocks can be good sources, but the couple i used previously had big cut outs in the butt and sling swivels and proved quite wasteful.
My point i suppose was how people can price timber because of potential not for what it is....if i could spend time in my local timber yard (Morgans) i could proberbly find bits as good but price would depend on who served me and if they new what it was for.

 

[Jim]

Still nice bits of wood you are showing Mark ..

 

[Neil]

In a shotgun the money is a lot of the time in the wood

I Know, its laughable.

 

[bellringer]

I Know, its laughable.

Not really if you see a two shotguns next to each other the same action and engraving but one has a grade 6 stock and one a grade 1 it's amazing and when you buy a pair with matching grade 6 stock it amazing


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Neil]

Hi Neil...the 2 pieces are 50 x 60 and 50 x 78 ...the guy had them marked up at £60 each to make stock extensions (grain in the wrong direction ??) After a chat £40 each... i agree that old stocks can be good sources, but the couple i used previously had big cut outs in the butt and sling swivels and proved quite wasteful.
My point i suppose was how people can price timber because of potential not for what it is....if i could spend time in my local timber yard (Morgans) i could proberbly find bits as good but price would depend on who served me and if they new what it was for.

Right, with you. The bits are 60mm thick? Still a bit steep, and agree with you that decommissioned stocks can be wasteful but if you dont pay for them in the first place..........I think its a bit of a laugh how much the shotgun world overrates walnut to the extent they do, quite a lot of it comes in huge containers from Turkey or even Russia, one of the stans beginning with A but I cant remember the name of it.

 

[Penpal]

Years ago I bought Walnut for a song sizeable offcuts from America one of those chance ads on IAP I rang the guy and with my money and his wood it was a great deal Walnut can be absolutely stunning on a gun and not on a pen the pen is so small an area to display that grain. Strange I can call the states for a fraction of the cost of a call on a cell or mobile phone from my home. Always over the tears my experience has been if you can buy blanks you can see in your hand as fantastic its the way to go, occasionaly you can hit the jackpot with guys you can trust I wait for some months from my mate who selects and cuts for me he is going to take pics this time before I select my next batch. We all have our experiences with timber trust you have good ones as well.

Peter.

 

[wm460]

A handmade stock a lot of time and effort there.

Unfortunately the only stock maker I know is further south that what Peter is, When he made the stock for the wife's shotgun, he used all the offcuts that he couldn't use for anything else for firewood.

https://www.krieghoff.com/custom-engraving/

http://www.colegun.com/collections/premium-wood-blanks

 

[wm460]

A handmade stock a lot of time and effort there.

Unfortunately the only stock maker I know is further south that what Peter is, When he made the stock for the wife's shotgun, he used all the offcuts that he couldn't use for anything else for firewood.

https://www.krieghoff.com/custom-engraving/

Premium Custom Wood Blanks | Cole Fine Guns and Gunsmithing

 

[paulm]

I'd pay that if it was from H&H, the provenance doubles the price of the pens on the shelf.