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More fun with Wood ;?)
I've rolled this plank around for a
few months. Looking at it - studying it - trying to envision the
stocks inside. It was time to make the major cuts, in order to
free a blank for use.
This is a plank of curly maple. Nasty
heavy thing. I've carefully examined both sides ... no ... they
are not the same. Flaws on one side or the other or both. Season
cracks. It's up to me to read the plank and position the patterns
so as best to use the wood.
You'll note that about 18" of
this end is nothing but season cracks. Nothing but that pretty
grain all laced with cracks. So - that comes off.
_
The first lengthwise cut - about 24
inches long. I finish the cut and watch ..... the saw cut steadily
opens from 92 thousandths at one end ... to 302 thousandths at
the other. This plank is totally dry and bone hard. Still, it's
full of internal stress. You remember how I've mentioned that
you have to cut and then wait for stress to relieve in figured
woods. Not minutes (though this happened while I watched)... but
weeks usually until it relaxes into a new shape.
After the cross cut, I could see what
was not evident. That questionable crack on top ... where did
it go and how deep? Ahhh ... very deep and diagonal ... ruining
this stock blank.
And on the lengthwise cut ... deep
interior flaws - completely unknown from the outside. Ruined another
blank.
You only get to lay out the patterns
once. After that, you've cut through an area. Can't stick it back
together and move over somewhere else. It's toast.
Invisible from outside ... bug damage.
Ruined again.
Are we having
fun yet?
Here's a crack out in the field of
the plank. I worked around it (and any other visible flaw) the
very best I could. Wanna guess? Where does the crack go? Here's
a hint .... they almost NEVER go straight down - you could plan
around that.
The long cut revealed that the crack
did not go that way (or up in this pic). Let's cut a wedge from
a waste area of the stock pattern and see if we get lucky this
time.
First you see the edge is clean. Didn't
go this way.
Well ... how about that? Straight down
and deep. But, if the rest of the crack runs the same, maybe we'll
get one blank here to use. IF we don't find anything else.
Well ... that wedge area under the
forestock pattern here was supposed to be the forestock for another
pattern. BUT ... this blank ... in this position .... is ruined.
If I flip the pattern this way ....
can I save the bigger stock and sacrifice the forestock pattern?
Don't know. And what about the forestock I wanted ... (which was
why I cut the blank now ... to get the forestock out without ruining
another blank ... )
You begin to see some of the charms
of figured woods.
Well sure ... (someone in the back
row) ... says. Why don't you just USE BETTER WOOD!! Aahhaaaaa...
great idea. Answer: Because that's straight grained, dependable,
free of flaws, and doesn't warp. That's why.
..... What????
As I've mentioned before. Figured wood
is pretty exactly BECAUSE it was such a LOUSY tree! Probably grew
in some swampy flood plane. Grew all twisted and loppsided. Was
never trimmed so ... as it grew, the tree developed tortured grain
around the limb/trunk joints to offset the strain for as long
as it could without breaking itself apart. Then, when stressed
beyond limit, it often split and let in water .. and bugs.
So ... that was my day. Actually, one
of a few I've already spent on this plank. It looked like it had
potential. Still don't know. Most of it is firewood (and my day
too). Two of the projects are ruined. Might get one ... but there
are more mysteries inside those individual blanks.
Oh ... I weighed one blank after freeing
it from the plank. 16 Pounds!!! Hummm ... what's that entire
rifle supposed to weigh? Cutting the blank to the bone, it will
still weigh twice what a straight grained stock would weigh.
Working around the natural flaws, I've
scoped out this blank. Will it work? We'll see. But I don't have
it in me now ...
Bummer? Just reality. It's the reality
of life inside the trade of building rifles. I wanted you to come
along for the day - (and enjoy the wood - ha ha) ... just to see
why I get the big bucks ... ;?)
I need a cuppa coffee ...