Gunstock Blank Sources In Canada?

I have picked up pieces of American Black Walnut from Windsor Plywood occasionally. Two inches thick, not really enough to do a rifle stock with a cheekpiece, but OK for a .22 or a shotgun stock.

Prophet River used to bring in the odd shipment of New Zealand wood blanks, may be worth checking in there.

Probably, if you want any selection at all, you are gonna have to go stateside.
 
trevj said:
I have picked up pieces of American Black Walnut from Windsor Plywood occasionally. Two inches thick, not really enough to do a rifle stock with a cheekpiece, but OK for a .22 or a shotgun stock.

Prophet River used to bring in the odd shipment of New Zealand wood blanks, may be worth checking in there.

Probably, if you want any selection at all, you are gonna have to go stateside.
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Our source for the NZ blanks recently retired. Too bad, as these blanks almost always seem to surprise to the upside. They turn and finish really nicely. The good news is we bought out his remaining high grade inventory of about 150 blanks, including quite a few two piece blanks. These are currently in Vancouver clearing customs and we hope to have them here in a week or two.
 
Iv had a hell of a time finding a nice workable blank in Canada. Found lots with bad grain, or to plain, but tough finding a premium blank. Recently bought one from Artesian stock and gunwork out of Ontario, super good guy to deal with and had a few nice ones to show.

 
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Blanks for what? 2 piece ~ shotgun/lever, sporter ... longrifle?

I have 3 or 4 large (!!!) pieces of burl that would make 2 piece blanks. a couple of black walnut blanks that would make a 1/2 stock I also have some curly Sugar Maple

Pretty near any wood specialty shop or mill will have something, none generally carry "blanks" I buy all my material as rough cut boards, you will save a bundle.

A&M Wood (mentioned)
Woodchuckers (last I checked they had 2 Claro Walnut blanks ...
Exotic Woods Inc
Century Mill

There are literally about 1/2 dozen in and around the Hamilton area.

Unless you are actually crazy and want something like Turkish Walnut ... Then look up a guy name Yurtaas (Yurrtass?) - though last I spoke with him, he was low on material as the rebels were fighting in the area....
 
There’s a gentleman in Regina doing rough blanks, he should be at the SCGA show in January. PM me if you want me to fish out his info, not sure where he gets his lumber.
 
sean69 said:
Blanks for what? 2 piece ~ shotgun/lever, sporter ... longrifle?

I have 3 or 4 large (!!!) pieces of burl that would make 2 piece blanks. a couple of black walnut blanks that would make a 1/2 stock I also have some curly Sugar Maple

Pretty near any wood specialty shop or mill will have something, none generally carry "blanks" I buy all my material as rough cut boards, you will save a bundle.

A&M Wood (mentioned)
Woodchuckers (last I checked they had 2 Claro Walnut blanks ...
Exotic Woods Inc
Century Mill

There are literally about 1/2 dozen in and around the Hamilton area.

Unless you are actually crazy and want something like Turkish Walnut ... Then look up a guy name Yurtaas (Yurrtass?) - though last I spoke with him, he was low on material as the rebels were fighting in the area....
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2 piece for shotgun...
 
Black Forest in Calgary often has some pieces that would work. Haven't looked in a few years though.

Once upon a time, some Windsor plywood dealers had suitable wood but that might not be the norm now or maybe was never a goal beyond individual stores
 
The price we pay for a piece of walnut is insane. I looked further into why, then I understood. And people think these carbon fibers are expensive eh haha.
 
One stock I did about 50+ years ago for a english side lock cost well over 100.oo for the plank and everyone thought I was crazy.
I seen a 3K hunk of wood at Winsor in Saskatoon last time I was there, tables size, but not out of line to see 60-90/ board foot, for exotics.
But I see plane roughed out stocks for around 100.oo, By the fellow in Sk refered to, ( I think)
Lots of take of 870 stocks etc kicking around when guys want to put on plastic crap, or heavens forbid a pistol grip.
 
If you’re looking for custom stock wood you must have a custom made stock in mind. In this case you probably have one or more stockmakers in mind, the wood is only wood without a stockmaker. All the stockmakers that I’ve known have a stash of blanks.
 
Wg Chanin hardwoods in Edmonton might be worth a call. I visited there for the first time this weekend and he has a huge inventory of fine hardwoods. I asked and he said he has a fair amount of wood that he has sold for gunstocks.
 
marshall said:
One stock I did about 50+ years ago for a english side lock cost well over 100.oo for the plank and everyone thought I was crazy.
I seen a 3K hunk of wood at Winsor in Saskatoon last time I was there, tables size, but not out of line to see 60-90/ board foot, for exotics.
But I see plane roughed out stocks for around 100.oo, By the fellow in Sk refered to, ( I think)
Lots of take of 870 stocks etc kicking around when guys want to put on plastic crap, or heavens forbid a pistol grip.
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Yep. Windsor Ply has a pretty good selection of decently dry, plain walnut for not too expensive, for us living way and far away from the Hardwood areas.
But unless you have all the gear to cut one, or the talent to freehand it, buying a used take-off set is gonna be the way that comes up as cheap!

I bought, and still have, a very nice piece of Black Walnut crotch wood that was on the end of an otherwise plain as day board, and IIRC, they charged me for 3 bd ft at that time, mid 1980's. 2" x 12" x 18". IIRC, I paid about $70 at that time, and it stung some, too.

There is an outfit in the States called CaliCo Hardwoods, IIRC, that has some nicely graded out blanks in several woods.
I spoke to a stock maker here in BC a few years back, a fella named Bill Warkentin, whom I do not know if he is still out there alive, and he said as long as you were really careful with the set up of your copy lathe, they usually turned out OK, but there were fewer options to shuffle the pattern fore or aft to take advantage of the grain, for instance. In other words, they cut pretty fine to the line, so as to maximize yield. But their site may be worth a look.

A cheap option, if fancy isn't completely your aim, is to glue up a lamination and shape that. Have seen a couple talented guys' work here on CGN over the years. 1/2 and 3/4 Maple is pretty cheap, and if all else fails, you can make the stock out of MDF and Bondo, then ship that, and a suitable piece of wood to the guy with the duplicator!

I think the key here is that you are gonna find decent hardwood where you can, but not very many Canadian sources are specializing in any way in only gun stock woods.
 
Yotarunner said:
Wg Chanin hardwoods in Edmonton might be worth a call. I visited there for the first time this weekend and he has a huge inventory of fine hardwoods. I asked and he said he has a fair amount of wood that he has sold for gunstocks.
Click to expand...

Have been there looking for other things but always with a curious eye out for something that could be used for gunstocks, he does have some walnut of a size that a gunstock could be cut out of but nothing cut and laid out properly for gunstock blanks, just dimensional lumber planks to use for furniture and crafts. He doesn't know much about gunstock lay out. To him any piece of wood big enough to carve a gunstock from is good. Also not sure on how the wood is cured and dried. But you never know when you might just happen to stumble on something that would work.
 
I have Chris Dawe making my stock for me in newfoundland. he has a stash of walnut, but yes the price is high. I paid $1200 for my blank. but he will sell blanks and can get some really over the top fancy wood.



if you want nice looking walnut blank but nothing crazy I have bought the black walnut and walnut claro Blanks from these guys for 75$ for the claro and 40$ for the black walnut
h ttps://exotic-woods.com/products/hardwood-softwood/walnut
h ttps://exotic-woods.com/products/hardwood-softwood/walnut-claro

they are the top 2 in this pic
51325456359_bd026f9494_b.jpg
 
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