Traditional Muzzleloading Association
Craftsmanship => Gun Building and Repair => Topic started by: ridjrunr on April 27, 2019, 01:50:12 AM
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Does anyone here have experiance with slabbing blanks out of a tree trunk with a sawmill?
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I use my chainsaw to cut boards out of fallen trees. If you cut a board a bit thicker and longer than you need you
could square everything up on a band-saw for a gun blank. Drying the blank would be the next challenge.
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I've always used a bandsaw mill, cut them as long as you can and 3 inches, any less and you lose the ability to cover all schools of longrifles...slab sawn is best to work with, quarter sawn you lose alot but can gain more figure but hey, it's either got it or it doesnt. Dont wait to saw it, seal the ends right away with good paint or wax. Sticker the boards at least one inch apart in the order it was sawn and apply sevin powder under and on each plank for at least 2 years, keeps the bugs away. Air dry at least 3 years or 5 is better...keep out of the sun and somewhere air moves some, not in the basement next to the coal or wood stove it will blow the wood apart, too fast. ...lol anything else let me know
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Well, I had sealed the log with latex paint, then it sat for a couple of weeks until we could get it cut. Lots of crotch grain with some curl. Am thinking of cutting out blanks and sealing all surfaces with anchor seal as I believe grotch grain is like end grain. Sealer will be hear by Monday. Lots of half stock and pistol blanks in there. [ Invalid Attachment ]
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I spent at least a week cutting stock blanks out of a cherry tree. In the end I only got a few marginal blanks, too many bark inclusions in the middle of the wood that didn't show from the surface.
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Here is another I did out of a walnut log that was in toppled by a storm in my woods, again lots of pins and crud in the wood.
f you cut some blanks with a chainsaw buy one of those Harbor freight hand planer like is shown in the picture, you can really flatten a blank if you don't' have a planer to run it through
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Thanks Eric, did you use any sealer or have you used any before? My first order of anchor seal got damaged in shipment so my second order is in process.
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These pics reveal why good stock blanks are so expensive.
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I haven't been here in a while. I use shellac as a sealer on the ends, 3 or 4 coats. I have dried hundreds of bow staves and always used shellac. On the cherry I put one coat over the entire blank, the blank will still dry out but you won't have any surface checking.