Pop Quiz

[Karl Brogger]

After almost a week of full on gut wrenching enthusiasm waiting for my new rifle stock to show up, it has. To be perfectly honest I ordered this stock almost solely because I wanted to take a closer look at it. That, and it is pretty cool.

So how is this done? Obviously its laminated, but how are the colours so distinguished? Are the pieces dyed, then glued together?

For anyone curious as to what it is going on, I’m building a Ruger 10/22 entirely out of aftermarket parts. I should have a borderline Olympic/Triathlon grade rifle. Which is cheap to shoot! Not including the almost $2k I’ll have into it all said and done.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

I don't know if this is how they make THAT, but...

I saw a show about how they make camo-colored stocks (and stuff). They start with a very thin type of plastic material that is flloated on some sort of liquid....the plastic 'dissolves', leaving the thin film of color, and the item is dunked right into it and then pulled out. The film of ink floating on the liquid then adheres to the item.

[Karl Brogger]

I don't think it is just on the outside. You can see the colour all the way though where it was machined.

[Lee Schierer]

I've seen similar work on knife handles and the like. They glue up multicolored pieces of wood and then sand in the profiles. The layers of wood are impregnated with the color before they are glued up. The sanding reveals the colors of the wood layers as they become exposed. YOu can do dhte same thing gluing up layers of wood like maple and cherry or maple and walnut

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

It's a laminate Karl. Nothing more.
If you want to have fancy coloration like that you can dye the substrate whether it's wood or polymer or whatever before you glue up the laminate.

There are aniline dyes that will give you deep penetration in most woods such that you can get wild and strong colors. Then of course when the material is all glued up and machined the patterns that emerge are striking.

[Alan Trout]

With laminated birch stocks they all start out as individually died pieces and then glued together. Of course they are typically more dimensionally stable but still not as stable as composite materials.

Good Luck

Alan

[Larry Fox]

Definitely interesting. Also, that looks to be a very nice piece of cherry furniture it is sitting on as well.

[Karl Brogger]

Also, that looks to be a very nice piece of cherry furniture it is sitting on as well.

LOL well, ehhh, sorta...... I built it out of crap/scrap laying around the shop. I messed up the dimensions for some raised panel doors and built the cab around the doors. I also built this 36"x76" bookshelf out of crap/scrap laying around the shop, so some are winners.:D


Cliff-Allan That's kinda what I thought. I wasn't totally sure, but it seemed the most logical.

BTW there is 30 frickin' layers to the stock. If it were hi-pwr I'd definetly would have purchased a composite stock, but I'm not going to be taking any shots from the 1000yd line with this. 100yds is a stretch for a .22, 150 is crazy far if you're trying to be accurate

[William OConnell]

It's a laminate Karl. Nothing more.
If you want to have fancy coloration like that you can dye the substrate whether it's wood or polymer or whatever before you glue up the laminate.

There are aniline dyes that will give you deep penetration in most woods such that you can get wild and strong colors. Then of course when the material is all glued up and machined the patterns that emerge are striking.
It may very well be a laminate. But it also very well may be these maniacs hiding in the mountains. Unbelievable huh. I know the secret but we'll just call it the magic forest

http://www.tswoods.com/index_files/page0002.htm

[Peter Quinn]

That is wild...do they feed the trees dye?

This is a little off topic but related. Back when I was a fancy chef in some fine restuarants we used to get Sicilian Blood oranges imported that had a deep crimson color and a beautiful burgandy red/orange color. These quacks from California tried growing them there...not enough sun to achieve the flavor and color. So they started feeding red BEET juice into the roots of the orange trees and voila, beautiful crimson color, improved flavor. Problem was that unlike the natural Italian oranges they stained everything they touched permanently.

Are those guys doing the same basic thing? Feeding the dye into the trees to stain the wood from the inside out?