"Synthetic Burlwood"

We're talking aesthetics, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

For me, expensive stock wood belongs on a bespoke or high end custom. In this case it's simulated - like Formica on the floor - and installing it on a curio and relic combat gun isn't going to "improve" things, for me. It would be out of place even if real, unless that rifle had metalworking and custom touches to deserve the wood.

Rather like putting race tires and wheels on a daily driver. Which many do - but the reality it doesn't do anything except spend money. Putting fake race tires and fake race wheels, more of the same.

I wonder how a fake checkering would work on it - rolled or pressed?

The point is emulating a high end custom touch that's value engineered to mass market affordability then makes it cheap and even a laughing stock. :rolleyes:
 
Nooooooo! Not my thing! That's like spraying gold paint on a Swatch band and putting it on your Rolex!:eek:
 
I'm not categorically opposed to the general idea... but that shotgun stock wood looks like something one would see on the dash of a late 70s Mercury. :(
 
The worse thing than plastic is plastic that pretends to be not.

Besides burlwood, the real one, is not a good choice for gun stock. It is not even a good choice for furniture that requires dimensional stability. It is good for making a salad bowl thought.

-TL
 
I made a set of grips out of oak burlwood (actually made from oak root burls) that came out pretty nice. I put them on my STI LS40.
 
Interesting finish, but doesn't do anything for me. I am, and always will be, a fan of real wood. Still like walnut the best for stocks, but have seen some real beauties out of fancy oak.
 
I like a nice stick of wood on a gun as much as anyone. But there isn't 1/1,000 guns sold with wood stocks today that has wood good enough to get a 2nd glance from me. I'd just as soon have plastic as cheap wood. And plastic that looks like cheap wood isn't an improvement.
 
I think for the AK and it's variants you just need to go straight to an iron-on leopard skin decal and some fuzzy dice to dangle off the front muzzle lugs.
 
Beretta has two different stocks on their shotguns besides real walnut. One is Xtra wood and the other is Xtra grain. One is chemical enhancement of regular plain walnut and the other is using a wood product and making it look like solid wood.
 
I think real burl wood is beautiful, furniture and knife handles look amazing made out of it. Some of the prettiest guitars i have ever seen are made out of burl. That...im impartial.
 
I think folks need to read the product description more thoroughly.......It does not claim to be "imitation Burlwood", but a Camo pattern named Custom Burl Wood Camo. No different than Realtree or Treebark patterns of camo. Sheesh........:rolleyes:
 
I get what you're saying, but its still ugly.
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Still, not as ugly as some of the digital camo patterns, and as in the case of a Turkey gun, probably an efficient camo pattern. Again, it was never meant to be a substitute for a real wood burl stock, but as an alternative to the plain black plastic or other camo. IMHO, the most "pretty" camo patterns are generally only effective at attracting the human eye, not for blending in with one's surroundings.
 
I wasn't too impressed with this specific pattern. It is clearly not burl because the regular pattern repeats over the length of the stock. I would like to see one in person though. I think this could be developed to the point I would like a stock with it. Hydrodipping is really cheap. I know helmets can be dipped for about $50.
My Chiappa M1 carbine might be a good example. The synthetic stock is pretty poor and looks out of place on an M1. If there was a decent walnut pattern that wouldn't look out of place on an M1 I might go for it.

Besides burlwood, the real one, is not a good choice for gun stock. It is not even a good choice for furniture that requires dimensional stability. It is good for making a salad bowl thought.
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That is an interesting comment and runs contradictory to my knowledge, although extremely limited in this area. It is my understanding burl wood, especially root burls which can be further compressed by the weight of the tree, are denser than normal wood, and thus stronger. In addition to being denser, the irregular grain pattern makes the wood almost impossible to split through normal use.
Native American ball headed clubs used in the great lakes area were almost exclusively carved from burl wood b/c of these attributes. Western wood mallets were also traditionally made of burl wood.

Because the hardness and irregularity the wood is very hard on tools and even more difficult to work with powered tools. Most woodworking operations involve working in a specific direction in relation to the grain. Since burl-wood grain varies this is not possible. Very likely to chip and for tools to catch while doing operations like turning.

One project I am lazily pursuing is finding a burl root suitable for carving a Native American style club, and I only have this information due to some minimal research I have done to that end.

Cut 1/4" thick I could see how it would be much weaker though.
 
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Does anyone here remember the old Remington Nylon 66s? They came in a shiny black or a imitation woodgrain brown. Kinda what killed them at the time, because folks thought they looked cheap and that Remington was trying to make plastic look like real wood. Truth is, they were great guns and Remington never intended for them to look like wood. Folks back then claimed there would never be a market for guns with plastic stocks............
 
I guess I have a strange perspective also.
I like my guns as weather and general wear resistant as possible.
That generally means polymer furniture on my firearms.
I'm not a huge fan of black stocks. I'm also not a huge fan of camo stocks. I don't often wear camo when I gun hunt, so my gun certainly does not need it.
Seeing guns hydro-dipped in patterns that aren't camo and aren't some sort of tactical wannabe thing like the punished emblem, seems like a move in the right direction.
 
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