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Cousin Eddie's cousin
35 years ago, when I was heavily into shotgun stocks, I visited Cecil Fredi in Las Vegas and his extraordinary inventory of shotgun stock blanks. He had thousands on hand, and I ended up choosing a killer quilted maple piece which I later had made into a stock for a Citori 12 gauge o/u.
Cecil was heavy on English Walnut, which is the king of shotgun wood. While I did not buy a blank of EW that day, Cecil was kind enough to give me a piece that was too small to be used for shotguns. If this piece were large enough for shotguns, it could easily bring $2,500, since it combined both crotch curl and marble cake figuring. I kept this piece all these years, but I recently purchased a Colt Python stainless, and I decided it was time to use this piece of wood.
Unfortunately, when cut into smaller pieces, it does lose some of its dramatic effect, but I still am happy with the result. I sent the wood to Hogue, who machined these into revolver grips. The one on the left goes on the Python, and the right one on my Colt Diamondback .22.
I really would have preferred a gloss finish, but Hogue only offers a hand rubbed oil. While I’m happy with the finished product, these photos demonstrate the dramatic difference between satin vrs. gloss over figured wood.
Cecil was heavy on English Walnut, which is the king of shotgun wood. While I did not buy a blank of EW that day, Cecil was kind enough to give me a piece that was too small to be used for shotguns. If this piece were large enough for shotguns, it could easily bring $2,500, since it combined both crotch curl and marble cake figuring. I kept this piece all these years, but I recently purchased a Colt Python stainless, and I decided it was time to use this piece of wood.
Unfortunately, when cut into smaller pieces, it does lose some of its dramatic effect, but I still am happy with the result. I sent the wood to Hogue, who machined these into revolver grips. The one on the left goes on the Python, and the right one on my Colt Diamondback .22.
I really would have preferred a gloss finish, but Hogue only offers a hand rubbed oil. While I’m happy with the finished product, these photos demonstrate the dramatic difference between satin vrs. gloss over figured wood.
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