Russian sks stock cutaway

[theSKSguy45]

Using the wood for a project but I figured I’d share before cutting it up more

[running-man]

What flavor SKS was it off of?  The butt splice screams Russian to me, but it's hard to make out a ton of grain to compare to Arctic Birch.  The dowel pin holding the splice looks...odd.  Displaced in some way?

I have a couple that I sectioned in half myself (meaning to send them to the lab for wood analysis back in 2015 and just never got around to it).  I'll see if I can find the photos on my hard drive somewhere.  I remember the Russian stock was really light colored inside, but was *hard* as hell to cut. We tried on the band saw that had just successfully and relatively easily cut a supposedly Chinese Catalpa stock and it just laughed at us.  10 minutes in I gave up and finally sectioned it with two cuts on the table saw.

[theSKSguy45]

It was from a Russian SKS. Actually it was the stock off of that first 1949 I had. The one with the spike bayonet haphazardly mated to it. Figured removing a fake 1949 stock from the gene pool was a good idea.

Using it for a knife handle.

[theSKSguy45]

And the project is done. I’m no knifemaker but for an amateur I think it turned out alright. I added year of production marks and a serial number with my initials and birth year to further add to the sks inspired look

[Phosphorus32]

That dowel joint is definitely peculiar.

Nice job on the knife scales. Looks beefy.

[jstin2]

I was unaware of the butt splice until I saw cracks in my 49. Boris Badinov pointed out this feature was common in artic birch stocks. One item that I noticed on my stock was that the splice was not a straight cut but a vee cut to strengthen joint.
The dowel would further strengthen joint if positioned properly.

[running-man]

Definitely a good use of that stock.  Knife came out nice! 

Splices on Russian SKS45 carbines are way more common than most collectors realize.  Must have been something about the full blank width with respect to the way they wanted the grain lines to flow to achieve max strength and minimal cracking that was difficult to consistently achieve with their timber source. 

Many such examples which are usually easier to see after a refinish (didn't even get through the "A" prefix before I'd found enough of a variety of examples to post):




But both Tula:





And Izhevsk have them on certain as-issued stocks if you look hard enough:

[Worm]

And the project is done. I’m no knifemaker but for an amateur I think it turned out alright. I added year of production marks and a serial number with my initials and birth year to further add to the sks inspired look

I love that dude haha well done