Stock making hobby, how to get more involved, and improve?

flying pig

flying pig

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Hey guys, I've been playing with stock making for most of a year now and am getting better and better at it,but I'm liking to really start taking it seriously. Just like the hunt for the perfect load or shot, I want to become a precision stock builder. There really doesn't seem to be that much interest in this stuff out there? I've spent countless hours for example looking up what types of really figured beautiful woods are suitable for making stocks. I would also like to learn more about techniques and tooling. For example I'd like to learn checkering and improve my inletting. I would really like to learn how to tell what kind of figure a tree is hiding from the outside before it has veer cut and even sawing techniques. There is so much to this hobbyist like to learn but the info really seems to be buried. Can anyone help point me in the right direction?

Here's the level I am currently at:


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There are two books you need to look up, both out of print I believe, but 2nd hand ones can be picked up on ebay and other places;

Professional Stockmaking, David Wesbrook
Checkering & Carving of Gunstocks, Monty Kennedy.
 
For the most part you're doing nicely. You're already well past the first newbie steps.

Where I see you need to work on is on your inletting for things like the inletting for floor plates and trigger guards. Your fits there aren't razor sharp yet and you're getting some chipping in the wood you're using. So likely due to less than perfectly razor sharp chisels? For paring cuts like for final inletting you want a shallow sharpening angle so it cuts without trying to chip the wood out.

The stuff you use for "blackening" the metal to allow spotting during inletting should be something that won't stain the wood like the blue stuff you're using. Soot from a candle or kerosene lamp works well and is one of the traditional ways of adding blackening to the metal for transfer to the tight spots.

Your butt plate fitting could also use some help. But in this case more on the metal working side by the looks of things. I'm seeing a lot of wobbles in the metal while the wood actually looks pretty good. So some light "sheet metal" work to fit the plate to the wood in this case would be worth while.

I don't know what the pins are for on the barrel cover but you want to figure out how to do such jobs with "blind pins". Like you drill one part with blind holes then fit the holes with short pins with points. You then press down the barrel cover which marks the points where you can then drill shallow blind holes into the cover. Then remove and install slightly longer rounded end pins to secure the cover. That way you don't have the nasty looking holes on the top. Of course you also need a retention method then. Either a rear band or some other method.

Better stocks will also have metal estucheons inset into the wood so the action screws don't bear down on the wood. Only cheaper and lower recoiling rifles use direct holes in the wood for the screws. So that's something else you can work on.

I'd also suggest studying and learning to carve out the pistol grip to give a more defined shape. What you did on the one in the pictures is fine for a field gun but to really make your work "Pop" you'll want to learn how to carve in a nicely defined pistol grip that transitions cleanly to the shoulder stock. Then there's the whole issue of cheek pads.... More carving and careful delineating needed there.

I've been watching all the Larry Potterfield videos on You Tube (Midway USA) and he has some great videos on stock making and modifying as well as a very nice set of videos on checkering. It's well worth finding and watching anything he presents. These videos won't replace books or proper instructional videos but as a free resource they are wonderful.

We don't see a lot of variation in wood types because hundreds of years of rifle making has pretty well set the bar on what woods work and which are not that great. And walnut has proven to be just about tops for strength, stability, weight and workability. A good domestic option that won't break the bank is black walnut. Or for bench rest rifles where weight is actually a good thing figured maple can work well. For a field rifle maple can be heavy and the resulting stock needs to be made to be that much more slender to match the weight of a walnut stock. And that complicates the inletting and other work. But if you can make something like that the appearance can really be something.
 
Fine Woodworking has a couple relevant publications to look at, one called Wood and How to Dry It.http://www.amazon.ca/Fine-Woodworking-Wood-How-Dry/dp/091880454X Covers the nitty gritty details of how wood dries and what it does when it goes through the process. They have any number of other woodworking and finishing books that have useful knowledge in them too.

You really need to learn to sharpen your chisels and gouges. I can see that they are duller than they need be, by the surfaces around your cutouts, and in the bottoms of the inletting. You should be able to shave clean chips off thin enough to see through almost.

Power tools are cheap, available, and effective. Learn to use them to your advantage. You don't need to, but you don't need to do without either. Just remember that the end result is still from the workman, not from the tools.

Practice, practice, practice! Easy to carve woods are great for mucking about with shapes and sizes ideas, but poor for learning how to cut and carve hardwoods. There is a good reason for Walnut being almost universal in gunstocking use. It has pretty close to the best balance of features, workability, density, and strength, that has been found so far. It's readily available too, and you don't need to kill yourself on the cost, either. Save the figured (expensive) wood for small projects (to learn how to work the stuff) while you do stocks for everything you can out of more affordable grades of wood.
Lots of nice slabs of Black Walnut at Windsor plywood every time I am in one of them, lots of other hardwoods suppliers around.

When you figure out how to assess the wood without cutting it, you will be able to use that skill to hire the best gunmakers on the planet to make your guns, and you will be too busy working at it, to go shooting. Not gonna happen.

Howe's Modern Gunsmith covers a lot of dimensions and other accouterments info, as do any number of other books out there. But none are a substitute for continuously trying to make the one you are working upon now, nicer than the last one you did.

Cheers
Trev
 
Very nice work. For the checkering, go look at the Dembart Co. website, they ship quick and take (FRAUD ALERT). I started checkering a couple of years ago and now I am doing it for other people. Other than practice, nothing more will help you. 18 line per inch is what I have.

About inletting, what I do is inlet the square block of wood and then make the shape. Search my post for examples of how I do it. I am no expert, only doing this as a hobby, but I am getting good at it I think.

Good luck
 
Let me tell you looks pretty darn good for a beginner. I made a front handguard replacement for an Arisaka 99 that was Bubba'd and it took me about 3-4 tries before I was satisfied with it. Or rather acceptable. LOL. Keep up the good work.
 
trevj said:
You could do a lot worse things than to contact this fella and pay him what he wants for his USB drive full of his details. I watched that build a it progressed, and learned a lot from it.

Proof positive that you can get by on very limited equipment, if you have the mindset for it!

Cheers
Trev
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I've been reading through that thread today off and on and wow that's an interesting read. I have a long way to go. I have a lot of tools at my disposal already but I can see I need to invest in some good hand tools next and a bunch more wood. The Ross rifle stock I did in the photos is the fourth stock I've made now. I would really like to get into making nice sporter stocks down the road.
 
Great job, ive wanted to try my hand at making stocks myself but thats defanally not something id be good at. Id love to be able to make a stock that fine for some of my rifles. Good job
 
I'd say it comes down to this: those who have exceptional skills produce exceptional work and can charge exceptional prices. Those of us who don't have that level of skill, cannot devote the time to becoming highly skilled, or intend to make products that cannot sell for exceptional prices, can either do the best we can, or get some technological help. That technology doesn't come cheap, but it does produce the goods.

I'm afraid I won't buy a repro stock until it has inletting that matches the accuracy of the originals. (Pantographed stuff doesn't cut it IMO.) It can be done, but so far no one seems to be doing it for military surplus long rifles. The market is AKs, M16s, FN FALs, SVDs etc. I've talked to two companies in the USA who have the technology to do the job properly, but they don't see the market as sufficient and have plenty of work already making finger hole laminate stocks for 10/22s, if you get my drift?!

There is also a fairly steep learning curve to use the technology, but it seems to be getting more seamless and user-friendly all the time. When the supply or original stocks for Lee Enfields dries up, things will start to happen I suspect.
 
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