Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing What are the most essential tools for stock making

Just found this and what a useful scraper and I use it as a feeler gauge to see when I am at the half way point which I had a hard time doing with a set of calipers. https://www.woodcraft.com/products/lynx-2pc-convex-cabinet-scraper-set?via=573621f469702d06760016d0%2C5764236869702d3baa0025aa%2C5764555969702d2f2f0013a1

But this led me to wonder what else I was missing as I am down to the basics now after having had a full shop previously.

Have a good set of gauges, rasps and now scrapers so what else is helpful even if not essential?

Very well lit work area. 100 foot candles minimum, multiple sources of light (not just a spot). I like a "white light". But I never was as good a woodsmith as many on the fire. My 2 cents -- With new LED lighting you can get a lot of FC without much heat.

Gouges, scrapers, headless and extended action screws, barrel channel scrapers, chisels, angled chisels and scrapers, planes in several sizes, flat and round rasps, crossing files, chainsaw files, long levels or straight edges, wood worker's vice, mallets, spoke shave, calipers, drills and bits, sharpening stones, sand paper and round and flat sanding blocks, inletting black and some brushes. Last, a boatload of patience. Read and reread Wesbrook's Professional Stockmaking. ALWAYS make all cuts with the grain regardless of tool in hand. Often that means shaving forward on one side of a stock and toward the rear on the opposite. Ebay was my friend.

In my experience the two essential tools are: 1. Patience; 2. Skill at being patient.

Can't buy that. I wish I could it is why it takes me so long as I know now to give it a rest if I am not in the super patient zone. I leave the stock alone and do something like making mauls with a hatchet to compensate for the minute scraping on the final fitting.

I minute thanks a picture is worth a 1000. I am in pretty good shape except lighting and am down to about 2-3 planes. Lost my dad and all his tools which he had in abundance having collected them over some 60-80 years. Those big Jack Planes cost dearly unless I can get lucky at a garage sale. Got four boards that I think I will do myself instead of sending them off to a stock duplicator.

I think I will get a 1x pair of reading glasses with built in lights. Geeky as hell but may be good for the detail work. Real good for checkering but not sure if I want to tool up for that again.

Just made my own varnish and shellac pretty stinky I'll do it outside next time.

Thanks

I'm not the expert on this subject, but you might find some of the videos posted on stock work by Larry Potterfield of MidwayUSA helpful, paying particular attention to the tools and setups he uses.

The first video illustrates the use of the patternmaker vise and his checkering cradle, in this case, to sand in a finish, not for checkering. The second video is on reshaping a gun stock where he has a stepped-block he uses to support the stock in conjunction with the patternmakers vise and a quick adjustable clamp to hold the stock. That stepped block shows up in a number of his videos. It can be turned to the side for using different height levels. At the beginning of the same video, he also made up a neat metal template for the nose profile. I've set the links to start later in the videos, but if you watch them all the way through, you'll see other little tools and techniques he uses. He has a ton of gunsmithing videos on youtube.

Gunsmithing - How to Sand In the Fi...ented by Larry Potterfield of MidwayUSA

Gunsmithing - How to Reshape a Rifle Stock Presented by Larry Potterfield of MidwayUSA

Gunsmithing - Building a Pattern Stock Presented by Larry Potterfield of MidwayUSA

Patternmaker's or Gunstock Carving Vise in case you're interested in one.

I collect antique wood working tools. What type of plane do you need? Perhaps we could do a swap of labor and skill for tools.

Not sure yet need to take inventory. I know I don't have the larger jack planes that I used to. My dad had a big wooden one that just seemed to work better. Need a small rounded skive for spoons and stock work, need a shaving horse but may make one. A pattern makers vice maybe, small curved adzes, off set gouges round and straight. Scrapers with handles that are off set or bottoming chisels not sure of the right name. Don't have the small thumb planes either.

Need to go easy as I have bought a fair amount of materials and tools lately.

I am sure I will think of others. Need to watch that woodwright show he always pulls out some old tool that looks useful.

I have several of the large wood planes, draw knives, spoke shaves, maybe a gauge or two. I need a butt stock for a double barrel .20ga I am restoring. Not a prize piece, but an intended trunk gun.
Edit to add link to project: https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...176/re-a-bit-of-a-barn-find#Post12137176

1minute just about covered it.I have never used a scraper,don't have one. I will add an Exacto knife with a large assortment of blades and extra handles, a Dremel tool w/bits, sanding drums or rotary fexible shaft tool . A magnifying visor, of 3x or better.

I find red lipstick is faster and works as good if not better as inletting black. Some wood working shops carry sharpening stones formed to fit various shaped cutters

I found that good work platform like one of the old Black And Decker Workmate really helps in clamping the wood down indifferent position

Arthritius has pretty much stopped my stock carving/checkering unfortunately

Where I live, most households do not have a screwdriver.
As I bike around, if I see the rare garage door open and work being done, I stop and talk to them.

It seems like everyone is smart and can learn fast when I tell them how to do things, but lack fundamentals.
When I was in shop class in 8th and 9th grade, we had a semester of woodworking and a semester of metalworking.
That was 1965. Since then they have torn down the shop buildings.

When I started woodshop at age 14, the task was to square up a board, even if it took two weeks.
When my grandfather started woodshop at age 14 in Sweden in 1897,the task was to square up a board, even if it took two weeks.

Now I have so many tools, what gets close to the work area is just the best chisels. Old ones can be bought off ebay. There are guys telling how to collect them:

colleting chissels sawmillcreek forum

save up some coin and get yourself a Bridgeport and then learn how to use it.

Duplicator?

How much coin, and how many times in my lifetime might I ever need it again? This is the first time in 53 years, I've ever needed a new butt stock made.

I have inletted a few stocks using a milling machine.Pretty hard to figure out how to shape the exterior. Used Bridgeport $3-$4K.Tooling another $1500 minimum

I got my first microwave in 1984 and have used it once a day since.
I got my first table saw in 1984 and have used it once a week since.
I got my first mill in 2003 and have used it once a week since.

I could not have foreseen all the use I would get out of those tools.

Thanks all this thread reminded me that I have both the skills and most of the tools to work from the board. I have done this before and I am not sure why I felt like everything had to be pre-inletted. With the $$$ saved I can get fancier checkering done and more tools.

I could only justify a duplicator if I was going to go commercial. I am just a shade tree bubba gun butcher.

Alright, microwave, table saw, and milling machines all have many secondary uses. What ELSE is a stock duplicator good for? I couldn't afford enough GUNS to need enough stocks.

A stock duplicator could make wood chips for the meat smoker

I already have an electric planer for wood chips.