Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Stockmaking - Glad I don't do this for a living - Pic heavy

I've been beavering away at a piece of wood in my spare time and am getting close

This is right off the band saw.


On Mausers, one first inlets the bottom metal


Bottom metal in


Then the top is inletted


Top metal in


Shaped the exterior and glassed barrel channel, recoil lug and tang.


Here's the left side
[img]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/2minutes/stock10.jpg[/img]

And the right
[img]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/2minutes/Stock8.jpg[/img]

It's sanded now, and I'll start the sealing tonight and probably the first layers of oil next weekend. It's a 6.5x55 96 Gustav Swede, and if it shoots well, I'll be looking to get the metal blued. If not, it will become a truck gun. I may end up lowering the comb a bit, but that will have to wait until I get a scope mounted. Too cheap to pull one off another unit.

Anxious to see how the color comes out. It's a $50 piece of wood, but worth about $2000 in hours so far.

Very impressive, hope she shoots great for you. I look forward to seeing how the color comes out.

I've whittled a coupla Richards Microfits (what a joke that is) and even though I love working with wood the stockmaking biz is freaking labor intensive and a guy like me would starve to death if I had to do it for a living.

Sure do have a ton of respect for those who do make a living doing it.

Beautiful work BTW!

impressive! i'd have tossed it in the fire by now! you have much more patience than i!

Very nice.

I like it!

Thanks for the comments. I'll scratch this up and add a couple more pics when the finish is done. That might be 2 to 3 months though.

A second wetting and grain raising today really didn't seem to be needed as it was about 95% smooth. A little bit did pop up though in the grip area.

I was just downstairs and discovered that my can of tung oil had solidified. The plan is a couple of thinned sealing coats and then start by sanding in two coats with 600 grit to speed up pore fill. Then about 15 hand rubbed layers.

Got another chunk of wood and have to fix an Accumark that came with a horrid plastic stock.

Thanks for the pictures. That is way cool IMO, even though I'm a fan of different stock design. I have long pondered giving something like that a go, but haven't yet. Please keep this updated. Also, for those of us thinking of trying this, would you mind giving a list of the tools you used?

Kudos to you!! I've been making stock, spare time for20+years. I'm proud of you, you must have some kind of wood working background. Most people won't attempt such an ordeal.but bitch when you tell them it will cost500 bucks. That's about 7.50 an hour !!! If your lucky! Great job and congrats for having the guts to try!!!

very nice!

Aside from the bandsaw for roughing out, it's all hand tools.
Gouges, chisels, planes, spokeshave, a honing guide and stone, rasps, barrel channel scrapers; crossing, flat and chain saw files, a hand drill, level, about a 24 inch straight edge, calipers, a padded vice, a couple of headless action screws, sandpaper, inlaying black, and a small paintbrush.

Gouges and the crossing file were the most difficult to find, and I scored a good set of gouges and the file on Ebay. The rest came mostly from flea markets.

Dave Wesbrook's book, Professional Stock Making, is getting near impossible to find, but is an excellent guide. It's fun to go through the safe, find dimensions and shapes that work for one, and incorporate them into ones own project.

Amazingly, layout or design is the product of integrating a lot of straight lines and then blending them all with the final shaping.

It is not an endeavor, however, for a "hurry up" person or something I would do with deadlines. Still though, I get a lot of pleasure from the process as well as the final product. It's neat too to look at a receiver, and note that one can not fit a human hair between wood and metal. After doing a few, I thoroughly comprehend the charges quoted by the professionals.

Very nice work.

Bella1:


No. Nothing above bird house grade. Just patience, and I really enjoy a challenge. The last one was flint knapping. I've certainly not mastered that, but I can knock out some good points. Here's an image I posted before. I donate a few to fundraisers, but most go into cake tins for storage in a closet.

And this is the only cheap hobby I've ever taken up. All the materials and equipment are absolutely free. Obsidian can be had in my yard, and near all the shaping is done with deer antler tools.

Now I've jumped into the BPCR stuff and need to get a Sharps tuned up for some long distance shooting. Regardless of length, life is going to be way too short.

Very well done. Nice piece of wood.

THanks for the info!

+1 to that

yup ... you're not alone

Very nice. I would like to try something like that some day. Can't wait to see the finished pics.

Very nice! No way I could do that, not enough skill or patience.

You are a lot more patient than I Nice work.