Stock Making

nickcutter85

Active Member
I have some free time and am thinking about trying to make my own stock, well learning the art of!

Does anyone have any good links/or names of books I can have a look at before but butchering some practice pieces of wood!!!

Thanks

Nick
 
Get hold of a copy of Clyde Baker's Modern Gunsmithing. It was written in the 1930's and has some really good chapters on stock making. They did a paperback reprint in the late 1990's and you might find one on Amazon.

Have a trawl trought the Gunsmithing section of Accurate Reloading and Nitroexpress forums - there have have been several discussions and how to do it on stock making.
 
I've got a nice little english walnut stock blank you can cut your teeth on for little money if interested.
 
"The Modern Gunsmith" by James Howe.

It will be in reprint form but is very explicit.~Muir

PS: Then there's the quick course oft quoted in the stock making class at gunsmithing school: Take a block of wood and cut away everything that doesn't look like a gun stock. When you are done you'll have a stock.
 
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For your first attempt, you don't want to use a AAA blank, but you need some wood that is hard enough to cut away in fine slices.
Getting a semi-inletted blank would get you started, with the roughing out done. Then you could build a cradle to hold it and turn if to shaping the rest to fit you, then to your tastes, and later, to checker it, should you be so inclined.

Don't know what you can buy like that in the UK, but there are lots in the US, in all sorts of styles, including British stalking rifles, Oberndorf Mausers, Griffin & Howe, and modern classic lines, like Gary Goudy.

Gunsmithing, by Roy Dunlap
The Checkering and Carving of Gunstocks, by Monte Kennedy
 
Southern,
No such thing as semi inletted stock blanks here mate, in fact the number of stockmakers could most likely be counted on one hand.
We are well aware of what is available on your side of the pond but most say they cant ship to the UK (personal import) without an export licence, or dont want to ship at all!
With an export licence costing $350 its a big no no for a single stock blank

Ian.

PS. Professinal Stock Making by David Weston is an excellent book although not cheap
 
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Get hold of a copy of Clyde Baker's Modern Gunsmithing. It was written in the 1930's and has some really good chapters on stock making. They did a paperback reprint in the late 1990's and you might find one on Amazon.

Have a trawl trought the Gunsmithing section of Accurate Reloading and Nitroexpress forums - there have have been several discussions and how to do it on stock making.
Reprints were by Border Press (Outdoorsmans Bookstore) PO Box 15, Brecon Powys LD3 7XZ ISBN 1 873088 12 4. Good text on the subject and good sketches of the general concepts but 'work in progress' images are not great. A book with modern photos would be better for this. Some of Midways's YouTube videos can be interesting over a coffee.
 
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Whitebeard,
You mean that individuals cannot ship a piece of wood into the UK?
Is it the carving or inletting for the action which makes it a "gun part" or something of the sort?

How about if someone sent you the G-Code for a CNC router to machine a certain stock profile and inlet?

What is the action and barrel contour?
What style of stock are you thinking of making?
 
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why not ask a nice chap over the pond to buy it for you and send it ?

I have done this with parts in the past,

plenty of like minded rifle shooters over there that are more than willing to help.

bob.
 
Holland and Holland apprentices practice on BEECH wood. If it is good enough for them it should e good enough for you to practice on and can be obtained at reasonable prices and reasonaby easily. Hope it helps!
 
All the fruit woods are good to learn carving and get the feel of your tools: apple, cherry, maple, beech. Beech is a dense and very stable wood, used on the later Enfields, some Mausers, and K-31s.
Use only hand tools, chisels, gouges, draw knife, brace & bit for drilling - so you can learn to read the grain and how to cut it the way you want to.
Buy only upper grades of chisels, gouges, and saws, and good stones to keep things very sharp.
 
So this is policy my the stock shaping companies, but is still legal for an individual to ship a stock to another individual, and maybe the buyer pay a duty fee to the Customs House?

One thing I do is go to gun shows and look for take off stocks in a style I like, such as from an old rifle, as a start for a pattern. I also might buy a bit bulkly and scratched up take off stock which has nice wood, for $10.00, and then strip it, trim it down, refinish it, and checker it.

This is the best way to learn checkering and fitting recoil pads, or trying a new pattern, and way cheaper than buying a plain blank piece of wood.
 
Southern,
More and more of the stateside companies that used to ship to the UK are no longer willing to do so citing ITAR as the reason but many of us think that they just cant be bothered, the UK market is miniscule, so it is becoming more and more difficult to obtain US sourced parts via personal import.
Let me point out though that there are no more restrictions in place here in the UK on recieving US goods then have been in place for many years.
Even Brownells now direct us to the UK site (which is completely useless) for orders and instruct us not order from the USA, the UK site looking more like a middle man rather then a genuine UK branch of Brownells.
Interestingly Sinclair will still ship.

Ian.
 
I've made stocks since 1992.
1. Look at a variety of stock shapes and decide which you find most comfortable/practical.
2. Try to beg, borrow or steal that stock as a template.
3. Get a Saburr Tooth disk Saburr-Tooth :: Carbide Coated Rotary Tools in medium for the angle grinder and if you can spring for it a mini Arbortech caving tool. NOT the 4" disk with chainsaw teeth you'll lose a finger or cut the stock in half in an instant. This tool alone will cut the time by 2/3s.
5. Get some carbide burrs for the drill or rotary tool. I use a 'cheesehead' carbide bit to finish the flat inleting and gently remove side material while inleting and bedding. A pointed triangular bit can help with neat corners.
6. Spokeshave.
7. Good sharp carving chisels. Pfeil or equivalent.
8. Lots and lots of garnet paper in different grades.
9. Good rasps and or riffler files.
10. A piece of wood, some time and good for it!
 

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