demonwolf444

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At this stage the holes are drilled and the screws fitted up, with everything at the right depth the screws should be able to be brought on to the original north south alignment and be tight. This being the case i begin shaping the stock down, carefully checking again against the customers measurements to ensure the gun fit of the end product. Series of lines are drawn from established profiles to work the stock down to shape, with planes, spoke shaves and rasps. The stock is worked evenly up to the rear of the panel and point which is left as a block planed square to the action body. Once the stock is pretty well shaped i cut and contour in the panel and point. Shaping a stock is a finiky process it has to feel right, look right and measure right, often fresh eyes reveal an area where you need to remove more timber to create a pleasing result Once profiled the stock is sanded with care to maintain flat and radius-ed areas the grain being raised between each grit. The the stock can be checkered replicating the original pattern. The checkering is cut roughly at this stage and will be tidied up when the finish is finished! Before the stock can be finished the oval is fitted. and the back end profiled to the measurements, and checkered. Many coats of alkanet oil are required in order to match the stock the the original colour. The stock is nearly ready to being oil finishing as the finishing oil will continue to darken the stock a little. Many thanks Gordon, there is much at stake when working with these blanks, blanks before i start work can be an investment of over £1000, and a slip of a chisel or a poorly maintained machine or a rogue blade, orbadly timed sneeze can ruin all! By no means a master by any stretch of the imagination, but always striving to be better than the last job!

The next piece of the puzzle of the trigger plate, along with the hand pin bolster this creates the draw that holds the stock to the action, the black is from soot which is used as a spotting medium in order to cut in the bearing surfaces. once the trigger plate is let in and is solid and to the correct depth, the lock work is added to the plate and the necessary relief cuts are made.

In my late teens i became fascinated with the arts and mystery of gunsmiths and for many years now its been something of a life pursuit, learning a trade and honing the necessary skills, ever since i left school it has been my earnest wish and intention to be the best i can be, and try to make a living doing so. I've been trading professionally a few years and it has not been easy however im pleased to say that even in these difficult times i feel what i'm doing is worth my while. My first dip of the toe into gunsmithing was entirely this forums fault; making a gun stock for a gun gifted to me by another member of these forums, a gun that will never be parted with and one i have a sentimental attachment to. I fully recorded this process at the time, with the limited learning, tools and skills i had at the time, i'm surprised my effort was as good as it was! From the outset some forum members provided endless support advice and encouragement, a member gave me the gun, a member sent me a set of chisels ( still have them!) a scraper, some checkering tools, they could obviously see my passion for what i was trying to do and gee'd me on. We don't know the impact we have on the people we interact with; even with the virtual space we are both now self isolating in. Despite the trouble it has caused me, the frustration and expense, i thank all of you for setting me on the path i now walk. So, to business, imagine my delight when Old farrier, one of my supporters from the day i first scratched with a blunt chisel messaged me to ask if i could make him a stock, gunsmithing is great but stock making is the singular aspect of my work which i could happily do, forever and a day. Naturally i agreed to do so and true to his word old farrier had the gun delivered to me without delay. The gun was a boxlock ejector by Anson though badly in need of a service, re blue and a new stock it was well made, well put together, tight, and with a good amount of original finish remaining of the colour case hardening. Making a stock for a gun like this is never really a financially viable prospect, you have to do it for you, your own enjoyment and to preserve a piece of history which might from a financial point of view be destined for the scrap bin. The original stock really had had a hard life, first it had been cracked and pinned at the head, it had been shortened and subsequently lengthened, there were numerous cracks and chips where the wood meets the metal, to top it off the stock had been bent for a heavy left hand cast ( beyond even my left handed needs! ) and had subsequently cracked around the wrist and inletting. One crying shame was that the original wood was uniquely beautiful, when restocking i always attempt to find a blank that will work into a stock that is true to the style and feel of an original, slight upgrades or downgrades are permissible but restocking a British made gun with a garish piece of american walnut will always look out of place no matter how well executed. The first blank we selected had an issue and was scrapped before the project went any further, a natural void opened up in the timber which was a real shame as the blank was strikingly similar to the original stock. Determined to find OF a decent blank the next best match was one i had sat on, reserved for a person project which was yet to be started these last five years. After a short battle with myself i decided i would rather see the blank into a stock than see it collect dust for another 10 years. The blank Part way through heading up. So I began heading up. Heading up is the initial process of putting an action into a blank, the difficulty of this task varies depending on the gun, but as will all stock making time spent measuring out and laying out saves time with the chisel. Heading up is complete once the action is on a solid bearing with the head of the stock and the top strap is on a good bearing all round. the "head" of the stock. The top strap bearing.

Sounds like bull, RFD banking with HSBC here and no issues ( watch now ill check my emails and be ********! ). The regulations are really strict however and i have heard this rumor before so when i opened my account i asked about it, the only grounds under which they close accounts is that they have had issues with RFD's and other businesses supplying the military and HSBC cant have anything to do with the military for whatever reason, my bank manager told me of one business who had their account closed as they were making brass cylinders for a military contract, which eventually became primers in artillery shells. ( hastily going to check my emails now! )

If you need a hand with it bring it up to the workshop - you need the right tool to remove the disc set strikers which do look in poor shape but its impossible to tell if that's what is at fault. You have small chance of buying a tool new or second hand to remove the discs the distances on the pins are different from maker to maker in my experience. I usually end up making a new one for each job, every time i think surely one of the ones i have must fit - but no luck yet! from the engraving on the barrels its very very similar in style to an arrietta that's in at the minute.

I always wondered about them as over a few years we used to find deer wounded by crosbow bolts every few week. Anyhow found a reasonably modern one that my friend had, it was just a cheap one i'm told but i think it will be over 80LBS. Shot it into some round straw bales stacked in an empty silage clamp, the bolt went clean through the first and into the second by 6 inches or more. The power was quite incredible I'm at a bit of a loss to see what would stop a bolt that you could easily set up in the garden.

I'd take with you a wall thickness gauge and a shotgun bore micrometer. I wouldn't trust whoever catalogued the last load, unfortunately im away this weekend or i could meet you there with tools and run through the catalogue though last time it was largely a wasted effort. - Last time nearly every gun had sprung ribs, damaged barrels, bulges, or were out of proof, plenty of guns were listed as 16 bores or 20 bores and turned out to be other sizes completely. There appear to be some okay looking boxlock ejectors in this time around - everything else i would steer clear of.

Last time i was at rydale there were 70 - 80 lots, every single gun nearly had a handful of faults which were not reflected in the bidding. I would not recommend buying a gun at auction if you don't have the knowledge to properly appraise them - Next sale is the 8th December - which i don't think i can make.

Have the bores measured and proof checked. Its not worth £37 if the barrels are out no matter how clean they look.

worked with yew a lot - Its nothing like as evil as tropical hard woods. Best high gloss finish is a few coats of shellac based sanding sealer then a couple of coats of true oil - which is an oil/varnish mix - the result comes out really really nice on yew particularly. Yew heart wood will darken some what with age. If you do breathe in a lot of dust the result is pretty much like a crippling hangover. Hand sand or use machines with extraction. If possible sand outside and you will be fine. good yews a beautiful material my childhood home was surrounded by yew tree's so i spent a lot of my childhood working with it.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Grobet-Knife-Edge-Swiss-Pattern-File-Pillar-Checkering-6-Inch-Cut-4-75-lines/401736015327?hash=item5d89551ddf:g:FCYAAOSwpMZcl3D- 75 lines to the inch would create very fine "jimping" 30 lines might be better but may be too course https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Grobet-Knife-Edge-Swiss-Pattern-File-Pillar-Checkering-6-Cut-0-30-lines-per/401814578830?epid=2255967767&hash=item5d8e03e68e:g:Y1MAAOSwxOBdKYTx

try ordering from dembart directly ?

1 Part beeswax to 4 parts parrafin wax ( vaseline ) Before. After Water proof? yep. Been doing it for years