demonwolf444 Posted August 3, 2013 Report Share Posted August 3, 2013 Let me start by saying i would never have had the opportunity to take on this project without the kindness of Mick54Dog on here, who was extremely generous. Well, while visiting mick54dog to pick up a muzzle loader, we got to talking and long story short he offered me a Linsley Brothers shotgun for free, on the promise that i would take on the task he thus far had not, to restock it. What was left of the stock was saturated with oil, where it has then snapped around the wrist of the stock this obviously put the gun out of action. I ummed and arred as i didn't want to take the gun on only for it to be a project i never get around to, however in the end i took it and promised to at least attempt to restock it. Please be aware aside from much more simple air rifle stocks i have never made a gun stock ever before, let alone that of quite a nice shotgun. Aside from the lack of stock, other problems included having only half a trigger guard where it had snapped when the stock snapped. First i ordered an old trigger guard from a boxlock shotgun that was on ebay, the tang of which is now being spliced onto the original guard. Anyway, after a considerable amount of pre thought i cut out a walnut blank using the band saw. My dad has had this walnut for years and aside from a little wood worm here and there, i have found it will make a more than serviceable gun stock. Blank Sawn out. The project is nearly complete now but i have to resize all of the photo's and i have to go to work now, i will add more photo's and update every night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonwolf444 Posted August 3, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2013 This is the blank. Did a little bit of rasping a long the edge so as to get an idea of the grain of the wood; its very plain but very clean. The first thing i did was mark out the holes where the screws go through the stock and into the action. It was important to mark them out with absolute precision as they could not be altered once drilled. With out any jigs or specialist tools, it took about an hour to drill each hole. The holes would be used as reference points to carve the inletting later. Holes marked and drilled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonwolf444 Posted August 4, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2013 Action next to the blank, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonwolf444 Posted August 4, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2013 (edited) I forgot to take pictures for this stage. But i started first by in letting the trigger group. This took the best part of a day, which was relatively quick compared to what was to come, as all if the cuts were mostly square holes and lines. Again lots of caliper measurements to ensure that the wood would be tight up to the face of the action were necessary throughout. I don't have the best chisels, and my smallest chisel was a rubbish 6mm or a decent 10mm, so i ended up reshaping and re tempering a few screw drivers for chiseling the smaller areas. I found this worked well. Although by the end of the day i was seriously looking at buying some expensive sets of chisels as an investment. In the corner of this picture you can see another stock - this was a broken stock i bought off ebay, that had many large chips and dints ( looked like it had been used as a fence post knocker ) I bought it purely for the reason that i came with a trigger guard, which is currently being used to repair the original guard that had snapped. It also helped me get the template for the blank. . The trigger group sits flush to the wood in this inletting. However as i left a quarter inch of wood around the size of the blank, all of this inletting would have to be deepened to meet up with the action at a later date. The work is extremely slow paced. I found a decent head torch at a local shop ( yorkshire trading ) which would shine a focused beam of white light on to my work. I found this to be absolutely essential to see properly what i was doing. I would also recommend a magnifying glass on a stand, although i didn't have one the benefits of having one would be very great. Edited August 4, 2013 by demonwolf444 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIGHTCHOKE Posted August 4, 2013 Report Share Posted August 4, 2013 Very interesting so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pboro shot Posted August 4, 2013 Report Share Posted August 4, 2013 good project i look forward to the outcome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonwolf444 Posted August 4, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2013 More to come in a few minutes, I'm glad people are interested in this. I have to say from start to current position i spent about 7 days in the mancave, and by the end of it i had all but moved in. Got though a few box sets of dvd's just playing through in the background. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike737 Posted August 4, 2013 Report Share Posted August 4, 2013 Excellent thread and project, please keep us up-to-date? Thanks, Mike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonwolf444 Posted August 4, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2013 To inlet the top part of the action i first took measurements from the holes i had drilled to the edge of where the metal would sit as counter intuitively as this gun was made by hand not by machine the holes are not perfectly central as you would expect. So after some measurements i started to cut the inlet for the top part of the action - the tang. I cut this slightly undersized though out. This gave me a bit of wiggle room if i was to make a rouge cut with the chisel or cut too deep. I then made this simple oil lamp using a jam jar, oil and a wick ( which was actually half the drawstring from some old trousers i happened to be wearing ) and lit it. The process is simple, however actually doing it is slow, boring, tiring and tedious. First you grab the part you want to inlet and cover it in soot from the orange flame of your lamp. You then jam it into the inletting you have done so far and see how far it will go in. You then remove the action and where there are high spots preventing the action to enter the groove of the inlett fully the soot from the action will rub of on to the wood showing you what to remove. You then remove wood very slowly from these blackened area's. Doing this takes about ten minutes each time you blacken the metal and scrape of the wood. I spent around two days just doing this. Trail fitting the action Taking some caliper measurements Removing the black marks with my screwdriver converted scraper You stick at it for about two days and millimeter by millimeter you inch the action back towards the face of the blank, this photo was taken on the morning of the second day and i was very pleased thinking it wouldn't take that much longer, however it took an entire day to get from this stage to the stage where the action was sitting flush with the stock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonwolf444 Posted August 4, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2013 (edited) After a bit more of this soot and scraping ( 1 whole day ) (* you can also see in this picture that i have cut the slot that the safety lever goes though i did this on the second day, which allowed me to test fit the triggers and action into the piece of wood to check how deep the inletting needed to be - I simply cut a row of 4mm holes, bust them out with a screwdriver and then used a chainsaw sharpening file to square it up. By the end of the second day i got to this stage. Nothing different just soot the action, press it in, remove the contact marks. And repeat. Checking over the alignment of the inletting, the inletting must be as tight to all the metal as possible without interfering with the function. I found that i needed to remove a little wood from the inside of the trigger group inletting on the right hand side at this point, as the trigger had contact with the wood preventing it from returning to a forward position. The wood is significantly lighter than this, however it is engrained in soot and dust and is still rough sawn at this stage. Edited August 4, 2013 by demonwolf444 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike737 Posted August 4, 2013 Report Share Posted August 4, 2013 Brilliant, this is going to be as good as the Damascus knives!!! Thanks, Mike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonwolf444 Posted August 4, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2013 End of most of the inletting could not resist in putting it all together one evening, so still to go at this stage is to fit the but pad and begin taking the wood down to be flush with the action and shaping the stock, finishing, chequering and the trigger guard. The pictures make this look easy but this took effort and patience that i didn't even know i had. In these pictures i guess i was about four days in to the project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonwolf444 Posted August 4, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2013 Just sitting the but pad on top. Marking up the screw holes. Sooting the but pad lnletting for the but pad The but pad was filched from the bust stock i bought on ebay, this meant i had some nice engraved screws too to fix the butpad. I have reblued small parts of the gun like screw heads by just heating with the screw heads with a gas torch until it turns blue then quenching it in oil to blue it. All of the screws were removed and replaced using a normal screw driver that i had filed the head down on, as this allows you to get the screws out without marking the blueing or the engravings, without shelling out for the cost of gunsmiths turnscrews. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiffy Posted August 5, 2013 Report Share Posted August 5, 2013 a fascinating read for those like myself who wouldnt have a hope in hell of doing what your doing, well done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildfowler Posted August 5, 2013 Report Share Posted August 5, 2013 Good work demonwolf. Looking forward to seeing the end result! Out of interest, how are you going to checker it? I ask as i'd like to do my punt gun... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_b_wales Posted August 5, 2013 Report Share Posted August 5, 2013 A very interesting project, and makes good reading too. It will be good to see the finished product. Well done on taking this task on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highbird70 Posted August 5, 2013 Report Share Posted August 5, 2013 That's ART....well done for the great effort and really nice ongoing work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshwarrior Posted August 5, 2013 Report Share Posted August 5, 2013 Good work demonwolf. Looking forward to seeing the end result! Out of interest, how are you going to checker it? I ask as i'd like to do my punt gun... PM sent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonwolf444 Posted August 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2013 (edited) The guy who owns the local pub father used to make cross over stocks which were for people right eye dominant but left handed and vica versa, he assures me that he still has his fathers old chequering tools somewhere so i should be able to use those. I am going to just turn a short bar of walnut to practice on to get used to doing the chequering on a rounded surface as i have never done any kind of chequering before. The only way i can discribe the mentality i had when taking on this project was one of, " i am absoloutly prepared to throw away 5 - 10 - 15 days work at a moments notice" and with this it seems that thus far i have had the patience to just work extremely slowly and carefully which is not exactly in my nature. Suffice to say im prepared to spend a whole day practicing chequering before it goes anywhere near this stock. I will keep you updated, the only bit u have forgotten to take pictures of is making a motor case for it, But i have pictures of the unfinished case, and lining it which i am starting on this afternoon. Doing this has made me extremely hyper critical of my work though which i suppose is a good thing. Edited August 5, 2013 by demonwolf444 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonwolf444 Posted August 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2013 Then all that was left to do was remove the bulk of the wood with the bandsaw. This took a lot of concentration as one wrong move could destroy the stock and add some lovely engravings to the action. I masked up the action. Then went very very steady Then i had to rasp the stock into a gunstock shape - there was a lot of wood to remove, a LOT. I had to take enough off so the stock was evenly shaped and was not oversized, but not so much that it would end up undersized, structurally weak or so that when it was sanded down the action would stand proud. I rasped out the basic shape of the stock. Very slow going, as i have said previously none of my tools are especially high quality. And after a lot of rasping i could finally see the grain of the wood, very simple, Very clean, but some nice tiger striping in it. Which was pretty lucky. And some wood worm, which was pretty unlucky. This is what it looked like after rasping. .... File too big to upload DOH! Didnt shape the wrist area till the following day, but the shoulder was all shaped at this point. Hope you are enjoying this so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukkat Posted August 6, 2013 Report Share Posted August 6, 2013 Am loving this post. That if a fine piece of workmanship. Very impressive with the limited tools your using. Can't wait for the next installment. Kat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnphilip Posted August 6, 2013 Report Share Posted August 6, 2013 looking great , you sure have to put the hours in but the buzz you get is amazing . keep posting please Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Poon Posted August 6, 2013 Report Share Posted August 6, 2013 Fantastic I love this type of craftsmanship , I was lucky enough to see my stock being worked on by Dennis at uk gunrepairs not long ago, I was like a kid in a candy shop in his workshop , can't wait to see more pictures of your stock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonwolf444 Posted August 7, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2013 Update will be coming tonight hopefully but i get in from work at about 11 ish so i will try and get it done before i go to sleep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oxon T Posted August 7, 2013 Report Share Posted August 7, 2013 This is brilliant. Nice one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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