Munzy Posted February 17, 2014 Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 (edited) So, over the last month or so I have been completely inspired by the excellent handiwork of Demonwolf444 (in particular this thread) and an amazing stock maker in Scotland called Julian Coupland who I follow on Instagram (he might be a PW member, I'm not sure). With the terrible weather down here I thought it would be fun to sit inside in the warm and dry and turn my hand to some woodwork! I began my hunt for a cheap side by side. The purists amongst you will shudder at the next comment but my only motivation was cost! I was looking to pick something up which was in ok condition, fairly tight, a bit of engraving and sub £50. The forum came up trumps with a slightly battered Belgian 12g coming up near me for the grand sum of £20. Here she is, fairly tight, a bit battered, very tidy barrels (inside), horrible broken wood... So, first job was to strip it all down and take the wet and dry and wire wool to the action to clean it up a bit. The plan will be to leave this a silver colour but perhaps a weathered silver as opposed to really shiny. She is no Purdey and could be in better condition but honestly (and it probably sounds mad) none of that bothered me. My goal was simply to make something with my own hands, enjoy the process and be proud of the achievement at the end. The quality of the gun itself mattered far less to me than what I was able to do with it. It will get used in the field but this was more about being able to open the cabinet every now again and seeing something pretty that I had made myself looking back at me. The reality is that I will spend a lot more on tools, materials and wood than I did on the gun itself! Here is the action now... The engraving isn't going to win any awards but it is quite pretty and has the old hand engraved look I was hoping for so that the finished piece would feel old and loved and not to clinical. Needs a little more cleaning up but decided to leave it and move onto the barrels. The barrels were in pretty good condition inside but needed rebluing and some light surface rust and minor pitting removing from the outside. Here they are after an initial pass with the wet and dry to remove the old bluing and rust. Some more work to do on these before the rebluing solution arrives in the post. I'll speak more about this when I come to reblue them. I found a great guide online for using the Phillips Professional Cold Blue solution. I say it's a great guide, I haven't even got the stuff yet so we will see... it might be a TERRIBLE guide! By this point I was getting a bit bored of scrubbing metal with wet and dry so decided to look for some wood. On that note, one thing that I was really worried about with this little project was my patience. I have a very short attention span and have a tendency to rush things when I get bored. I decided to persevere and so far (I am currently a couple of stages ahead of what I am posting here) things are going well. So, wood sourced from a good chap called Andy at Prime Timber. He was only just down the road so I hopped in the car and went and picked up a nice bit of seasoned Walnut for £32! Gave it a quick wipe over with water to see how the grain and feathering looked... Really happy with the grain and there is some beautiful striping on both sides. You can probably notice that the right hand side of the wood is shorter than the left and unfortunately the odd shape was the wrong way around for what I wanted. I wanted the action to sit up against what you can see on the left side since the grain is running nicely down through the stock (which will give strength) and then there is some interesting patterning at what would be the base of the stock. I was hoping that once marked out I would have just enough wood on the right to fit the foot of the stock. Here is another shot I took of the action on top of the dampened wood, it was looking great. Only one way to know whether I could get the right layout, draw it out and cut it. Another point to make is that I have DIY tools only, no man-cave, table mounted jigsaws or pillar drills at my disposal. Luckily the majority of the work is small chisel and sandpaper stuff so onwards I went with the handheld jigsaw. Exactly what I was looking for, happy with that! So, the action was cleaned up a bit, wood sourced and cut to shape and so far just £52 invested. Time to start inletting the action! I'll save you the boring shots of me chiselling away 1mm of wood at a time and fast forward to the point the action started to inch into place. I was using the exact same technique that DemonWolf used, slowly putting the action against the wood, marking where the contact points were, removing a fraction of a millimetre and then trying again. The original thread is so good I was literally using it as a DIY guide! The only changes I made to his approach was that I didn't want to soot the action with an oil lamp because I was working in the spare room. My wife was already getting itchy feet because of the sawdust on the carpet so putting soot over the blinds and walls was not a risk I wanted to take! Instead I used some of the nipper's white poster paint. In the same way as soothing the action I dabbed white paint over it and then when pressing it into the wood it would leave a nice white mark where I could start removing bits. If you are able to use the sooting technique I would recommend it because the layer you get on the action is considerably less than the paint and so in turn the accuracy of the trial and error fitting is probably more precise. The other change was that I decided not to drill through the stock for the action retaining screws until the end. That way (I thought) if I was to go wrong with the inletting and had to push back deeper into the wood (shortening the stock slightly) I could with no impact. The holes could be drilled once the action was sitting nicely. I'll leave this one here and post again tomorrow. As mentioned I am a few days ahead of this now but I enjoyed checking in to see DemonWolf's progress periodically so I thought I would break this thread into separate posts! Dom Edited February 17, 2014 by Munzy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxus77 Posted February 17, 2014 Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 cracking work so far, subscribed to thread love reading these projects Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hedd-wyn Posted February 17, 2014 Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 Excellent, glad you posted this! I'm currently working a Belgian 16g. Likewise the polishing has completely done my nutt in! All the hard work done now though, all I need to do is ad a recoil pad blue the barrels (also going down the phillips and guttering route) Will keep you posted, and looking forward to following your progression ATB Hedd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kent Posted February 17, 2014 Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 Good post, forget the cold bluing though, it will spoil the job for a ha-penny of tar go for a proper job it don't cost too much and it can be done when you finish the stock. There is nothing wrong with the gun not many made post 1970 should last so long its worth spending money on as and when you finish the wood to your liking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshwarrior Posted February 17, 2014 Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 As above get the tubes blacked properly there's guys on here who do good work at good price for the forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Poon Posted February 17, 2014 Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 Excellent write up, that's a nice bit of timber there, can't wait to see the finished product Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simjakcal Posted February 17, 2014 Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 a nice project you have there...looking forward to seeing it progress Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munzy Posted February 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 As above get the tubes blacked properly there's guys on here who do good work at good price for the forum. Who should I be speaking to Welsh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshwarrior Posted February 17, 2014 Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 Barrel Browner Ghilie and Richard H all do this as part of their living and are barrel men I can do it but I'm more interested in wood work really. PM if you want to talk about it more, we should take it off line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munzy Posted February 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 Thanks mate! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FalconFN Posted February 17, 2014 Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 Excellent work so far and a real bargain too. I shall watch this with interest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonwolf444 Posted February 17, 2014 Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 You got a cracking bit of wood for the money there! I like what you said in your post though. "My goal was simply to make something with my own hands, enjoy the process and be proud of the achievement at the end. The quality of the gun itself mattered far less to me than what I was able to do with it." A man after my own heart. While i definately have preferences as to what tickles my fancy, its mostly style and taste i can not afford. Your home made stock will never be perfect, but perfection can simply be, the happiness and experience found in job well done. Its been a couple of months now, but every time i see that boxlock i did, i fall in love with it all over again. My muzzle loader is no Westley Richards, but it had survived this long, and i wanted to make it mine and i wanted to be proud of it. I am really pleased you have found some kind of instruction from my post, and encouragement that with a lot of time and patience it can be done. I will enjoy seeing your progress! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munzy Posted February 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 (edited) You got a cracking bit of wood for the money there! I like what you said in your post though. "My goal was simply to make something with my own hands, enjoy the process and be proud of the achievement at the end. The quality of the gun itself mattered far less to me than what I was able to do with it." A man after my own heart. While i definately have preferences as to what tickles my fancy, its mostly style and taste i can not afford. Your home made stock will never be perfect, but perfection can simply be, the happiness and experience found in job well done. Its been a couple of months now, but every time i see that boxlock i did, i fall in love with it all over again. My muzzle loader is no Westley Richards, but it had survived this long, and i wanted to make it mine and i wanted to be proud of it. I am really pleased you have found some kind of instruction from my post, and encouragement that with a lot of time and patience it can be done. I will enjoy seeing your progress! What you created was excellent and the way you documented it was everything I needed to get some tools out and give it a bash. Thanks James, everything I am doing is a result of your write-up! Edited February 17, 2014 by Munzy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munzy Posted February 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 (edited) On we go... The chiseling, dabbing with paint and then refitting process continued for another six hours or so broken up over a couple of days to save my sanity. I was really enjoying the project but the progress is slow... reeeaaalllly slow! That said, there is great satisfaction in stripping a tiny piece of wood out of a groove and seeing that the action is now a little bit further into position! Here is the stock setup on a workbench in the spare room. This clip-on magnifying glass and LED light I picked up from Maplin a while back for a soldering task came in handy. When you are working away and every tiny shaving makes a difference you need to be able to see what you are doing! You will see that the action is about an inch away from meeting the wood now. Eventually, after what felt like forever it was touchdown! The good thing with working on a piece of wood that has been cut too big for the action is that as you are inletting you can get narrower and narrower the deeper you cut. The action itself had a slightly bevelled edge so this made for a secure fit but it also meant that some of the areas where I feared I had cut away too much wood were due to be sanded off anyway. In this view from the top you will see what I mean. Towards the bottom near the safety you can see too much wood has been removed but in reality this will all be going and the wood actually in contact with the metal is nice and tight. With the action sitting in place nicely I was able to drill the two holes that run through the stock at each end of the metal work to secure it to the bottom plate. This was the bit I elected to do after fitting the action rather than before as James (DemonWolf444) did. In hindsight I think there are equal pros and cons of swapping the process around. It was a little nerve wracking drilling at this stage since getting this wrong now would have meant hours of inletting would have been wasted. I put this to the back of my mind and marked up the holes on the top and then with some careful measurements I projected where the exit holes should be on the bottom of the stock. Some measuring calipers would have been handy for this but I didn't have any. There were a few points up to now when I could have done with some so if you are going to have a bash yourself, pick up some cheap ones on eBay. I drilled a pilot hole initially with an incredibly small drillbit thinking that if I was out by even a few millimeters I could redrill with the correct size and correct the poor angle. This proved to be a good move since the initial hole was about 2mm off where it should have been at the point it exited the stock. Once I had drilled at the correct diameter this was sorted. With this hole in place as a guide I could then move ahead with the inletting of the bottom plate which sandwiched the stock once the bolts were in place. This was also the plate through which the triggers passed so it was very important that this was correctly fitted, it wasn't just of cosmetic importance. I removed the trigger mechanism, offered it up against the wood roughly and started cutting it in. Part of this metal will be covered by the trigger guard so the pressure was off slightly in terms of slipping with the chisel. Eventually it nestled into place. With the action and bottom plate sitting properly I could move on to the cutting away of the internal areas where the trigger mechanism will sit. This was made easier by the fact that I now had holes and mounting areas cut away so I had reference points all over the place for measuring things up. I was relieved to be chiselling away at the internals knowing that they wouldn't be on show but that said when it came down to it I was so attached to the project that I was taking as much care inside than I had on the outside. I know I should've been careful regardless but remember that I was only doing this because I was bored because it was raining outside! With the internals all cut out I took the bottom plate off and fitted the trigger mechanism before putting it all together properly. The fit was fractionally out but my thinking was that after giving the recessed areas a little bit of a sand and then bolting the two halves tightly together it will probably sit perfectly. With the bottom plate now in place and the triggers in I was able to screw the trigger guard into place and mark up the wood for where it will sit. As with all the other cuts this was a case of drawing around it in white pencil (adjusting for the increased size when you draw around an object) and then cutting inside this with a sharp Stanley knife. I found the best method was to cut in 3mm deep and along the outline and then with a small sharp chisel take off the top few layers of wood running along the perimeter cut. *The bottom plate looks like it is sat very proud of the action in the image below. This is simply because the trigger guard is screwed into it and as it is not recessed into the wood it is pulling it up and away! The first layers of wood came away relatively easy and due to the cut with the blade the side walls were neat and clean. Then slowly I took off more and more wood using the side wall as a guide up to which I could butt the chisel. About two and a half episodes of Grand Designs later, just as the sun was setting on another day I was done with the trigger mechanism. After looking at the fit of the action and trigger guard the next day I realised that some minor filing/sanding was required but thought I would leave it for the time being and move on to give the wood some shape. The old stock was very short 12.5" LOP and with me being a lanky beanpole I decided that the new one would be cut for what felt like a perfect fit for me (15.25" LOP). I experimented with the length of the stock by bolting it all together and waving it around crudely. It felt about right and I thought that it is better for it to be too long and need shortening than the other way around as I didn't want to fit a recoil pad. The original wood was cut very thin, that is to say the stock was elegant and slim, not sure what the term would be in gunsmith circles! With the added length of the new stock I was concerned that keeping to the same sort of girth, particularly around the grip area would leave it feeling very fragile and a little out of proportion. I opted to give the stock a little more width to keep the proportions looking right. The first step was to fit the action and then cut the rough shape of the stock. Had I a table mounted saw it would have been far easier to navigate the stock around the blade leaving a nice contoured cut. Being a DIY bodger I instead had to hang the stock out of the workmate and then hack into it with a handheld jigsaw risking my fingers in the process! The overall idea was obviously to cut into the straight sided plank, gradually reducing the width/girth of the grip area before slowly creeping back out to full width towards the butt. Whilst approaching this task in such a dodgy (and frankly dangerous!) way the outcome was alright. I then progressed to start shaping the contours further with a rasp. Once the work with the rasp was done (and there was a lot of wood to remove!) out came the file and the wood was tidied up a little. I didn't bother adding talc into the file, I just went for it and the shape started to smooth out with not too much effort. I finished for the night for no other reason than I was growing sick of Kevin McCloud's voice. I like the chap a lot but I had spent too many hours listening to him talk about "a building's triumphant connection to the land" and the owner's "sheer dogged determination"! I packed up the tools, sprayed the wood with some water and took a final photo of the day. Another update coming later today! Dom Edited February 18, 2014 by Munzy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve_in_Devon Posted February 18, 2014 Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 Looking great, I am wanting to make a new stock for an air rifle I picked up, so on the look out for a nice piece of wood. I am busy stripping the air rifle down at the moment, made myself a spring compressor over the weekend. Now just need some time to start the project properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munzy Posted February 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 (edited) Looking great, I am wanting to make a new stock for an air rifle I picked up, so on the look out for a nice piece of wood. I am busy stripping the air rifle down at the moment, made myself a spring compressor over the weekend. Now just need some time to start the project properly. Check out Prime Timber (link in my first post) they have got a few bits listed on their site at the moment. Not sure how big this particular piece is but it looks amazing! Just realised you are making an air rifle so guess you will need more wood than a shotgun. Maybe give them a call and see what they've got! Edited February 18, 2014 by Munzy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIGHTCHOKE Posted February 18, 2014 Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 Thoroughly enjoying this thread, well done so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshwarrior Posted February 18, 2014 Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 Looking very good I love these threads see what people can do at home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDsniper Posted February 18, 2014 Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 Great thread i am trying to pluck up the courage to do my 16b well done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonwolf444 Posted February 18, 2014 Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 excellent stuff again! the pictures will never show the hours of scraping with a chisel! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munzy Posted February 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 Thanks a lot everyone! Another update tonight! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munzy Posted February 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 Another update... I moved onto the sanding of the stock and I have to say I cheated massively here! Out came the JCB sheet sander and the 60 grit sandpaper and the shape was finalised. This turned out to be a very good decision since the sander made light work of the wood that needed to be removed helping to smooth the contours and get a nice smooth finish thanks to the large surface area of the sander itself. I didn't take any pictures of this process partly because it wasn't very exciting and partly because I got told off for covering the once white walls of the spare room in walnut dust! I started working on the forend and believe me it was not easy! Partly because of the curve of the metal piece running through it and partly because of the mechanism that latches it to the barrels, getting a tight fit to the wood was a nightmare. I nearly threw the towel in because it was so frustrating! My backup plan was to scrap it and refurbish the original but since the wood was a different type this would have been a last resort. I pressed-on. Needless to say there are no photos of this process, I was not in the mood! Anyway, long story short, the forend was done and I could forget about it. I decided to lighten my mood by going back to the stock and start cutting some shape to the front where it meets the action. I drew out a curved triangular shape onto card so that I could turn it over to mirror the image to both sides of the wood. After marking it out I started hacking into the wood with the chisel. The shape was there so it just needed refining. Half of the tidying up would be done now with careful chiselling and sanding and then the rest would come with overall sanding of the stock with finer paper. I moved on to start the final sanding with progressively finer sandpaper. I started at 80 and then went up through 120, 180, 200, 300, 400, 600 and then finally 800. The process was very therapeutic and every stroke felt like it was perfecting the stock. This is where I decided to leave things for the night... My plan is to add some chequering and finish with an oil. I pondered whether I should be cutting the chequering first and then oiling or the other way around. I decided to leave the chequering until after the stock was finished because this is what James did and whilst I wasn't sure exactly why this was the case I guessed that oiling the entire stock and not having to avoid a chequered area would be easier and also chequering the wood may be easier on finished wood. I started to do some research into oil finishes. After looking at lots of finishes I decided upon Tru-Oil which I know has a love/hate reputation with a lot of people here. I was looking for as much depth and contrast in the grain as possible but I couldn't decide between a gloss finish or something that was flatter. The Tru-Oil seemed a good choice because it would provide the former as standard but leave me the option of knocking it back a bit with wire wool if it looked a little cheap and shiny. I bought a kit on eBay for £16 which included the finish suitable for filling the pores, some stain (which I wasn't sure I needed) and some satin finish conditioner (which I wasn't sure I would use). So total invested is now up to £68! I decided to put it out of my mind for now and cracked on finishing off the sanding; whichever way the finishing goes the preparation needs to be right! With the Tru-Oil sat there urging me to set it free I started raising the hairs in the wood and getting it ready for oiling. I sprayed the wood with water, let it soak slightly and then heated it with a hair dryer. this immediately showed the swollen splinters which were easily removed with wire wool. I repeated this process twice. When I felt the wood afterwards it wasn't quite as smooth as it had been once sanded at 800 grit. I gave it a light going over with the sandpaper just to restore the smooth finish. After a good wipe down it was ready for oiling. Getting there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDsniper Posted February 18, 2014 Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 How long had it taken you so far Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munzy Posted February 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 I reckon a good 20 hours in 3 hour sittings. It's been relatively comfortable though sat in the spare room watching TV or listening to music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazzab Posted February 18, 2014 Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 Absolutely superb mate. Ive been having the urge to get an old sxs myself and tinker. I think I may well do it now. Now where did I put wabbitboshers card..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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