Rifle pictures

[Beekeeper]

Some time ago Ben asked me to send him some pictures of stocks I have made.
Try as I might I never found a way to send them via PM.
In the meantime my camera decided to go south and not return so I recently bought a new one.
I am in the learning process with it and am taking pictures for the insurance man.

Any way here are a couple of the stock I have made since 2003. The wood is Cherry and the foretip and grip caps are Peruvian walnut. Didn't know they had walnut trees in peru but that is what the woodworkers shop calls it.
The top one is a 7x57MM Mauser I have owned for more than 50 years.
The bottom one is a M95 steyr that I got from a guy that was getting a divorce.
His wife took her 50% by chop sawing the stock in half and burning it.
All wood work was done by hand with mallet, chisels, and rasp.
The only power tools were a sabre saw to cut out the shape and a hand drill to drill the action screw ,screw holes

In case anyone is interested "Old Toast " goes home on Sunday.
Hopefully I will have the nipple and striker spring by then.

Anyway here some pics for you Ben

[tomme boy]

Host the pictures on a picture hosting site. I like to use PhotoBucket. It will give you differant options to post the pictures. I like to list just the link to what pictures I want to send. That is how I do it in emails an if anyone has PM'ed me for pictures on guns I have sold.

[swheeler]

Bee K; from what I can make out they look good, is it safe to say you are a maple lover, I like it too.

[Beekeeper]

swheeler,
Pretty much a light wood lover but that is the prevlent wood in the lumber yards around here. Not much walnut unless you drive a couple of 100 miles round trip.
The finish I use will cause the wood to age and darken over time.
I have or a brother has a stock I made 50 years ago out of maple and it is almost walnut colored now.
Besides I always heard that blondes have more fun.


beekeeper

[swheeler]

swheeler,
Pretty much a light wood lover but that is the prevlent wood in the lumber yards around here. Not much walnut unless you drive a couple of 100 miles round trip.
The finish I use will cause the wood to age and darken over time.
I have or a brother has a stock I made 50 years ago out of maple and it is almost walnut colored now.
Besides I always heard that blondes have more fun.

beekeeper

Don't tell my wife that!:wink:

[Bren R.]

Very nice work!

Bren R.

[swheeler]

BK; here's a blonde I'm going to take for a spin someday, soon I hope.http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg234/kmw3291/2008044.jpg

[gnoahhh]

Nice work Beekeeper. I'm guessing since you said the wood is cherry that you have some very light colored stuff out there (or it could be a color shift in the pics)? I too like cherry. I use a lot of it in cabinet making. It seems to be the current darling of the 'happy homeowner' crowd, at least around here. The last stock I made out of cherry was for this Ohio-style half stock. It is mellowing nicely and about as dark as I suspect it will get.

http://i481.photobucket.com/albums/rr174/gnoahhh/100_0016.jpg

(Note: the gun is setting on the stump of a 200+ year old maple tree I had to cut down behind the house recently. Dead rotten branches were a hazard, plus it was only leafing out about 1/3 what it should have. It was dying.)

Nogal (also known as Peruvian walnut) is a pretty fair substitute for black walnut. I find that its pores are bigger than black walnut and hence require more work to fill when finishing, but other than that no complaints. I don't know how its expansion/contraction modulus is compared to walnut, but a 5' diameter octagonal dining room table I built out of it two years ago hasn't done anything crazy yet. Not much figure in it, but the color has some subtle beauty that really popped under varnish. Plus its a lot cheaper than black walnut!

[swheeler]

Nice work Beekeeper. I'm guessing since you said the wood is cherry that you have some very light colored stuff out there (or it could be a color shift in the pics)? I too like cherry. I use a lot of it in cabinet making. It seems to be the current darling of the 'happy homeowner' crowd, at least around here. The last stock I made out of cherry was for this Ohio-style half stock. It is mellowing nicely and about as dark as I suspect it will get.

http://i481.photobucket.com/albums/rr174/gnoahhh/100_0016.jpg

(Note: the gun is setting on the stump of a 200+ year old maple tree I had to cut down behind the house recently. Dead rotten branches were a hazard, plus it was only leafing out about 1/3 what it should have. It was dying.)

Nogal (also known as Peruvian walnut) is a pretty fair substitute for black walnut. I find that its pores are bigger than black walnut and hence require more work to fill when finishing, but other than that no complaints. I don't know how its expansion/contraction modulus is compared to walnut, but a 5' diameter octagonal dining room table I built out of it two years ago hasn't done anything crazy yet. Not much figure in it, but the color has some subtle beauty that really popped under varnish. Plus its a lot cheaper than black walnut!

gnoahhh; that is closer to the traditional cherry look as I think of it, nice stock. What did you do with the maple you cut down? I had a 788 Rem years ago that I stripped and refinished with Linspeed oil, very pretty and unusual grain, sycamore I believe it was. I like the streaking and colors I've seen in myrtlewood and may get a piece to play with, pretty wood.

[Beekeeper]

gnoshhh,
The wood in the 2 stocks shown I bought many years ago while in the Navy and in Japan.
The dealer there called it japanesse cherry so that is what I have always called it.
It does have the look of Maple except the grain is very straight , almost parralel rule straight, and is a joy to cut.
Unfortunately I have no more of it so the next stock will be regular old maple from the lumberyard.
Maple is good tho as it cuts nice and has resonably straight grain.
Always wanted to make one using a good curly maple or burl walnut.
Would rely get the juices flowing to try and chisel through the burl or curls with out chipping and ruining it.


beekeeper

[gnoahhh]

That Japanese cherry sounds like nice stuff. Be careful of maple you get at the lumber yard. Red maple, sugar maple? Best to avoid the softer species of maple for gun stocks.

When working hard curly maple make doubly-darned sure your cutting tools are razor sharp, and keep them that way or you'll be hating life!

The log from the tree my rifle was posed on went into a nice stack of 8/4 planks courtesy of a friend with a chain saw mill. About half of it anyway. There were a lot of rotten sections. The wood is relatively soft and has a lot of spalting- not much good for gun stocks, but I see some dandy cabinets and chairs hiding in it.

The cherry ML stock came out of a nice dark chunk of cherry from a tree my grandfather took down in Pennsylvania around 60 years ago. I sent it to a guy with a stock duplicater and had it roughed out and then I whittled it into submission. I wish I had more of that wood. It has that nice dark red color of old Pennsylvania cherry.