1874Sharps
10-09-2013, 11:41 PM
Well boys, the project that was supposed to take about six weeks wound up taking four months or so but at long last it is done. I would like to take a moment and talk a little about what was done, the experimentations and what worked finally.
My youngest son and I started out with a Richards Microfit walnut stock with rosewood caps and maple spacers of semi-fancy grade. They were on sale so it was a great deal at around $170 with shipping. Now there is a little bit of fitting on these 95% inletted stocks, but it really is simple and minimal. The time consuming part is smoothing out the roughed out shape of the stock into the way you want it. It looked to me like they hired a bunch of beavers to do the shaping. Well it was not quite that bad, but it was far from ready for a light sanding and applying the finish.
After rasping and block sanding with course sandpaper to shape the comb and cheekpiece, we started to carve the cheek piece into a German school inspired design that I call a "dragon wing" profile. To some the multiple curved and straight sculpted lines may appear a bit too busy, but to me, along with the shadow line at the bottom of the cheek piece, the lines look most elegant.
When the stock was all sculpted and carved and fine- sanded like I wanted it, I applied a coat of shellac to it to fill in the pores of the wood. It turned out the old can of shellac was nearly solid after sitting on the shelf for several years. Since ethanol can be used to thin shellac, I added a good slug of the alcohol to the can and let it sit for a day or two. I got quite a surprise when I poured out the alcohol/shellac onto a rag and started to rub it onto the stock -- the stuff was jet black and not the usual amber color! Once it was on the stock it was too late to stop, so I applied it all over. After drying I sanded it down and was pleasantly surprised to find the black remained in certain parts of the grain, which gave it a nice look. It turns out there are commercially available gunsmithing materials to do just this, I just happened to accidentally stumble into it.
Next came many, many many coats of Tru Oil and Tung Oil with steel wool sanding in between coats. I kept it up until the wood, figuratively speaking, whispered to me that it was ready for the fine sand (1000 grit) and buffing. I bought some stock polishing compound from Brownell's but found that fine cut auto paint buffing compound worked better for bringing out a super high luster and depth of grain out of the wood. After the stock glowed like an old fashioned automotive lacquer paint job I applied some Howard's Restor-A-Finish in mahogany to it. That may sound a bit strange, but that stuff is really great for more that old finishes. The goal was to get a finish like the best English gunmakers produced a century ago.
The hand checkering took about four or more hours per each of the four panels. Matching the left and right sides of the pistol grip is a bit tricky becase of the palm swell on the right side. The forend grip panels are a bit more straight forward because the same patten can be used for both sides. After the outlining borders are cut a given panel the two "master lines" that define the diamond shape of the checkering is cut. Then a spacing tool that has two rows on it -- one with cutting teeth and one without teeth that follows in the previously cut row -- is used. It looks like a farmer plowing a field as the rows are cut and then eventually deepened to "point up" the diamonds. Cutting checkering is a bit tricky and very time consuming, requiring constant concentration. But it is not an impossibly hard skill to learn. This stock was only the third one I have attempted, so it can be done.
This was a great father-son project and I learned quite a bit. We studied and read much before taking up tools and talked to experts for advice. We tried some new things and techniques and learned what worked and what did not. The best thing is the new skill set that comes by no other means, something that I now plan on doing more of.
Well, I hope y'all enjoyed the write-up and the photos!
My youngest son and I started out with a Richards Microfit walnut stock with rosewood caps and maple spacers of semi-fancy grade. They were on sale so it was a great deal at around $170 with shipping. Now there is a little bit of fitting on these 95% inletted stocks, but it really is simple and minimal. The time consuming part is smoothing out the roughed out shape of the stock into the way you want it. It looked to me like they hired a bunch of beavers to do the shaping. Well it was not quite that bad, but it was far from ready for a light sanding and applying the finish.
After rasping and block sanding with course sandpaper to shape the comb and cheekpiece, we started to carve the cheek piece into a German school inspired design that I call a "dragon wing" profile. To some the multiple curved and straight sculpted lines may appear a bit too busy, but to me, along with the shadow line at the bottom of the cheek piece, the lines look most elegant.
When the stock was all sculpted and carved and fine- sanded like I wanted it, I applied a coat of shellac to it to fill in the pores of the wood. It turned out the old can of shellac was nearly solid after sitting on the shelf for several years. Since ethanol can be used to thin shellac, I added a good slug of the alcohol to the can and let it sit for a day or two. I got quite a surprise when I poured out the alcohol/shellac onto a rag and started to rub it onto the stock -- the stuff was jet black and not the usual amber color! Once it was on the stock it was too late to stop, so I applied it all over. After drying I sanded it down and was pleasantly surprised to find the black remained in certain parts of the grain, which gave it a nice look. It turns out there are commercially available gunsmithing materials to do just this, I just happened to accidentally stumble into it.
Next came many, many many coats of Tru Oil and Tung Oil with steel wool sanding in between coats. I kept it up until the wood, figuratively speaking, whispered to me that it was ready for the fine sand (1000 grit) and buffing. I bought some stock polishing compound from Brownell's but found that fine cut auto paint buffing compound worked better for bringing out a super high luster and depth of grain out of the wood. After the stock glowed like an old fashioned automotive lacquer paint job I applied some Howard's Restor-A-Finish in mahogany to it. That may sound a bit strange, but that stuff is really great for more that old finishes. The goal was to get a finish like the best English gunmakers produced a century ago.
The hand checkering took about four or more hours per each of the four panels. Matching the left and right sides of the pistol grip is a bit tricky becase of the palm swell on the right side. The forend grip panels are a bit more straight forward because the same patten can be used for both sides. After the outlining borders are cut a given panel the two "master lines" that define the diamond shape of the checkering is cut. Then a spacing tool that has two rows on it -- one with cutting teeth and one without teeth that follows in the previously cut row -- is used. It looks like a farmer plowing a field as the rows are cut and then eventually deepened to "point up" the diamonds. Cutting checkering is a bit tricky and very time consuming, requiring constant concentration. But it is not an impossibly hard skill to learn. This stock was only the third one I have attempted, so it can be done.
This was a great father-son project and I learned quite a bit. We studied and read much before taking up tools and talked to experts for advice. We tried some new things and techniques and learned what worked and what did not. The best thing is the new skill set that comes by no other means, something that I now plan on doing more of.
Well, I hope y'all enjoyed the write-up and the photos!