Home Made Rifle stock

Cass

Has anyone ever tried to make their own rifle stock?

I've watched a shed load of videos and read a good few articles on the matter. While it takes a degree of skill and a lot of patience it doesn't seem that hard.

Few things would catch me out. The inletting for one. How to get the perfect fit. Also the chequering. I know you can buy the tool, but do you need to, and would another pattern work as well?

Then its onto smaller issues such as laquer or stain.

Anyone tried it and if so how did you get on? What timber did you use? How did you do the inletting? What tools did you need? How did you finish it?


TIA.

gunny123

Well you can see homemade stocks on pat sludds website. He is not a professional stockmaker, he done it for years as a hobby or sideline, and is self taught.

I did see on an american forum, trainee stockmakers basically stocking a rifle with a very cheap piece of white deal or beech, as a trial run. When they were happy they could do it, they went for it with the good piece of wood.

cookimonster

For the finish of the stock I had two options.

French polished (or a similar application). My father refinished his Brno neigh on 40 years ago in a similar style and it held its lustre and seal over all those years.

Oiled Finish. 33 yrs ago I refinished my Brno with a linseed oil / wax combination and although I have touched it up over the years it never needed a complete re-do. The surface although water proofed wouldn't have the lustre of the varnish finish.
Newer techniques will shorten time and effort required and some will produce a gloss finish.

Recently reworked the .270 in a oiled finish.

juice1304

Checkering is a real pain in the hoop. And yes the tools are needed. 
You can inlet the stock with chisels and some homemade cutting tools from old files. you can then use dressing paste or the smoke from a kerosene lamp to inlet the stock perfectly, ( it takes quite a lot of time.)
As for the finish, you can achieve a high gloss oil finish if you want, it just depends on how you go about it.
True oil would be the easiest for you to acquire. 
I would not recommend lacquer or shellac as the lacquer can chip and cant be touched up and the shellac will turn opaque if it gets wet.
What is really important is sanding, raising the grain and filling the pores.

BattleCorp

One of the club guns in Harbour House has a home made stock on it. You'd spot it a mile away as it looks home made. It ain't pretty but the fact that it's home made doesn't affect its accuracy. It's a tack driver.

Cass

gunny123 wrote: »

Well you can see homemade stocks on pat sludds website. He is not a professional stockmaker, he done it for years as a hobby or sideline, and is self taught.

Have been down with Pat a couple fo times and you wouldn't know he is not professional. Some seriously tasty work.

I did see on an american forum, trainee stockmakers basically stocking a rifle with a very cheap piece of white deal or beech, as a trial run. When they were happy they could do it, they went for it with the good piece of wood.

Not a bad idea.

Cass

cookimonster wrote: »

Oiled Finish. 33 yrs ago I refinished my Brno with a linseed oil / wax combination and although I have touched it up over the years it never needed a complete re-do. The surface although water proofed wouldn't have the lustre of the varnish finish.

Not a huge fan of the varnish/shiny finish. The nicest stock i've ever had was on my Beretta. It was a stain or oiled finish and the dark colours mixed with the feel of actual wood (no giggling now) was better than the feel of a "slippery" highly polished/varnished finish.

Just a personal choice.

Cass

juice1304 wrote: »

Checkering is a real pain in the hoop. And yes the tools are needed. 

I've seen videos and it looks like it would take some serious time to not only do, but perfect that it doesn't look like Stevie Wonder done it.

You can inlet the stock with chisels and some homemade cutting tools from old files. you can then use dressing paste or the smoke from a kerosene lamp to inlet the stock perfectly, ( it takes quite a lot of time.)

Got ya. Use the paste/smoke to "mark" the underside of the barreled action to let me know what needs removing and what is okay?

So essentially trial and error and another reason to go with gunny's idea of using a trial piece first.

As for the finish, you can achieve a high gloss oil finish if you want, it just depends on how you go about it.
True oil would be the easiest for you to acquire. 
I would not recommend lacquer or shellac as the lacquer can chip and cant be touched up and the shellac will turn opaque if it gets wet.
What is really important is sanding, raising the grain and filling the pores.

Some really useful stuff there, thanks.

I'd like to go for the "natural" wood finish, oiled obviously.


This is an itch i've been wanting to scratch for some time. I realise you wouldn't start in the morning and be done by the evening and i know some specialty tools will be needed for the some of the finish (as per the chequering), but i have most every other tool and a few bits of timber to practice on not to mention the time to kill.

All i'm really missing is the skill, but i'd like to give it a shot and i now some of you are fairly good to gifted with such work and might have a few tips for a compete novice looking to give it a try.

Uinseann_16

Ive been thinking about the doing the same thing my .22 has a cheap birch stock on it and id like to make a new one from maple. Let us know how it goes for you if i get around to making mine ill post it up too:D
I've also been thinking about making a aluminium chassis for it in future too but i haven't got the tools for that yet...;)

gunny123

Cass wrote: »

I've seen videos and it looks like it would take some serious time to not only do, but perfect that it doesn't look like Stevie Wonder done it.

Got ya. Use the paste/smoke to "mark" the underside of the barreled action to let me know what needs removing and what is okay?

So essentially trial and error and another reason to go with gunny's idea of using a trial piece first.

Some really useful stuff there, thanks.

I'd like to go for the "natural" wood finish, oiled obviously.


This is an itch i've been wanting to scratch for some time. I realise you wouldn't start in the morning and be done by the evening and i know some specialty tools will be needed for the some of the finish (as per the chequering), but i have most every other tool and a few bits of timber to practice on not to mention the time to kill.

All i'm really missing is the skill, but i'd like to give it a shot and i now some of you are fairly good to gifted with such work and might have a few tips for a compete novice looking to give it a try.

Beretta use truoil on all their guns up to and including the SO- Series. Its an polymerised oil, so basically an oil and varnish mix, which is why it drys so readily, but a lot of people don't think much of it. Personally i like it.

Plain varnish is horrible on gunstocks imho, and your face tends to stick to it i find.