Do it yourself Stock making thread

[Twdmar]

Yes, thanks for that info. I added some sizes I have, the walnut I have is not long enough. The hickory would be ok if 6" wide would work, I have an 8' piece that was going to be the first of a workbench, but plans changed. That reminds me I do have about 150 bf of 4/4 air dried walnut that was grown locally. Great color, but for some reason it stinks when you work it. Doesn't seem rotted, not sure as I have never had walnut like that.

Blank width depends on the kind of stock you want to build. I think some bench rest and f class stocks are 3 or 4" wide(I don't shoot those disciplines so that's what I read). For a prone-sling rifle or across the course rifle, a 2" thick blank will work. I like 3 3/4" lams. That way the pillars etc are not bisecting a glue line. Epoxy works, as does titebond. If you search Steve Mcgees posts in this thread, he used a different glue when he was making stocks.
The good thing about a laminate, especially with a plywood center is not having to worry about the grain in the wrist. You can also get away with using less stable as species and pieces and if you mill your wood well, the glue line will be minimal. Or glue in a carbon fiber or fabric layer between wood sections and you could even dye your epoxy to make it stand out.
If you go to doantrevor.com he has some stocks with maple/purpleheart/walnut laws that look actually pretty good. He uses mango too which looks so cool but I cannot get it here.
For a bigger action I would definitely consider the plywood center section and like Josh said, build it a bit bigger. The only real problem with the plywood is you almost need motorized tools. It's not so easy to work with chisels etc, although it can be done.

 

[joshb]

I put some Mesquite blanks together yesterday. The hunk I had was wide but not long enough. I cut on a 45 and sandwiched a piece of ebony between the Mesquite. I dyed some epoxy black and put them together. When I cut the barrel channel, I’ll cut deeper 4” long on either side. for a scab piece to strengthen the joint.

 

[Fuj]

Josh.....What's a good length you would be looking for ??
I have a 12' log of walnut at my son's I dropped 5 years
ago. Tree was ancient. Lightning hit it. I've been thinking
of taking a section to see what the heart wood looks like !!

 

[Konocti's Wigwam]

Josh.....What's a good length you would be looking for ??
I have a 12' log of walnut at my son's I dropped 5 years
ago. Tree was ancient. Lightning hit it. I've been thinking
of taking a section to see what the heart wood looks like !!

@Fuj it's not so easy, although you have what you need to make an amazing stock. However, cutting a tree is not as easy as it sounds, it's quite an art in itself. I do speak with some knowledge as I do own a band sawmill. In the following picture you can see different way to cut the tree, and what you're looking for to have the most stable is the quarter sawn. Many people refer to this as vertical grain as if you look in the pics closely you can see the growth rings run circular. Even with a sawmill it takes a lot of log flippin' and I don't have hydraulics on my sawmill, so it requires a lot of labor to keep flipping the log, even with a forklift it's really difficult for 1 person to do by themselves. A single log can take several hours to cut into quarter sawn.

I apologize if this is old news to you, but your question implied that you weren't sure how to cut it, and I mainly want to point out that, it's a bit more difficult than taking a chainsaw and cutting a piece to work with.

The other thing to note is that many trees, and walnut is probably the worst, but many trees fall down because they're rotted inside. People are always trying to get sawyers to remove trees that are in danger of destroying their home, claiming how valuable the wood is. Some things in life that seem too good to be true, usually are. Unless you have the skills of felling trees you had better be careful, it ain't so easy to pinpoint how these trees will twist and turn under stress...they don't call a barber chair a "widow maker" for just no reason...

Often if the log has rot in it, it will not be the entire length of the log. The other thing to note is you can mostly only use the trunk portion, the upper canopy doesn't have limbs/branches wide enough. This limits the usable wood on a walnut tree. Also, there are many species of walnut to confuse the issue even more.

I'm not sure if you could get a sawyer to come out, but often the sawyer will take his cut in wood. IOW, you don't have to pay them any money, just give them 1/2 the wood. Walnut will get them to come out, but 1 tree might be marginal to setup and cut. Most sawyers that will even do this have hydraulics, so it's much quicker going.

Sorry if I'm rambling, but there are many things to be aware of, from insects/bugs inside, to insects/bugs getting to any wood whatsoever. Just make sure you have a piece of stable wood to work with.

 

[Konocti's Wigwam]

I cut on a 45 and sandwiched a piece of ebony between the Mesquite. I dyed some epoxy black and put them together. When I cut the barrel channel, I’ll cut deeper 4” long on either side. for a scab piece to strengthen the joint.

Thanks for showing that. I was looking at my walnut pieces and I do have a couple I could laminate together to get the thickness, but not entirely long enough. This technique would work to use those. I have some with grain fairly similar running along the length, that will look exquisite with the right finish on it.

 

[joshb]

Thanks for showing that. I was looking at my walnut pieces and I do have a couple I could laminate together to get the thickness, but not entirely long enough. This technique would work to use those. I have some with grain fairly similar running along the length, that will look exquisite with the right finish on it.

That’s why I posted it. Stagger your joints. Outside in one spot, inside piece 4-6” away. Lots of possibilities. I used a different wood at those joints because I knew I wouldn’t be able to match the grain.

 

[joshb]

Josh.....What's a good length you would be looking for ??
I have a 12' log of walnut at my son's I dropped 5 years
ago. Tree was ancient. Lightning hit it. I've been thinking
of taking a section to see what the heart wood looks like !!

Hey! 36” is a good length. 2 1/2” slabs for thickness. A sawmill guy would rather have the full log to make the cuts. You might tick him off if you brought him 3 footers!

 

[hoz53]

@Fuj it's not so easy, although you have what you need to make an amazing stock. However, cutting a tree is not as easy as it sounds, it's quite an art in itself. I do speak with some knowledge as I do own a band sawmill. In the following picture you can see different way to cut the tree, and what you're looking for to have the most stable is the quarter sawn. Many people refer to this as vertical grain as if you look in the pics closely you can see the growth rings run circular. Even with a sawmill it takes a lot of log flippin' and I don't have hydraulics on my sawmill, so it requires a lot of labor to keep flipping the log, even with a forklift it's really difficult for 1 person to do by themselves. A single log can take several hours to cut into quarter sawn.

I apologize if this is old news to you, but your question implied that you weren't sure how to cut it, and I mainly want to point out that, it's a bit more difficult than taking a chainsaw and cutting a piece to work with.

The other thing to note is that many trees, and walnut is probably the worst, but many trees fall down because they're rotted inside. People are always trying to get sawyers to remove trees that are in danger of destroying their home, claiming how valuable the wood is. Some things in life that seem too good to be true, usually are. Unless you have the skills of felling trees you had better be careful, it ain't so easy to pinpoint how these trees will twist and turn under stress...they don't call a barber chair a "widow maker" for just no reason...

Often if the log has rot in it, it will not be the entire length of the log. The other thing to note is you can mostly only use the trunk portion, the upper canopy doesn't have limbs/branches wide enough. This limits the usable wood on a walnut tree. Also, there are many species of walnut to confuse the issue even more.

I'm not sure if you could get a sawyer to come out, but often the sawyer will take his cut in wood. IOW, you don't have to pay them any money, just give them 1/2 the wood. Walnut will get them to come out, but 1 tree might be marginal to setup and cut. Most sawyers that will even do this have hydraulics, so it's much quicker going.

Sorry if I'm rambling, but there are many things to be aware of, from insects/bugs inside, to insects/bugs getting to any wood whatsoever. Just make sure you have a piece of stable wood to work with.

we are lucky here i guess. there are a number of small lumber mills around. I had a trunk i cut down in the yard taken to one of them and they sawed it up for me. that was mabie six or seven years ago and total cost was around 200 to get it there and have it cut. i went and picked it up.

 

[Konocti's Wigwam]

That’s why I posted it. Stagger your joints. Outside in one spot, inside piece 4-6” away. Lots of possibilities. I used a different wood at those joints because I knew I wouldn’t be able to match the grain.

I remembered this piece of redwood that my son used for an art piece in his portfolio when he was accepted to UCLA, over 10 years ago. A friend of mine lives off the Eel river in NorCal. The river is strange, AFAIK, it's the only river in Cali flowing north. It flows south to exit in Southern Humbolt, but it turns and flows north up to Eureka. During a vicious storm 12+ years ago, my friend spots a redwood just about to blow over by the bridge as he's driving over...he pulls over and sets a choke on the tree, the other end to a tree/stump. As the storm continues the tree finally blows a couple days later...11' in diameter, 60' long...after the storm he takes his Boston Whaler, gets the tree and takes it back to his property...only problem, he can't get the damn tree out with the largest Caterpillar excavator, that's what he does for a living. Finally hires a guy with a long arse chainsaw to cut it into 3 sections, 20' each and he could pull those out of the river and onto his property. As I like to say, possession is 9/10ths of the law! Finders keepers, losers weepers, as they say...he cut me a bunch of it and this was one of the pieces my son used. He had a sawyer go to his place and he got 20,000 bf of highly figured 1000 year old redwood. He built a beautiful barn out of it and a huge pergola on the rear of his home overlooking the river...to this day I tell my friends, he's the best fisherman I know. Anyone who can land a 60' redwood trunk can fish better than myself...

I know redwood is soft, but probably strong enough for a gun stock.

 

[joshb]

I remembered this piece of redwood that my son used for an art piece in his portfolio when he was accepted to UCLA, over 10 years ago. A friend of mine lives off the Eel river in NorCal. The river is strange, AFAIK, it's the only river in Cali flowing north. It flows south to exit in Southern Humbolt, but it turns and flows north up to Eureka. During a vicious storm 12+ years ago, my friend spots a redwood just about to blow over by the bridge as he's driving over...he pulls over and sets a choke on the tree, the other end to a tree/stump. As the storm continues the tree finally blows a couple days later...11' in diameter, 60' long...after the storm he takes his Boston Whaler, gets the tree and takes it back to his property...only problem, he can't get the damn tree out with the largest Caterpillar excavator, that's what he does for a living. Finally hires a guy with a long arse chainsaw to cut it into 3 sections, 20' each and he could pull those out of the river and onto his property. As I like to say, possession is 9/10ths of the law! Finders keepers, losers weepers, as they say...he cut me a bunch of it and this was one of the pieces my son used. He had a sawyer go to his place and he got 20,000 bf of highly figured 1000 year old redwood. He built a beautiful barn out of it and a huge pergola on the rear of his home overlooking the river...to this day I tell my friends, he's the best fisherman I know. Anyone who can land a 60' redwood trunk can fish better than myself...

I know redwood is soft, but probably strong enough for a gun stock.

Oh yeah! That’ll do! You can “harden” it with a coat of epoxy after you form it into a stock.
Great story!

 

[Fuj]

Sorry if I'm rambling, but there are many things to be aware of, from insects/bugs inside, to insects/bugs getting to any wood whatsoever. Just make sure you have a piece of stable wood to work with.

Yeah, not exactly new to wood. Father was a custom home builder
with his own cabinet shop. We had piles of black cherry and red oak
air drying. His favorite toy was a Parks 12" thickness planer. It's this
thickness planer that steered me more towards machinery and tooling.
Different story for a different time. We have 140 acres of hardwood on
the family property. Quite a bit of oaks and cherry. We have an Amish
family that would normally mill for us. My brother and I would take
down the trees that they would mark, and they would haul them out
with horse and harness. Those day are long gone but it stays in your
blood. Of course I still fell trees, but only for my personal wood stoves,
and of course the smokers.

 

[Konocti's Wigwam]

His favorite toy was a Parks 12" thickness planer.

You mean like one of these? I have a larger 24" Yates American, it will plane a 24" wide board! Currently doesn't have power and awaiting being moved to a new shop.

Of course I still fell trees, but only for my personal wood stoves,
and of course the smokers.

I won't even go there, I'm a lover of 'que and have spent all too much time over the years perfecting my smoker...I use a Weber Smokey Mountain with hardwood oak lump, and many people use offsets. Both are popular, some even use <gasp> gassers... I've tried most all woods and oak is the best, IMO. I will stop now, I could go on ramblin' about 'que for hours...

I don't want to derail Josh's thread, I want to learn. I apologize for any off topic content. Last pic is largest log I've loaded on my sawmill...40" butt! Hooya!

 

[joshb]

Yeah, not exactly new to wood. Father was a custom home builder
with his own cabinet shop. We had piles of black cherry and red oak
air drying. His favorite toy was a Parks 12" thickness planer. It's this
thickness planer that steered me more towards machinery and tooling.
Different story for a different time. We have 140 acres of hardwood on
the family property. Quite a bit of oaks and cherry. We have an Amish
family that would normally mill for us. My brother and I would take
down the trees that they would mark, and they would haul them out
with horse and harness. Those day are long gone but it stays in your
blood. Of course I still fell trees, but only for my personal wood stoves,
and of course the smokers.

Ah, a fellow woodsman! I’ve spent my life with wood. My Grandfather ran a boatbuilding business. My father bought me my first chainsaw when I was around 14. My dad and I used to clear building lots together. We’d play a game when we were dropping big trees. We’d put a coke can out in the clearing and try to hit it with the tree. It was a lot of fun watching a 100 foot poplar mash the can. I was in pretty good shape back then. I could run a Stihl 051 with a three foot bar all day and go out chasing girls all night. I miss those days!

 

[Fuj]

Since my love affair of throwing aluminum chips over wood
chips, I do remember a time of gluing up 3 slabs of red oak and
making a stock for a model 43 Winchester 218 Bee. Mixed a little
lamp black into the paste filler to bring out the grain. A couple
coats of shellac, and finished with varnish.

 

[joshb]

Maple Mannlicher formed as far as it can go until I get my bottom metal. The Ruger end cap wasn’t to my liking so I added some ebony accents.
With that stalled, I put a mesquite blank in the duplicator.

 

[Bc'z]

Maple Mannlicher formed as far as it can go until I get my bottom metal. The Ruger end cap wasn’t to my liking so I added some ebony accents.
With that stalled, I put a mesquite blanket in the duplicator.View attachment 1344863View attachment 1344864

Looking good, that maple is going to pop once you get some dye on it.
Have you researched Trans-Tint or Colortone yet?

 

[joshb]

Looking good, that maple is going to pop once you get some dye on it.
Have you researched Trans-Tint or Colortone yet?

Yup! I’m waiting for 6 bottles I ordered in the colors you suggested. I have scraps ready for testing!

 

[Seagull]

Just another 2 I have in the process of getting glued up . First couple of photos are the process of gluing up with carbon fibre stringers getting setup. The last pic is of 1 that's been glued up teak in the middle 2 carbon fibre stringers with a lighter coloured timber on the out side. Should be in the machine in the next coming weeks hopefully

 

[joshb]

First coat of oil on the first Mesquite stock.

 

[Bc'z]

First coat of oil on the first Mesquite stock.View attachment 1349605View attachment 1349606View attachment 1349607

Thats gonna be a good lookin sporter!!