Carving your own rifle stock

Bluehighways

New member
Hi all, I am interested in carving my own stock for a project rifle of mine. I am a professional machinist and prior to that I was a cabinetmaker. Carving, however is one area of craft that I have never explored.

I think I can reasonably follow an outlined figure, removing only what's necessary from the blank. Inletting won't be a problem; I don't see how it can be any more technical than hand fitting dovetails or mortise and tenon joints.

I am wondering if anyone here has carved their own stocks before. If you have, please share any tips, processes, notes, or follys you encountered/discovered during carving.

Anything information or experiences would help. As it is, I can't seem to find any instruction on the internet, and money is REALLY tight right now so I can't go and buy books. Thanks.
 
dont have much to share.... I stated with a 10/22 stock and I added some "Curves" to it and channeled it for a .920 BBL. I painted the stock. This was to my advantage because a stained stock will show imperfections. More than paint will at least. Since it was painted I could epoxy all the area I cut down too far and try again! No big deal


Hope this helped. Good luck! Its just a piece of wood dont let it frustrate you. Google search rifle stock from scratch there are several DIY's out there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrKT-KciSyw
 
I've made 5 stocks so far, I'm an ex cabinet maker also. I do all the inletting for the barrel and action before I worry about the outside other than a ruff cutout of the shape, then go to work with a rotary rasp in a die grinder for most of the shaping. Just cut away all the stuff that doesn't look like the stock you want. Ha! I like thumb-hole stocks, they feel good to shoot. I did start with a piece of pine on the first one to get the feel of before jumping on a $50. plank of black walnut. Feel free to contact me for details and pics. Good luck with your project.
 
I've never done much woodworking, so being a machinist myself, when Mrs. Grymster wanted some fancy dressing screens, I put them on a $300K machining center and made them perfect! :D

I might try and make some revolver grips someday, but probably won't try my hand at rifle stocks.
 
grymster: Isn't that just the way we do it. Total overkill. :) Gotta love having fancy-pants CNC stuff at your disposal and using it for "Government work". The best I've seen was a former colleague who made himself a collapsible gambrel out of 2024 aircraft grade aluminum and had sealed ball bearings in the pulleys. He did it on a 1.5 million dollar 5-axis with a 40hp spindle on his lunch breaks. Total overkill. :)

Sorry moderators. I know that was off topic. I won't do it often. Promise.
 


I started on this stock by finding a piece of a huge fallen limb from a pecan tree. I cut the center part out of the limb and worked from there. I'm not any kind of a wood worker but I just used patience and another stock as my pattern. It took me three weeks, working on it after work, till I got it as I wanted it.
 
Back
Top