This is another CZ 452 in 17 HMR, an identical gun to the one covered in my thread, "My new project".

This is the blank that I found at a gun show this winter that literally had my name on it. It had belonged to me in the past and I had swapped it to a friend and totally forgot about it. (Seem to be doing that a lot nowadays.)

I just received the blank back from Charlie Grace who pre-carved it to the pattern that I made for the other gun.

This is weird wood...

The other side of the stock.

Close up of the butt stock.

The other side of the butt.

Look at the inletting on this sucker. I got really sick and tired of inletting whilst doing my gun. I asked Charlie to send this one back as fully inletted as possible. This is what I got back. The gun was together when recieved.

There only remains a few thou to take the front of the barrel down to centerline. Charlie told me he was going to do that and leave me a little work to do.

I had no idea that this was possible. I would have asked Chuck to do mine exactly like this. I understand he bought Dale Goens duplicating machine after Dale passed.

My rifle (My new project) is off to Kip Wood's for checkering and I have time to concentrate on my friend, Kyle's gun.

After several hours this is what I have so far...

A close up of the roughed-out fore end and schnable. Charlie left a lot of wood on this pre-carve and there's lot of chips on my shop floor.

The intent is for this rifle to duplicate mine and the stock was pre-carved using the pattern I made for mine.

There's a lot of fairly dramatic figure in this blank. I'm anxious to see what pops out as I get the stock shaped and sanded.

The grip area... It's pretty fat here and needs lots of work to become a petite rimfire.

Butch,

The more I see of this wood, the more it looks like the blank young Evan is using for your 40X.

I talked to Roger Vardy the other day... After a while I decided that I was talking to Crocidile Dundee of Walkabout Creek. Great character and great wood.

I imagine you were very embarrassed when you discovered you put the cheek piece on the wrong side.
The work you did is very nice!

very nice work. However, such truly nice work deserves a nicer trigger guard.

The trigger guard has been on order from DIProducts for months. I have welded up and am re-shaping the trigger. It will look like the one on my own gun... "My new project".

This is what the bottom will look like when I'm done. That's a DIP trigger guard, a trigger I modified and a magazine I shortened. This is my own gun in the original stock.

I now have the stock roughed out.

The other side of the stock. Note the difference in color. This one was taken with flash; the other without.

Weirdest wood I've ever had. The black streaks are hard as a rock.

The roughed out schnable.

The roughed out cheek piece. I've spent the last four days on just the schnable and cheek piece... not even close to done.

This is my pal, Dr. Kyle, and his wife, Stephanie. I got tired of working on guns, they were available, the weather was loverly and we went out to the range for a day. Shooting 17 HMR's is fun... No kickee, not much noise and no reloading. The older I get, the more I like rimfires.

Kyle will soon have a new rifle.

After several more hours, this is the roughed out cheekpiece. The concave surface and the shadow line have been formed so far with only files. The rest of the stock is a 180 grit finish.

Another view of the cheek piece. You can do this for just so long before it's time to quit, get the camera and play with the computer.

The gun is now ready for final sanding and finishing. I'm obsessed with stock lines and put it in the vise just so I could look at it and try to find ways to improve what I have aesthetically.

CZ actions are very thick top-to-bottom. I can't find a way to make it thinner thru the pistol grip area without creating something ugly.

The more I sand on this, the more grain pops out. Can't wait to wet it down for de-whiskering just to see what's there.

I took the last picture and rotated it to get this just to stare at. See above about being obsessed with stock lines and shape.

Almost time to de-whisker and fill the pores.

Your obsession with lines has paid off. Very very nice lines. Looking forward to seeing it all finished and in one piece with the metal.

Perhaps you could speak a bit about how you go about making such a lovely cheekpiece. How you get such an even shadow line, etc.

Lindy 2,

At the risk of sounding like a smart ass, I do it very, very carefully.

Roughing out the cheek piece is easy but I pay a lot of attention to lines... does it look just right? What could make it better. It there's indecision I look at some Jerry Fisher made for inspiration...

To finish it to the stage you see in the two pics above, I use small round files and riffler files and go very slowly. It's a hobby, I love doing it and nobody in their right mind would pay me for the time I spend.

I guess my big secret is quitting when I'm ahead... When I get tired I stop with the cheek piece and do something easy. I'm 78 years old and a little shaky but I have enough common sense to quit before I screw something up.

There's advantages in simply staring at the pics for a while...

Look at the top of the butt stock... the line from the comb back to the top of the butt plate. It's not straight. To me it looks like there's a .020"-.025" mountain just behind the cheek piece.

Believe me... that's going to disappear before any finish gets put on.

Dick,

The easiest and best way to remove the hump on this comb is to use a sharp and properly adjusted 9 1/2" plane. (Woodcraft Supply has a book "Planecraft" that talks about adjusting a plane and I cover its use extensively in my stockmaking book.)

Use a fine cut and start the cut an inch or two in front of the buttplate and work forward. The first cuts will be short but will gradually lengthen. When the cut runs equidistant from both the nose of the comb and the buttplate you can again use the plane and light cuts to gradually round the sides of the stock into the comb-line.The line flow of the stock will show you where to remove wood.

Gradually keep lowering the comb and rounding the sides and everything will fall into place.

Dave Wesbrook

Dave,

It's done and it took me about 1/2 an hour. I used a not-very-aggressive rasp and my 12" machinist's scale as a straight edge and made the top flat. Then I simply blended the sides. Then more sanding...

Dick, it's looking really good.
You have an excellent eye for line, look forward to seeing both your rifles finished.
Cheers,
Metal.

In your next incarnation you could be a gun photog.

Brice,

Not so much on the photography. I have a good camera from my days as a Precision Shooting writer but no good set-up for taking the indoor pics.

I'd really like to see James Anderson's photo set-up. His gun pics are superb.

After sanding it with 400 grit this AM I wet it down with water. I will de-whisker it with 240 grit when it's dry.

This is the other side. Kinda cloudy wood, Eh?

Very, very impressive attention to details----beautiful!

Lovely wood.
George

I finally got the stock de-whiskered. Been very busy lately and this project is taking longer as a result.

I sold Kyle a bench gun recently and we have been loading ammo for it and shooting here on my range. My BR consultant told me that he is using Valdada scopes nowadays and Kyle bought a 36X benchrest model. If you are not familar, check these out... so far it seems to be the best bench scope I've ever used.

FWIW my BR consultant's name is Bart and he makes bullets...

Finally getting going again on the stock. Been under the weather most of the winter and this project is six months behind.

I rubbed some Tru-Oil on the finish sanded stock the other day and got this result. It's sloppy but we really wanted to see how it came out color-wise.

We do not like this carmel-like color. Consequently I will sand it back down to bare wood and get out the Alkanet root immediately.

You never really know what wood is going to look like till you get some finish on it.

The other side with Tru-Oil. We don't like the color here either. Time for all the sanding blocks and some 240 grit.

FWIW I sanded the finish off the stock. It seemed to take forever... you gotta be really careful at this stage.

Anyway, I then rubbed some S.B. McWillaims Alkanet Refinishing Oil into the wood. I like the results much better. The wood is darker and the grain popped out a lot more. It's still more brownish than red but I'm finally starting to like this wood. A few more coats and it will be ready for checkering.

quote:

Originally posted by Dick Wright:
FWIW I sanded the finish off the stock. It seemed to take forever... you gotta be really careful at this stage.

Anyway, I then rubbed some S.B. McWillaims Alkanet Refinishing Oil into the wood. I like the results much better. The wood is darker and the grain popped out a lot more. It's still more brownish than red but I'm finally starting to like this wood. A few more coats and it will be ready for checkering.

Looking great Dick! Did you get my email? I talked to Jerry Fisher last week and he said to tell you hello.

Butch,

For some crazy reason I have a problem getting email from or to you. I didn't get it.

I see Al Biesen just died. Right after WWII I was a young lad and read Jack O'Conner's articles about Al's gun. Got me started...

It's good that Jerry is still with us and still whittling on wood.