The customer sends you a $1000 blank to build a stock. During the course of inletting, you make an error that you cannot correct without the correction being a visible flaw. Did you just buy a $1000 blank or do you try to work it out with the customer?

This is not a real situation, I'm just curious how folks would react. Is there malpractice insurance for gunsmiths?

It's a good question.

If it can't be fixed and the mistake is worse than the maker will accept. The maker contacts the customer with pictures of replacement blanks and makes it clear that the mistake was his fault and not the fault of the wood. (Knots, rots, and inclusions).

The mistake can sometimes be salvaged with oversize bottom metal, barrel, or receiver.

You might be surprised at some perfectly good tangs I've TIG welded wider or longer for some very good stockmakers. (Ever notice how a blind hole Mauser looks bigger?

Very good gunmakers have a genius for giving themselves second chances at perfection.

"Whatever you do must *look* like it was done on purpose."
Leonard Brownell

A hearty AMEN from over here....

But given a hypothetical, say I dropped the stock and broke it. I would be buying a new blank that satisfied the customer.

Here is one for you. If you send me a blank that you purchased for me to stock for a rifle and I find a serious flaw in it say in the grip after a great deal of work. Now I have the rifle all the way inletted and shaped and in the final shaping I run across a bark hole right in the grip. The stock is toast. Do you owe me for the effort and time I have put into it or is it just the nature of the game. I will let you answer before I tell you what usually happens.

Chic

[This message has been edited by Customstox (edited 05-08-2002).]

Chic, to answer your question, if I supply the material then the responsibility for the quality of that material falls on my shoulders.

Funny you should pick that example, as I have a very nice walnut blank in my workshop that is great except for a void in the grip. Fortunately it because obvious during the first shaping cuts. Unfortunately this nice blank is now relegated to grip caps and forend tips.

All rifle builders, gunsmiths, etc. will make
mistakes. This is a fact and any one of the
above that tells you they don't is a liar.

If I was choosing a riflesmith for a job I would not consider whether or not it was
possible that they could make a mistake but
my gut feeling on how they would respond if
they did.

I recently built a rifle for a good customer
where I installed the wrong contour barrel
due to a paperwork error made by myself at
the time of order. He promptly (and rightly)
returned the rifle for correction. The downside was that I became "stuck" with a $250 barrel that I will likely never be able
to use but the upside was that I made the
customer happy and he will return to my
business and continue to spread the good word.

FWIW
Ross
www.prairiegunworks.com

SamB,
Don't rule out that stock, it might still work for a two piece. I had a good stockmaker friend who passed away recently and he had a blank that he had priced at $3600 and when he got into the wrist in it he found a bark pocket. It was his nickle so he just stored it and cut if for a future rifle. I ended up with it and am going to put it on a 63 winchester .22 Auto. I have another blank that does not have a lot of wood left in it and it is going to be a very fancy .22 Stevens favorite "boys rifle".

Sincerely,

Dewy, Cheetum, & Howe
Custom Gunsmiths

P.S. For sale: Custom canoe paddles - $2000 pair special! Many in stock.

jim dodd

------------------
"if you are to busy to
hunt, you are too busy."

quote:

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Originally posted by Customstox:
SamB,
You would be surprised at what can be fixed on a stock. I once read that Holland & Holland once sent out a stock that had over 30 visible flaws (from the blank and not the operation) that had been repaired and no one could find them.

But given a hypothetical, say I dropped the stock and broke it. I would be buying a new blank that satisfied the customer.

Here is one for you. If you send me a blank that you purchased for me to stock for a rifle and I find a serious flaw in it say in the grip after a great deal of work. Now I have the rifle all the way inletted and shaped and in the final shaping I run across a bark hole right in the grip. The stock is toast. Do you owe me for the effort and time I have put into it or is it just the nature of the game. I will let you answer before I tell you what usually happens.

Chic

[This message has been edited by Customstox (edited 05-08-2002).]

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i have found it to be good pratice to have high dollar stock blanks x-rayed ,in my area i can get it done fairly ez ,gas co.boiler co.even a frriend at a hospital,i think it makes sence if one can get it.