I went to the Fajen auction in 1998, were you there? It was one of the sadist day of my life. Fajen was as close to an American institution as the gun community gets. I bring this up because of another thread being run through the mill on this site about GAG.



I'm a custom gunbuilder and when I do shows like the NRA Convention someone would come up to me wanting a replacement stock for their grandfathers old shotgun and I could send them to Fajens knowing that they would get a good replacement stock at a fair price.



All that walnut, tools and machines along with patterns. All of those former employees wandering around like lost sheep. A job in that part of the country was hard to come by. Oh well, an end of an era.

Mark, I haven't had any such luck getting any gunstock shaping since that day. Fajens took care of my small needs very well. Afterwards I tried to get the new owner (Midway) to shape my own wood.....communicating with them was impossible.....I finally gave up.

We lost a lot when Fajens went out of business.....today's gunstock inletters/routers are no where the service or reliability they was.....not even close.

Mark-

No, unfortunately I wasn't there.

But the reports at the time all seemed to sound like yours. Sadness that Fajen was "dying" in front of their eyes.

Apparently there were some outstanding deals to be had that day as well, especially near the end when folks had left or were out of money to bid.

Wish I had gone to the Fajen auction. There's a retired fellow here in Houston (Bob Mitchell) I used to use with a duplicator and lots of patterns, did outstanding work at very low cost, would get your blank back in a couple days, but he's getting old and won't do it anymore. Likes to make knives now.

Forrest,
heh.. who has lots of patterns they don't use anymore?

jeffe

Not to worry! The company still lives in the form of "Wenig Custom Gunstocks". Fred Wenig was the shop foreman I believe, for Reinhart Fajen and he is now in business doing the same thing he did for them. I have sent a number of people there and have seen some of the work done. His quality and quantity of patterns leaves nothing to be desired. Here:

http://www.wenig.com/

Jim

The funny thing is, I heard a lot of people complain about Fajen untill they shut the doors.



Terry

Jeffe- you have PM. Forrest A.

Jim Kobe

Quote:

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Not to worry! The company still lives in the form of "Wenig Custom Gunstocks". Fred Wenig was the shop foreman I believe, for Reinhart Fajen and he is now in business doing the same thing he did for them. I have sent a number of people there and have seen some of the work done. His quality and quantity of patterns leaves nothing to be desired. Here:

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I agree.....Fred does nice work......I'd recommend him anytime!!!!....His customers have deeper pockets than me however.

Does anyone know someone who can profile a semi inletted drop box standard length Mauser classic Bristish express style from my blank? (GAG can't).

Terry,
that's a question I have too... I haven't tried, but I don't see what it couldn't be worked out.. little epoxy, little time...

jeffe

is there damage to the original? what if you want a very nice stock patterned, you don't want it damaged. how does that work?

Red

Te auction started around 10 am on a Saturday morning. There were several auctioneers working at the same time. I went with a friend a we decided want we wanted and split up. I started on the wood room, there were about 10,000 blanks of all types of wood. I told myself that I'm here to buy wholesale, I can buy retail anytime. Each piece of wood had a number on it and they started one stick at a time. CRAZY! The first piece went for about $800, it was over retail. After an hour or so, the money ran out leaving 9,925 pieces of wood still left in the room.

Next I went to the pattern room, remember Fajen had purchased Bishop so every pattern from the 2 companies were there. Each auction lot was the whole group of patterns, The Mauser 98 group of patterns had 43 pieces. You had to buy all of the Ruger number 1 & 3 patterns. After I bought the number one patterns a guy came up to me and wanted, catch this, the number one pattern that was the left hand, thunb hole pattern. I sold it to him because I new he was the only one in the country who ever wanted one of those. By the end of the patterns my friend and I had bought 400 patterns at an average cost of $5.00 each.

Next, in the parking lot were more pallots of wood. A group of us were looking at a pallet of english walnut, Long rifle blanks. As we waited for the auctioneer to work his way to this lot, I saw a pallot of stock that were work in progress. The stocks were maple with about a 3 inch pices of ebony on the end. The were 130 stocks and we figures that there was about $3,000 worth of ebony. Another friend who was there paid $130 for that lot.

Aound 8pm that evening they got back to the wood room. The auctioneers would stack a group of 10 blanks together and sell them for one price. I was paying $30 for a lot of wood. It was going so fast you couldn't look at each peice, but for $3 a piece you could afford to buy some loosers.

Bu this time I had everything I wanted, but the auction ran until 3 AM the next morning. The last to go was the finished inventory room. Everyone had run out of money so thing went very cheap.

It was one hell of a day, end of an era.

Kory,
once it's to the point that *I* would be satisfied with owning what i make, I will be offering a duplication service. Not trying to get rich on it, just wanted to make it available.

I've only "seen" 3 stock machines, first hand, and only about 6 more in pictures... Right this minute, mine is the best i have laid hands on.. when i accomplish my next modification, in the next 2-3 weeks, I feel I will have something to offer to the public, that's worth the $$.

Right this minute, the stocks that I have finished have been "acceptable" on the exterior, but not to what *I* would want to buy on the inletting. This will change in a couple weeks, as I have spent a good deal of time in redesign... and, frankly, a good bit of money as well.

I will be offering the first 10 CUSTOMERS a deep discount on their first orders. I will have to draw the line at 5 patterns each... you supply the wood, and I'll do the stock cutting!!

jeffe

Jeff,

Will I have to supply the pattern also or will you have some typical ones (like benchrest, varminter, etc.)?

If you remember, PM me when you're ready. I'm very interested.

Thanks,
Kory

Kory,
i'll have some patterns... and mebbe even a true selection.. it'll be a couple years before i build up patterns enough, i think.

It's FAR easier for finish if you have a "stock" that works and is bedded

jeffe

Jim

That url for "Wenig Custom Gunstocks" is nolonger active....

I just went to their web site. It worked for me. (Maybe their web server was down for a time. It happens.)



http://www.wenig.com/



-Bob F.

Bob,
i refuse to do business with people that won't publish prices... It's really really really simple... have a link that says "prices"

nice looking wood though, in places

jeffe

If you mean Wenig, their contact information from their website is:

Please feel free to contact Wenig Custom Gunstocks at any time, for any reason--we are here to help. Our phone and fax numbers are listed below, as well as our physical and mailing address. You can also send us e-mail by clicking on our mail box below, but please remember that it is in your best interest to not send us credit card numbers via e-mail, as we do not yet have a secured internet server. Thanks again for your interest in Wenig Custom Gunstocks. We hope to hear from you soon.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Phone Numbers:
(660) 547-3334 or (660) 547-3335

Fax Number:
(660) 547-2881

Mailing Address:
103 North Market Street
P.O. Box 249
Lincoln, Mo 65338

E-Mail:
Wenig Custom Gunstocks, Inc.
gunstock@wenig.com


If you email them, they will send you a catalog and price list (at least they did that for me last summer).

Jeffe,

I was just trying to point out that the link (URL) was now working. I wasn't trying to make an endorsement for the company or anything. I've never done business with them. (I agree that they should put their prices on their web site.)

-Bob F.

I agree with Jeff they should list the prices. Maybe they are imbarased to do so.

What exactly is there email? I cant seem to get the one listed on the contact link to work. Thanks to anyone that can help.