Don Allen prior to forming Dakota Arms was a stock blank retailer and stock maker. I'm looking for some history....1) when was he in this business 2) where was he located 3)where did he source his blanks especially the English Walnut. Told New Zealand..don't know if it's corect 4) Any body have a blank or stock from Don Allen and would they care to post it on the site. There's a limited amount of info in Outdoor life written by Jim Carmichel. All comments appreciated. Ron

I visited with Don a few times when he was located in Northfield, Minnesota before he moved out to Sturgis South Dakota to start Dakota Arms. He had a couple of buildings full of nice walnut.

A guy who might know quite a bit of that history would be Mark Lee, who worked with Don for many years during that time. I think Mark lives in Lakeville Minnesota. I know he sells some blueing solution that you can buy through Brownells.

Don started in Northfield,MN.i traded a Shelhammer stocked Farquharson for a pair of blanks when he was working on his single shot action.those blanks are on the 20b Peter Chapman SXS pair engraved by Allison Hunt on "picture-plates" in Tates British Gun Engraving.

Ron,
Contact Al Lind at 253-584-6361. He and Don were pilots for Northwest Airlines and were very close friends. Both were also in the American Custom Gunmakers Guild together as stockmakers.

DON sourced some of his walnut before his demise from N.Z, Brian Harrie use to cut blanks for him
daniel

Still have a few English S/G blanks i got from don before he moved to SD.only used a few.