quote:

Originally posted by flaco:
Do you use French curves?

No, but it's a good idea. I freehand the curves.....mostly because I end up erasing and re-drawing a number of times. I also study different styles to try to figure out why I like them. For instance......Seymour Griffin's treatment on the nose comb is a perfect "S". The curvature over the nose is identical to the curve transition from grip to base of nose. I absolutely use a straightedge.....both drawing and shaping. Lines that aren't straight where they should be are glaringly obvious.

quote:

Also, I'd be grateful if you chose to share the brand of paste epoxy.

I use "Poxy for Pro's"...the paste (red trim) from Menards. 8 oz each of resin and hardener for about $10. It has good workability, sets up slow enough that you can shape it more while it's curing. I frequently use "wet" knives and spoons to shape while it's cured to the consistency of modeling clay. I think it adheres to wood better than Bondo, and it sets up very hard. It files and sands very much like wood (use a mask).

I have filled in rather large areas with this stuff without problem. Here's an example....quite apart from the style discussed in this thread....where I wanted a different toe-line, comb nose, and grip.

GV

quote:

Originally posted by 333_OKH:

quote:

Pohl @ Great American Gunstocks can do what you need

I have read mixed reviews! What about thier performance if a customer sends in thier barreled action for fitting? British Stalker or British Express Classic? The rifle will have functional, and often used open sights, as well as, a scope mounted in square bridges in Talley rings. Psst, I have big cheek bones too.

LAWNDART----RCH---hahaha...my wife is a redhead!

I had a very bad experience with them. I would definately NOT recommend them. Sent them a Beretta Silver Pigeon and my own wood. I also enclosed the exact dimensions I wanted. After a lot of crap, I got my gun and wood back, 18 months later. They never performed the work. They kept the deposit (several hundred dollars) claiming it cost them that much just to consider the job. The only way I was able to retrieve the shotgun was threatening to call both the BATF and the CA Attorney General. I spoke directly to Henry Pohl each time I called them. I know of others with very similiar experiences dealing with Mr. Pohl.

quote:

Specific to this thread, there is an excellent article in an issue of Rifle magazine (Number 87, May-June 1983) on this stock treatment. The open grip "British" look. Good pictures and discussion of some of our established American gunmakers that incorporated it in their stocks. Monte Mandarino, Jerry Fisher, Mark Silver, George Hoenig, etc...

It's a nice study in the subtleties that each used for grip cap angle, placement of cheek piece, etc....

Can this be scanned, or is it somewhere where we can read it?

quote:

Originally posted by 333_OKH:
Can this be scanned, or is it somewhere where we can read it?

I would suggest monitoring ebay and other magazine and book searches. There are several entities that specialize in back issues. Wolfe Publishing has Rifle issues back to the 90's on their website. Perhaps contact with them would point you in the correct direction.

I'm a real bigot about copying material. I have a large library of custom gun books and magazines. I like people that collect "paper" to a certain theme.......be it a style, maker, or user. And I'll go out of my way to assist their endeavor. But I don't like to copy entire articles, even though the technology exists to make it easy.

The above certainly isn't pointed at you 333-OKH. I've read enough of your stuff to know you'd want the magazine and would enjoy it. I think it can be found. I've bought enough Keith, O'Connor, Linden magazines with obsucre articles to know a bit about the "search".

I spent the better part of 20 years in love with the stock style which is the subject of this thread......infected my brother Idared along the way. However, my new "mentor" is Michael Petrov and his voluminous research of the pre-war USA stockmakers. With his assistant research Idared and I are building "replicas" of some of the early custom guns. We have a Wundhammer in the works, and will follow up with Jack O'Connor's first two purpose-built customs from the 30's. A Springfield and a Mauser.......30-06 and .270 respectively. That's what I'll concentrate on from now on......hopefully carrying me through my 60's.

GV

Very good. I actually had not thought of ebay!

These Westley Richards stock have haunted me for years. I handled on in the old Pachmayr club in Southern California years ago and have not been able to shake it since.

333OKH,

I have Rifle going back solidly to early 1985, and spottily back to 1974. In 1983 I was deployed with the military, and unable to get any of my no-account siblings to keep up my subscription. Since our correspondent above can't help even though we were (violins please) out defending our way of life against those stinking commie bastards, we will have to find that edition ourselves. First one that finds it mails a copy to the other, ok?

I think it was Lord Kelvin who established over one hundred years ago that the nano-RCH is the smallest unit of measurement in this particular universe. Einstein investigated that phenomenon while working on his not well known third paper on relativity. His conclusion: "Don't mess with a red head unless you are serious."

PS It will be out on CD in a year or two.

"Prewar Style Stocks/Modern Stockmakers"
John Bivins
Rifle
#87, pp 28

Give me a couple days.

LD

quote:

Originally posted by lawndart:
Since our correspondent above can't help even though we were (violins please) out defending our way of life against those stinking commie bastards, we will have to find that edition ourselves.

Heh Heh.....

Please consider my contribution the identification of the article in the first place.

GV

quote:

In 1983 I was deployed with the military, and unable to get any of my no-account siblings to keep up my subscription. Since our correspondent above can't help even though we were (violins please) out defending our way of life against those stinking commie bastards, we will have to find that edition ourselves.

lawndart

Here are the violins you requested :

BTW, during the mid sixties I was a "Small Missile Systems Repairman" making less than a hundred bucks a month while wearing "Olive Drab" but I am not requesting any Violins.

333_OKH

Here is a sampling of some of the stock style that I was infected with by GrandView.
Possibly you have seen them before but you can see the slight variation in them and it might make it easier to see how you can change a basic pattern more to what your personal desire is.





The first two are off the same basic pattrn. The last one was a slight variation to make the buttstock more straight because of a heavier recoiling rifle. I'm not sure it was the best idea in the end but seemed to make sense at the time. I actually think the first two are really more what I really am comfortable with today and if I had it to do over again the third one would look more like they do.

Idared, What did you do to the grip from the top picture to the second 2 pics?

Did you cut the grip end shorter and use a smaller cap? Small Jerry Fisher cap?

Very Nice Rifles! I like the contour of the first with possibly a different forearm tip. Just my taste. It currently is very nice too.

I am a little younger than some here evidentaly, but my father drilled love for this country and those that have served to protect it into our veins. He served in the 1st of the 8th of the 106th {?} Air Calvary, Vietnam 1970-1972. He will be here tonight for dinner with my mom.

GSP7

The top stock has a Niedner cap which are fairly large. If I remember right the middle one is a Fisher which is smaller than the Niedner. The bottom one is made of ebony and is also quite small.

The only reason I used a Niedner on the top one is that it matched the Niedner buttplate on the rifle. I actually prefer the Brownell to the Niedner and that is what I use most of the time now. If I want a smaller cap now I use a Dressel or Fisher most of the time.

I might add that the bottom stock had extra wood in certain places on the butt to begin with so that the final shape could be modified. That is part of the reason the comb is straighter, a mistake I feel, and the grip more open, which I do like. The top two stocks started out as identical shapes but the smaller cap allowed the bottom of the grip to be pushed further to the rear as you stated. The folks whom I have dealt with can often leave extra wood on a profiled stock if you desire and that enables a person to shape something to his own preference. One person has even said he can profile a mannlicher stock from a standard length pattern if it is desired.

Here is a shot of a pattern I'm using from the stock Midway was selling for awhile. I don't know if they will make anymore of these or not, but as GrandView mentioned I think they make a decent pattern. This one will have a Brownell cap and a trapdoor buttplate that was consistent with the Mauser sporters many years ago.

I like all three, but love the top one. Absolutely beautiful.

Terry

Thanks Terry, for your kind words. I might add that particular rifle is also the last one I would ever part with willingly.

Idared , That is a nice pattern to start with. Wish I could have got one. I like how your bottom 2 finish stocks have that mild arc inside the grip without turning into a hook shape just before the grip cap. Ive modified my pattern a couple times trying to get that look.

Major lawndart, Northern Europe, working for the Gipper .



Lieutenant lawndart, Pacific, geting ready to charm the Japanes tourists in Honoruru:



Started as an E-1 in the 82nd Abn Div, ended as an 0-5 USAF/IDANG.

For some reason, I don't have a picture of me burning the "shit-barrel" from the latrine at Camp McCall, NC.

BTW, I like the middle rifle the best. Will you use an octagonal barrel on the German style sporter? There is a barrel on e-bay for a good price right now. 30 calibre with a 1:10 twist.

LD

Lawndart, Cool Pictures!

Idared, to those 3 stocks all have springfields in them?

quote:

Originally posted by GSP7:
Idared, do those 3 stocks all have springfields in them?

Top to bottom.....

Mauser, Springfield, Ruger 77....

GV

How about this one :

Nice classic Austro/Germanic rifle, but the drop at the heel is scary!

I am looking for the classic English look.

333_OKH,

A fellow board member mailed me a copy of the article. I believe it is just what you are looking for. Send me a PM and I'll forward a copy.

As a matter of interest, Wolfe Publishing is coming out with the entire collection of Riflemagazine on DVD in the next month or two.

I will split the cost of having a pattern stock made with you. That would be perfect for my Argentine actions to nestle into.

LD

lawndart---

I sent you a PM with my e-mail address too. Thanks for thehelp.

Did anyuone else notice the photos in this thread are getting mixed up? One of the guns turned into a coyote and a stock turned into a piece of metal round stock!

Is it just my eyes, or does that WR stock have virtually no pitch to the butt?

333-OKH
Yeah, the pics are messed up for me, too. I thought I had just been up too many hours!

For me the long open grip and the slender lines of the WR stock makes it for me, especially that grip!

That picture from Grandview and the tip about "Poxy' for Pro's" is very helpful.

Let's keep looking around until we find a couple of good patterns.

LD

quote:

Originally posted by 333_OKH:
Did anyuone else notice the photos in this thread are getting mixed up? One of the guns turned into a coyote and a stock turned into a piece of metal round stock!

I think Hunt101 lost some recent uploads. I uploaded some of mine that were missing and re-established the links in this thread.

GV

Not exactly the WR stock, but it has that old 1920s English built express rifle flare.

What do you all know about Dowtin Sporting Arms?

"P.H." Class Sporting Rifle

333_OKH,
That might be a fine stock as is, but it’s a real club through the forearm compared to a traditional English magazine rifle. I think any Englishman making that one would be put in front of the firing squad!

Have you also looked at the Purdey website? Nice magazine rifle HERE

- stu

That Dowtin arms rifle has a nasty infection and swelling going on under the foreskin.

quote:

but it’s a real club through the forearm

I would like to see mine taper in after the magazine and go narrow. I see your points.

quote:

Originally posted by 333_OKH:
What do you all know about Dowtin Sporting Arms?

More than I want to. I'm sending you a PM.