I saw a rifle that had an ebony tip on the stock. How are these tips held in place? I would assume the walnut stock and ebony tip would have holes drilled in them and they would use some type of wood or metal dowel rods with adhesive? Does anyone know? I have an older rifle that has a damaged stock tip and I would like to try this. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.

BigR, you assume correctly. Get a copy of Gunsmith's Kinks volume 1 from Brownells www.brownells.com. There is a very good step by step description of attaching a forend tip in there. George

I have done a number of these and the method I use works well.

First cut the forearm to the desired length. I use a radial arm or a chop saw with a fine-tooth carbide blade to cut the forearm and the piece of of ebony so each are square. After cutting hold the two surfaces together and check to ensure there are no gaps.

Next, I drill two 5/16" hole side by side(as far apart as practical)in the forearm and a set of corresponding holes in the block of ebony. I drill each about an inch deep.

Take a couple of pieces of 1/4" dowell that are just a bit shorter than the combined depth of the holes and dry-fit the whole works together to check the fit. The reason I make the holes oversize is because if makes it a lot easier to align the two sets of holes with the dowells installed.

When you're happy with the fit, mix the epoxy. I use Brownells Acra-glass gel but any good epoxy should work. I mix in a bit of black dye so the epoxy matches the color of the ebony. Push some epoxy into each stock hole and twist in the dowells. There should be enough excess to squeeze out each hole. Scrape excess off but leave a very thin layer on the cut end of the stock.

Put epoxy in the holes in the ebony and coat the ends of the dowells that are sticking out of the stock. Spread a very thin layer on the face of the ebony and place the block down over dowells. Use enough epoxy so that the voids in the oversized holes are filled but not so much that when the two pieces come together the excess holds them apart.

I use a bike inner tube stretched around the ebony block and the butt of the stock to act as a clamp. I had to tie a knot in mine to make it short enough.

One more tip. Before you apply the epoxy to the cut surface of the block, give the block a rub with some acetone. There are natural oils in ebony the prevent the epoxy from adhereing as best as possible.

i use the same process as Mauser98 except i use 2 part polyurathane wood glue.

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Death Before Dishonor

You can use stainless steel threaded rod too, instead of dowels. Probably overkill, but who cares?

It might be worth your while to invest in a set of brass dowel centers -- they are caps with a marking point on the end. They fit a specific hole size -- just put them in, put the other piece up against the marking point and tap, and the center of the matching dowel holes are marked. This greatly simplified my joinery for table tops, etc. when I started using them.
"It's easy to line up 1 dowel hole; when you come to 2, that's where the problems start!"

Have fun,
Todd

I do it just like M98 except I use #8 threaded rod and smaller holes. Works great and have not had any fall off.
C.G.B.

I do it about the same except that when building a new stock sometimes I put the ebony on first thing then cut it all down at once....I use steel threaded pins.

I also use lamp black or whatever to get a good flush fit on both pieces before I glass it on. clean with acetone first.

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

Thanks for the info. I'll try to post a pic when I'm done for your scrutiny.

OK, that's about it for tips. How do you guys attach ebony grip caps?

I get everything flat, use a dremel to route some grooves in each flat surface(leave the edges untouched), apply a thin layer of epoxy dyed black to each surface after cleaning with acetone, mate the two pieces together and wrap with surgical tubing to hold until dry.

The only one I've ever had come off was when I got the wood too hot when raising the grain over an electic stove element. It just fell off. I cleaned it up and reattached with fresh eboxy.

Are there any other methods out there??

I use steel gripcaps with two screws, Talley, Fisher etc an inlet them on a screw them on..I use a little black glass under them and wax the screws so that I have a perfect fit and return to position if I ever take it off...

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

Thanks Ray.

I've only done a couple of steel caps with a single screw. I also put a dollop of epoxy under the cap to prevent it turning.

Then a friend gave me a 6" x 6" 15" block of pure black ebony and I've been using that ever since for caps and tips.