Gentlemen,

I bought some "Gaboon" ebony woood Saturday morning to use for gunstock work and although I believe I understand how to properly install a foreend tip, I need some guidance on about how long to make them? I plan to extend the forearm a total of 8.5" past the receiver and I'm thinking a foreend tip around 1" sounds about right? Am I correct? Or should it shorter/longer? Further, may I assume that ebony will darken as you apply finish to it like other woods? The piece I have is not absolutely black, but it looks like it could if it will darken with finishing.

Also, while at the wood store, I picked up a little piece of bocote wood that I thought might make a nice exotic foreend or perhaps for an inlay of some type. This is a nice semi-dark piece of wood a lot of black lines running all through it. I figured for $2.15, I couldn't pass it up. Has anyone done any work with this type of wood and does it have any special considerations I'll need to be aware of.

Thank you all.

Tex

Tex,

On my forends, which range between 9" and 10.5", I like the tips to be between 1.5" to 2" long. You might like em shorter but they start to look really stubby. A thing to remember is that the tip you glue on should be longer than what you want the finished length to be. If I wanted a 2" tip I'd glue about a 2.5" piece of ebony on and by the time it is shaped it'll be about 2" finished.

Thanks amigo!

Tex

i've used bocote for 45 grips & it looks very nice. its a hard wood and strong so end up using a sander alot in shaping

quote:

Originally posted by z1r:
Tex,

On my forends, which range between 9" and 10.5", I like the tips to be between 1.5" to 2" long. You might like em shorter but they start to look really stubby. A thing to remember is that the tip you glue on should be longer than what you want the finished length to be. If I wanted a 2" tip I'd glue about a 2.5" piece of ebony on and by the time it is shaped it'll be about 2" finished.

Do you pin and glue the tip on, or just glue it?
I've never installed one.
TIA,
Don

DMB,

I use a dowel and glue.

Tex21,
I generally find that a 2" looks a bit long on a short forearm. I usually glue on a 2" piece of wood and then shape it back. If you have a square end it is fairly easy to shape it to 2", or very close. Most of my fe tips are around 1 3/4". I think you will find that 1" is too short and will look stubby.

I also use dowels but I use two. That way they don't want to squirrel around when I glue them on. I drill either the forend or the stock and slide a dowel in and ger an approximate spot for the holes in the other. Drill those a bit large and fill with epoxy with black filler. I use toner from spent printers. It colors the epoxy so you can't tell it from the wood so if you have a small gap somewhere, it is invisible. I use surgical tubing and wrap it around the end of the tip and through the action inletting and back around 3 or 4 times. It makes for a very good clamp. Let the stock rest vertically or in a downward direction so the excess glue does not run down your stock.