Are some black foreend caps made out of plastic?Are the old ones/german made out of horn?If so what kind?Are some made out of wood?Which rifles have what type of material on them and who all offers them,i can think right off-Ruger,winchester,remington,interarms,and ?
when installing on a wooden stock are they just glued on?Thats all?

most the them are plastic today, real ones are of ebony (i.e. dakotas etc) usually I peg and glue them on.

most plastic, you can do ebony, or you can do horn, I think Roger Kehr does his in horn. Buffalo horn that is. I know somebody here does just can't remember off hand. I know a local guy that just glues them on, Personally I would prefer to have a peg in there for extra strength.

Red

Ebony:

The old Herters had a thread insert in the plastic end cap and used a screw with a wood screw thread on the other end.
Glenn

I've done half a dozen or so ebony tips. All I've done is expoxied them in place (no screws or dowels) with Acraglass Gel dyed to match. Haven't had one come apart yet.

quote:

Originally posted by blackbearhunter:
Are some black foreend caps made out of plastic?Are the old ones/german made out of horn?If so what kind?Are some made out of wood?Which rifles have what type of material on them and who all offers them,i can think right off-Ruger,winchester,remington,interarms,and ?
when installing on a wooden stock are they just glued on?Thats all?

This one is ebony

It's epoxied on.....

As much as I hate to admit it, I did a plastic forend on a boyds laminate, 4 bucks from midway. Also as much as I hate to admit it finished real good. It was a pain in the ass to fit, it was hollow and I epoxied dowells in the hollow part, not enough thickness to drill for a good size dowell. Doubt if I will do another.

Once upon a time, long ago I had a rifle with a plastic tip. I cut it off and shaped another from walnut and attempted to stain it black. Or course it looked terrible. So, and I hate to admit this, I used a permanent marker. It would be a little streaky but a carefull apllication of tru oil would put some ink in solution and even it out. Five more marker coats and oil and then I finished as normal and it came out a nice even black that would pass for ebony. Of course I'd never do it again.

Forend tips on half-stock rifles are more of British and American style than German. Occasionally you will see a European rifle with a nice rosewood or ebony schnable like fla3006's or this one.

The British trade used slender ebony or rosewood tips. The Department Store brands often used plastic ones. I believe those really huge ones on custom American rifles are made from railroad ties or something.

Buffalo horn on the right:

Where is a good place to get a ebony block or cap to make the forend cap?Who sells the stuff?I really like the ones in the pics and think they really customize the rifles looks.Sounds like the horn material will crack overtime?Are the horn caps expensive and can you buy them or they have to made by hand?Whats the prices of this stuff and whats a good price to pay for the work?I want one!Thanks for allthe help!

Look up Texas Knifemaker's Supply on the web. I believe they have ebony and buffalo horn blocks big enough to do a cap. I recently picked up a smaller piece of horn, nice material. bob

quote:

Originally posted by blackbearhunter:
Where is a good place to get a ebony block or cap to make the forend cap?Who sells the stuff?I really like the ones in the pics and think they really customize the rifles looks.Sounds like the horn material will crack overtime?Are the horn caps expensive and can you buy them or they have to made by hand?Whats the prices of this stuff and whats a good price to pay for the work?I want one!Thanks for allthe help!

I posted the same question a while, back, somebody turned me on to Cook wood. I reanamed them crook wood, I called them up and asked for one piece of Ebony they hit my credit card for twice the amount of one piece, when I called they said I ordered two pieces, which I didnt. They wanted charge me 5 bucks to remove the extra piece, wasnt going to pay to have them repackage so I bought both. It took them a good week to ship it out after they hit my card. One of the pieces was good and black, the other was so so. I have enough to last a while. But they do seem to have Ebony and the price is ok.