Author Topic: First blank stock  (Read 3262 times)

Offline Eric Smith

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First blank stock
« on: January 17, 2012, 04:44:46 AM »
How did you do with your first blank stock build?
Eric Smith

long rifle

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Re: First blank stock
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2012, 05:04:26 AM »
welll it would shoot,, but took it too the gun dealer who was a guru of balckpowder way back then,,and he looked at it,,smoking his pipe,,and also keeping a chew going at the sametime,,after what seemed forever to me he spoke,,too much wood,,all he said then set it down,,you need to take all this wood down along the forestock its too heavy,,,so ,,back home scrapeing and sanding until I had thought i could se the barrel in the day light,,,then back to,,the guru of blackpowder,,,, now smoking his cigar,,and chewing a chew,,he looked at it once again for a longtime,,,dats better but,,now you need to do sumpin bout the lock panels and the stock too long need a ladder to reach the triggers,,,so anyway after 16 trips to him,i had my FIRST longrifle! she was beautiful! at least to me,,it shot it got squirrles and even a deer,,,so I did build it and anfter that read learned and found what to do to make ,,the longrifle and still even today,i dont think i even know what i should still and still learning,,to build a better rifle,,and yes i do have fun and have built a few for some others as well,,,mickey

Offline flehto

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Re: First blank stock
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2012, 07:13:46 AM »
My first attempt at building a flintlock LR was  in 1976 from a blank and it ended up in the wood stove. Good thing it was a cheaper piece of maple.  The second attempt  using the same bbl and hardware was a lot better and the LR was sold later on.....Fred

Offline Rolf

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Re: First blank stock
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2012, 11:40:30 AM »
This is the first gun I built, http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=9799.msg92444#msg92444
Everything except the lock and barrel is made from scratch. I practiced all the building steps on scraps of wood, brass, steel, until I felt reasonably sure of what I was doing. When in doubt I asked for help on this forum and was given given alot of great advice, which saved me from making a mess of the gun. Here are a few of the posts:

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=4752.msg44622#msg44622

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=7214.msg68123#msg68123

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=8758.msg82598#msg82598

This gun was a dress rehearsal for the pair of silver kentucky pistols I build afterwords.
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=14643.0

Building from a blank is a great way to learn if :
  • You are willing to practice on scraps.
  • Not settle for anything you think you can do better.
  • When in doubt ask experience builders for advice.

Making practice stocks out cheap basswood and dissecting them on a bandsaw helped me learn from my mistakes.





Best regards
Rolf
« Last Edit: January 17, 2012, 11:43:23 AM by Rolf »

Offline Don Getz

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Re: First blank stock
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2012, 05:39:12 PM »
After I retired, I started to build some guns.  At the time, the late Dave Dodds was working for John in the barrel shop.
I would take the gun I was working on back into the shop and show it to Dave, and his stock answer was "take more wood off".   I still use a rasp to remove wood out along the forend, but will finish up with a about a 10" long sanding
block which I run longitudinaly along the forend to remove dips and bumps......Don