Molding lines along the bottom of the butt stock.

[LehighBrad]

Hello once again guys.....gots me another question on my build. The decorative molding lines that run along the bottom edge of the butt stock. I noticed some rifles have those lines running pretty much parallel along the bottom edge of the butt stocks profile from the butt plate to the trigger guard and some look as though those lines start out farther away from the bottom edge at the butt plate and gradually taper towards the bottom edge as the reach the trigger guard. How is this gradual taper achived??? Just running my scratch stock along the bottom edge I know I can do the parallel style,,,,but the slight taper style seems to appeal to me more.

[Karl Kunkel]

One of the builder videos accomplishes this by using a tapered wooden shim, screwed to the toe plate  and trigger plate screw holes.  The shim is tapered toward the rear (i.e. thin at the toe of butt, thicker at the trigger guard).  Your scratch stock runs along the bottom of the shim.

[Tom Currie]

Brad, I asked this same quetion about 6 months ago. Because I also wanted the space to taper  I was encouraged to just draw the main line of molding by hand . After making sure I had it right I then cut a line with a sturdy utility knife. After some delicate work to widen the molding the final effort came out well. I'd post a link to the actual thread but I am horribly search challenged.

[Acer Saccharum]

I draw it with a pencil, and then cut with a parting tool, and straighten it out with a file. I end up with a bit of a wobble sometimes, but that is OK on my guns.

I am going to try one on my current build that tapers from toe to wrist, and it's a beaded moulding line, which complicates it some. I made a beading file. I'll let you know how it works out.

I don't like scratch stocks because I can't seem to get them to cut smoothly over curled wood. Others seem to have success with them, but I have not, not yet.

Tom

[davec2]

From a previous post on this subject:


I use a small scratch stock to put in tapered butt stock molding. It is just a  formed scraper with a different contour on each end (for different moulding styles).   Since I usually do not want the molding to run parallel to the underside of the stock, I run the tool against a straight edge held onto the surface of the stock with commercially available double sided mounting tape (1/2 wide by ~1/16 thick).  It holds very well but peals back off cleanly and easily.  Once the scraper is run along the edge once or twice, there is enough form scraped into the stock so that the tool will easily follow the groove and really not need the support against the straight edge.  The tape / straight edge can be placed at any angle desired and, since the tool does not run along the underside of the stock, it can easily follow the change in stock contour from butt plate to wrist.  I find this much easier than carving and it produces a much more consistent molding shape.  The molding in the photo was produced by less than a dozzen strokes with the scraper and takes less time to do than it takes to write about.

[Vomitus]

Dave, you never cease to amaze me!

[Acer Saccharum]

Nuttin wrong with that, Dave. Nice work.

[Acer Saccharum]

I find I usually do things the hard way. I think of the most complicated way to do things, and spend much more time getting the result I want. Then along comes the ALR with tons of different ways to get the same result.

[bluenoser]

I have put a tapered butt moulding on a couple of guns.  Didn't have good results trying to draw it in freehand.  One challenge is the curve from BP to trigger area.  I measured the curved distance from BP to where the moulding would end and decided how far above the lower edge of the butt I wanted the line to be at each end.  I then cut a straight tapered piece of aluminum flashing to those dimensions leaving it about a half inch longer than the moulding would be.  I indexed one edge of the aluminum against the bottom edge of the butt and traced along the other edge starting at the BP and working forward to the termination point.  Just walk it around the curve and you have a perfectly tapering line.  The template could be made of any suitable material.  As other have said, there are several ways to cut it.

Laurie

[T*O*F]

Lay out your lines with pinstriping tape.  It will follow any contour or bend you want to make.  Then trace along the edge with an awl or ice pick.  This breaks the wood grain and you can then cut your lines with a V chisel or Xacto knife.  Once I do this, to make a molding like Dave shows, I just turn a small gouge upside down and carefully remove wood while holding it at a very low angle.

[Jerry V Lape]

DaveC2, now please tell us how you cut the super clean inlet for the patch box in that same photo? 

[davec2]

Jerry,

I have one of those very cheap, Grizzly, Chinese made bench mills that I bought at a garage sale many years ago.  It is really a boat anchor in many ways, but I use it for light milling and mostly as a drill press.  I use to hog out the patch box area with an auger and chisels in the traditional manner.  Then one day, I was moving quickly and didn't have the patience to do it the old fashioned way and thought I might use the mill to hog out the majority of the wood to be removed.  The problem was how to hold the nearly completely shaped long rifle butt in the mill.  I ended up making a simple fixture out of a piece of 3/4 plywood long enough to go from the front of the lock panels past the end of the butt.  The ply has a 3 x 3" hardwood block on the underside that clamps firmly in the mill vice.  I clamp the stock down to the ply with a "C" clamp and  the side plate panel lying flat on the plywood, shimming as necessary, and placing the butt so that a marked out centerline is true and square to the mill table.  I then screw down two blocks of scrap wood against the comb and the toe line to keep the butt from vibrating in that direction.  Finally, I lift the stock back out of the fixture and mix up about a cup of fast setting dental plaster.  I place a blob of that on the fixture plywood right under where the patch box will be, throw two layers of saran wrap over the wet plaster and clamp the stock back in place.  The plaster cradles the cheep piece and stock contour and the saran wrap keeps the stock from getting wet.  In three minutes, the stock is very solidly held in place in the fixture and I can use a 1/2 end mill to cut a nice clean patch box recess with the mill.

As I write this all out, it sounds complicated, but it really isn't.  Just scrap wood and 20 minutes...a lot less time than it used to take me to cut out a patch box recess by hand.  After I'm done, the stock lifts right back out of the fixture, I unscrew the blocks supporting the comb and the toe line, the plaster pops right off the ply, and I keep the base plate for the next go around.  I don't have it set up right now, but I will soon.  I will take a picture and post it here.

[acorn20]

Daggonit Dave, your as resourceful as Norm on This Old House.  He makes cabinet joints so easily BUT...he's always making a JIG to do it!  I'd have spent half a day trying to figure out how to hold that stock steady enough to mill!

[davec2]

Acorn,

Long ago, when I was in high school, I worked with an excellent machinist who made a jig or fixture for almost everything he did.  I didn't have the patience for it then (and I often times don't now) but he always did a magnificent job and the lesson wasn't lost on me.  Also, he kept all the fixtures and, the next time he had to do the same or similar task, he was ahead of the game.  He always surprised me by how quickly he could redesign and rebuild one sort of fixture to do a different job.  I don't hold a candle to him, but I learned some things along the way.

DC

[Birddog6]

I use a thin flexible SS ruler, take a spring loaded hand clamp & retain it at the butt & hold it by hand at the front, draw the line down the ruler.

Another way is to make dots every 6" down the stock, then take the ruler & align the dots & draw the line to connect to the dots.

Keith Lisle

[fm tim]

Decide on how much taper you want.  Lets assume 1/4 inch as an example.

Cut a piece of wood as wide as the botton width of the stock, and about 1/8 inch thicker than the taper.  3/8 inch in the example.  It should reach from the butt plate to wherever the moulding should stop.

Taper the piece of wood to 1/8 inch at 1 end and 3/8 inch at the other giving a 1/4 inch taper.

Place the piece of wood on the bottom of the stock with the THICK end near the triggerguard and attach with clamps along the length.

Run scratch stock along the attached wood.  It will produce a line that is 1/4 inch closer to the bottom of the butt stock at the trigger guard end because the attached wood is thicker at that point.