wrist problems

[Luke]

guys having problems getting the wrist of the stock shaped like it should be ordered a clifton curved spoke shave,hoping that will help,could not get it shaped but so good with my wood rasp,any suggestions thanks luke.

[Tom Currie]

Luke, Pictures really help us help you.

[Acer Saccharum]

Pictures really help is right.

Consider the form when shaping. You're not just making a broom stick, you're transitioning from one area to the next, in the most graceful manner you can.
I like to think of the wrist as slipping under the lock panels to the grip. This will help visualize your shapes. This is a generic concept, not to be taken literally, but you get the idea that there is flow of form from wrist to grip.

[Acer Saccharum]

Some schools of guns have a round wrist, others higher than wide, and yet others which are wider than high, or even a soft diamond shape in cross section.

To best help you:

a) what style gun are you building? 

b) what parts are inlet so far?

c) post some pictures

Thanks, Tom

[Dave B]

Acer,
Love that drawing .  Its exactly what the stock wrist area of the rifles by Schroyer. It is a challenge to do this kind of thing if you have not held the originals. The more you study them in person the better you will be able to make them look right.

[Acer Saccharum]

I think it takes many guns to start to 'get it'.

My first gun took two stocks to make one gun. I learned a few things on that build.

About ten guns later, I thought it would be advantageous to improve the architecture of my guns. Something wasn't quite right with them.

Finally, it has dawned on me, that the architecture is EVERYTHING. It's also the most fleeting and difficult thing to see, like woodland faerie. Just try to catch one. Just try to capture the architecture on a rifle perfectly. It doesn't happen often, with all the builders we have out there, and the number of guns that get built, that someone hits the architecture on the head.

For me, the search for the perfect architecture is the Holy Grail of gun building. That's what my quest is.

That said, we are all going to screw up, that is our condition. But we learn from these 'mistakes' or better term, 'lessons', and take a baby step forward in our understanding of the longrifle.

[Bill-52]

Luke,

Tom's analogy of the wrist "slipping under" the lock panels and tang carving has been very helpful to me in terms of visualizing where I want to go with the wrist.  I have to work on actually getting there, but I use mostly scrapers to get the wrist to its final shape.  This includes several curved scrapers of various widths and radii.  It takes longer but being a hobby builder, this is fun time so I'm not in any rush. 

Bill

[Long John]

Luke,

Acer is right "on"!

I think of the wrist as a snake somebody just saddled.

Best Regards,

John Cholin

[TMerkley]

Luke,

Acer is right "on"!

I think of the wrist as a snake somebody just saddled.

Best Regards,

John Cholin

Darn snakes!!

Hope its not a Blue Racer! You chase him, he will chase you!