Steaming a stock / wrist dimensions?

[Jim Curlee]

Recently I purchased a 50 caliber barrel/stock combo off of the ALR site.

The panel on the sideplate side of the stock, has been bandsawed off.
So, what I have is a stock, with a lock width area of 1.4235
The panel on the lock side is there, and has a depth of .17
The side plate side, has no panel, and is straight from the nose to the wrist.
The wrist thickness behind the panel, is 1.270, with a wrist depth of 1.4
What that will leave me after shaping, is a width at the wrist of about an inch.

First off, I'm wondering if this will leave enough strength in the wrist area?

Another issue, is that the butt stock portion of the stock, is bent to the cheek side.
Which brings up question #2.
Has anyone ever tried steaming the wrist area of a cherry stock to bend it?

Thanks
Jim
 

[P.W.Berkuta]

Sounds to me like you got a nice piece of firewood there -- sorry for that -- To my way of looking at it I would cut my lose now and not invest any more time in it. Start with another piece of wood that you can finish to your rifle style correctly -- just my two cents here .

[Jerry V Lape]

Haven't bent cherry; but I have bent curly sugar maple recently.  I suspect that is harder to do than cherry.  First you need to make a clamping device which will give you the leverage.  I used two heat guns and hot oil.  Oil is a pain to remove from unfinished wood so next time I would use hot water.  It does take quite a while to get the wood up to heat with the heat guns and you are probably going to want an assistant to man one of the guns.  I have attached a photo of my bending setup.  





Used a hot plate to heat oil and ladled it over cotton cloth wrapped around the stock in the area to be bent.  The heat guns are what does the work, the water and oil are to keep the wood from charring.  The clamps worked well, don't apply too much pressure until you feel the stock going plastic.  Then it only takes a few minutes.  We went about an hour before the maple went plastic.  Bent the butt sideways 1/2" and twisted the toe about 3/4" at the same time.

[jerrywh]

 Be warned. If you change the drop you will probably have to shorten the trigger guard and maybe even lengthen the tang. If you give it cast off you will have to bend the tang most likely.  I have bent maple and walnut with no problem. I don't think you will have any trouble with Cherry because furniture builders bend it often.  De sure to use only cotton rags on the wrist. Poly will melt. I heated mine to 350° for at least 20 minutes before bending. It needs to be hot all the way through. 

[Longone]

Did the seller indicate what style the stock was intended for?

[Hungry Horse]

 Although I haven't seen your stock,  I will put in my two cents here. It sounds like the only viable option that will retain the wrist thickness you need for strength, and allow you to use the stock, is to remove the lock side panel, and use a back action lock. I think a lot would depend on how much you have to move the stock to straighten it, and what style rifle you are thinking of. A lot of late percussion guns used back action locks, because they are crazy fast, but they have their own issues that one must address.

 Hungry Horse