Ever heat bend in cast off?

[Jeff Durnell]

I'm new at this. Sorry to keep throwing that disclaimer out there, but it seems warranted. You may soon see why  But I was wondering a few things... I noticed many gun blanks are a bit thin, I mean, they REALLY cut them close for most rifles. Many blanks are 2" or less thick, and I just measured the precarve I got, an Issac Haines, and it would require 2 1/8" bare minimum to pull it off, and that would be with the rear corner of the cheek piece touching one side of the blank and the opposite side butt-end touching the other. No extra. Seems tough to lay that out in a 1 7/8 or 1 3/4" blank.

So, since I've done a lot of heating and bending of wood for bows, I got to wondering, why couldn't a fella who was shy of wood thickness in a blank, rough in the gun on a single centerline, or get what he could, then heat the wrist area and push the butt stock over to create cast off?

Anyone ever tried it, or heard of it?

[Mauser06]

I don't know anything about bending wood except it's possible...



I do know you can find planks about as thick as you'd like.  If a plank didn't fit my build, I'd keep shopping before I considered trying to bend it...

[Mattox Forge]

It is standard practise for modern shotgun fitters. Peter Hawker mentions it in the books he wrote back in the 1820's, so it was an old practise as well. The English guns I have all have cast off or cast on. I cannot say if the wood was bent with heat, however, I can say that it was done before the guard straps and barrel tangs were inlet.
Mike

[mtlonghunter]

Check with Dave Rase in washington

[rich pierce]

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=13272.0

[Sawfiler]

You could always inlet the barrel on a skew to produce the cast off as needed. You can probably get at least a quarter inch of cast off if done properly and the barrel isn’t a huge caliber.

[Darkhorse]

If you haven't bought your stock yet then consider this, the Track of the Wolf Isacc Haines stock is carved for either cast off or cast on. So is Wayne Dunlap's Transitional Isacc Haines stock. I only consider LH stocks but all that I've found, save these two, have no cast off.

[jerrywh]

 I have done this three times that I can remember and it turned out fine every time. I bent one stock 1 1/2" more drop and 3/8" cast off.  I learned this from one of the founders of the American custon gun makers guild. Steve Nelson. I have a fixture for this.

[Jeff Durnell]

Good info. And thanks for that link Rich. Lots of good ideas in there too. The bend in that shotgun is impressive. I do most of my bending with a heat gun, but have a steamer too. If I was going to do a wrist area that was roughly to size, I'd just use the heat gun, no oil. Effecting the bend in the wrist, a relatively isolated area, would take some care, but it would require a minimal bend there to project out to a fraction of an inch at the butt.

[jerrywh]

   The man helping me is John Crockett a direct descendant of Davy Crockett.

[rick/pa]

Hot oil method used to add cast to stock.

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=29894.0

[jerrywh]

 Most of the time you don't need the oil but some stocks are brittle so be prepared to find out which ones are. Just the heat will work on most wood.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

It is just the heat that makes the wood bend and take the new shape, whether it is dry heat from a gun or brazier, or moist heat from steam or oil.  The oil and steam do not penetrate the wood deeply enough to make much difference, and in the case I cited, the finish on the musket was not altered in any way, so my oil didn't penetrate the wood - only the heat.

[jerrywh]

 BUT. If you get them too hot they will blister.

[JCKelly]

1000 years ago I never knew about such. I started with a Plank, not a blank Seemed OK to me

Why in the name of Holy Maple anyone would struggle with a precarve is beyond my decrepit mind

[David R. Pennington]

I have a cherry stocked boys rifle that needs more drop and have thought about trying to bend it some.