Butt stock moulding guides

[Hivernant1962]

Hi all, I was just wondering what kind of guides (if you use any at all) you all use for cutting the moulding on a butt stock? Getting ready to try to make one, was just wanting some input. Thanks Troy

[Dave B]

I have used a version of the stratch stock tool. The bottom edge of the stock toe serves as the guide.  It works great if you dont want to have it tapered. If that is the case then you need to tweek things abit to get the  results you want. This is the link to a thread talking about forestock moldings and how the scratch stock can be effective to give you a great looking molding. http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=17867.0

[Hivernant1962]

Thanks!

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

All of the butt stock moldings I make are tapered - wide at the butt plate and tapering to disappear at or near the trigger guard.  I make a pencil mark on both sides at the butt plate for a starting point, and the same where I want them to terminate under the lock.  Then I return to the butt plate and use the bottom edge of the butt to bring the pencil along parallel to the bottom edge, continually squeezing my forefinger toward my thumb - pencil between - making a diminishing line.  If I don't like it, I erase it and do it again, until it's what I want.  Now I do the same on the other side, which is more difficult to make the same as the first side, but the white artist's eraser is a wonderful tool.
Then I cut the pencil line with a small very sharp parting tool.  I deepen the cut with a knife.  You can take wiggles out to some degree with a short piece of triangular file, safe sided on one facet.

[Acer Saccharum]

Same as Taylor, with a minor difference:

With my recent discovery of stabbing, I ran the line with a stabbing tool. Guess what? It went twice as fast as a parting tool, was easier to keep straight, and control the depth of stab.

[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.

[Don Getz]

Dave........nice and clean.   You should not show other things like that patch box cavity, it's going to make a lot of us to throw
our current stocks into the fire.   It looks like that hole was done on a vertical mill........am I right?.........Don

[Jim Kibler]

There may be times (as Dave has shown)  where a scraper or guide of some sort could be used, but with the stock shapes I end up with, I don't think these would work too well.  For me, the angle of the stock typically changes quite a bit from the butplate to wrist and a tapered line is what I like best.  I like to just treat all moldings simply as carving and go about the usual process.

[Don Getz]

I like to do moulding like Jim suggested above.  Usually draw the line, tapered, by hand and following the buttstock.   I then
use a knife to cut a line, then remove the wood above the line like you would around any carving.........Don

[Hivernant1962]

Thanks for all the good info all. It's seeming like my planned plain working rifle might not end up so plain after all. 

[davec2]

Don,

Yes, the patch box cavity was done on a mill.  I don't put in the patch box cavity until the stock is almost completely shaped, so it is a little tricky (for me) to hold the stock firmly enough to prevent movement / chatter.

Dave C

[sz]

I usually just lay them out in pencil and then cut them by hand.  I use a V tool first to get within about the thickness of a match book cover to my line, then I use long chisels to stab in the main lines and I also use checkering tools to go around curves and so on.  When I have the relief done on the outside I model the carving as I would any other carving, with gouges of various sizes.
I don't really have any "tricks".  I just cut the butt and forend molding as I would any other carving.

[cunninmp]

So with all this talk of Scratch Stocks I decided to do some investigating.
I'm building a Jim Chambers .45 Flintlock Pistol and want do a groove above the
ramrod.
So I found this site that has more info on Scratch Stocks then I would have
thought existed. I typed in Scratch Stock in the "Search" feature and it returned
over 850 hits. Some relevant, others not. Even turned up video's.

www.lumberjocks.com

Mike C.

[Don Getz]

Dave......most difficult job in doing that patchbox hole is adjusting the milling vise to hold the darn stock in the right  position.
I do my lock inlets the same way, they are not as clean as your work unfortunately...........Don

[davec2]

Don,

Yes, holding the stock firmly is the biggest problem.  I tried all sorts of clamping arrangements but now I use dental plaster.  Cheap, easy to use, sets in just a couple of minutes.  I have a piece of 3/4 inch plywood that has a 3x3 hardwood block screwed to the back along the center of the long axis.  The ply is about 8 inches wide by 15 inches long.  When I get ready to mill the patch box recess, I tightly wrap the nearly finally shaped butt stock in heavy duty tin foil.  The ply also has a center line drawn on it end to end the long way.  I mix up a bowl of dental plaster and place a thick layer on the center of the board.  I immediately place the stock in the plaster and adjust it so that the center line of the intended box recess lies parallel to the board center line.  The plaster hardens in just a few minutes and exactly fits the contour of the stock.  I usually screw down a wooden clamp block over the stock, through the plaster and into the plywood to hold everything tight while I mill the stock.  (Obviously this clamp block is close to the area to be milled but not in the way of the cut.)  I use the plywood part over and over, so it actually only takes a few minutes to get a stock ready for routing / milling.  If necessary (and my eyeball alignment in the wet plaster was a little off) I shim the back side 3 x 3 clamp block on one end or the other in the mill vise until the centerline of the intended patch box recess is parallel to the mill table long axis.    Once the milling is done, I knock the plaster off the plywood base and keep the base for the next mill job.   I don't have one set up at the moment but will take a picture the next time I set up like this.

[Acer Saccharum]

Very clever, Dave. I have wobbly fixture that I shim and clamp and pray that everything stays still. I seldom mill the opening these days, but I DO use the mill to drill the holes to form the cavity.

I like how you work. Always have.