I should know enough by now to refrain from chiming in on this, but what the heck. I leave the forend in the square (rectangular) until late in the game, so I have something that will lock solidly in the vise while I'm doing the more strenuous work of removing excess wood from the butt-end. Once thats down to within 1/8th inch or so from the buttplate, I taper down the cheekpiece, then work the wrist area (weakest point) down near to final, leaving the lock/offside mortises "chunky" until near the last. Fine-tune the lock/offside mortises, wrist, front of the comb, clean up the width of the bottom of the stock -- toeplate through trigger area. Then, while the forend is STILL in the square, work down the end of the forend that will be enclosed by the pewter pour (if you're using that method). Then, finally!, I work down the forend on a 2-inch belt sander -- ve-e-e-ery carefully. Works for me. -- paulallen, tucson az.
