Mark Silver - Traditional Gunstocking

[Eric Smith]

Just watched Mark Silver DVD - Traditional Gunstocking. Very inspiring. How many people carve thier guns with all hand tools, the traditional way?

[wattlebuster]

Have not yet but Im fixing to give it a go just as soon as the upcoming turkey season is over

[Jim Kibler]

By carving I'm sure you mean stock shaping since the video doesn't deal with decorative stock carving.  Duplicators with router motors are sometimes used in the shaping process.  If not, hand tools are primarily used.  a band saw, however, is often used in the stocking and shaping process.  A few used an angle grinder with a wood cutting wheel.  Hand tools are the safest and work well as demonstrated by Mark in his video.  With that said, Mark's techniques are a little different than those used by many, but seem to be quite efficent and produce good results.  Mark believes his tool choices and stocking methodology to be quite similar to 18th century techniques. 

Jim

[J. Talbert]

When you say carve, I presume you are referring to the shaping of the stock.
I find that as I have slowly acquired the them, I use more edged hand tools with each gun that I make.  I have most of the tools that Mark uses in his video, with the notable exception of a good scrub plane.
They seem to be as efficient as most any other method I have used, (in some case, more efficient) and for me, they are also more enjoyable.  Since this is just a hobby for me, enjoyment is the bottom line.

Jeff

[Dave B]

Stocking a rifle from the blank with not but hand tools is a fair bit of work but very do able. I was asked to set up a display of 1.8 c rifle building for a rondy and inlet a swamped barrel into a blank on a Saturday. Lot of public asking questions but at the end of the day I was done with the barrel and laying out lock and butt plate. the next event I was shaping out the stockf with draw knif, block plane and spoke shave. Have never had the balls to use the hatchet like Wallace does in  Gunsmith of Williamsburg. It actually came together quite quickly and the public ate it up. I must confess that the profile of the stock once the barrel was in  was done with the band saw and the ramrod hole drilled with my Makita. Every thing else was done by hand tools. I believe I even lost a few pounds doing it.

[Michigan Flinter]

  I have the barrel channel done after that the only time i use a modern tool is to drill the holes for lock ect.  I have inletted a swamped barrel  but I'm not getting any younger and have two grandsons and a greatgrandson to build a rifle for. I find it very enjoyable doing it with hand tools .Just finished putting a ramrod channel in and drilling the forestock hole .

[Long John]

I use a band saw for the rough profile.  From there on its is hand tools.  I let in the barrels by hand uing only hand tools.  All of the stock shaping on my guns is with a mallet, chisels, gouges, a drawknife, rasps and scrapers.  A  the inletting is by hand tools.  Most of the metal parts other than the lock, castings, barrel and screws are shaped by hand from brass or mild steel stock.

This is what they end up looking like.





For me gun-making is a hobby; I'm in no hurry.  I enjoy the act of building a rifle.  While let a machine have alll that fun?

Best Regards,

John Cholin

[Eric Smith]

I was particularly impressed by the little plane he used to smooth out the ramrod channel after rough gougeing it out. Can anyone shed further light on this tool?

[J. Talbert]

Tom Snyder can not only shed some light on it; he can supply you with one. (Unless he's currently sold out.)  He posts on here as Snyder if I'm not mistaken.
I have one.  It works quite well and very reasonbly priced, in my opinion.

Jeff

[Eric Smith]

I would love to have one. Might not use it today, but someday?

[Rich]

I do it all with hand tools, except for a drill press for the pins and bolts. Hand saw the stock with a lynx 4 1/2 inch teeth per inch rip saw and a Craftsman general purpose saw. Barrel inlet with gouges and chisels. Scrub plane and a farrier's rasp for a lot of rough shaping. Usually  use scrapers for the finish. I tried using a core box plane to inlet the swamped barrel on my current build. It worked pretty well. I do this as a hobby, so there is no effort to complete a job in a cost effective manner.

[Eric Smith]

Yes, to do it all with hand tools is certainly not the way to go if you are turning out rifles professionally. But I think it would certainly be a rewarding experience  for the hobbyist. I was disappointed that Mr. Silver did not elaborate a bit more on the 18th century aspect of inleting barrels. I'm sure he has more than a few tips to be shared. Very impressed with the way he used a draw knife, plane, and a gouge on the butt stock.

[NSBrown]

Last year at the Bowling Green NMLRA Gunbuilding Workshop I had the good fortune to be in Mark's class. We arrived with a blank and its .58 cal. barrel inlet.  Under Mark's instructions we inlet the breech plug while it was attached to the barrel. We drilled the ramrod groove and shaped it with Tom's fine groove plane. We shaped the stock with a gouge, a scrub plane, spoke shave and box plane. We only used wood rasps where the planes couldn't go. We set the buttplate. I regret that I had to leave two days before the class concluded because Mark also taught his procedure for inletting the lock without disassembly. (Well actually, I was a bit relieved I didn't have to do that job on the rifle I was building.) Mark's class was a great learning experience.

There were only eight builders in the class...all quite capable builders. I remember a moment when I looked up from by bench and Mark was perched on is stool pointing out to one builder where his rifle needed more attention. Mark was wearing his work apron and had his eyeglasses on the top of his head. It was a time warp. I realized that that very scene would have looked exactly the same in Schroyer's, or Beck's, or Verner's shop.

If you are thinking about signing up for Bowling Green...do it. Mark is teaching again (bless him), but he is only one of the world class instructors who teach there.

[DB]

I have seen this DVD. The traditional tools are the most satisfying.

[Rich]

Except for the use of a drill press to drill the pin and bolt holes, and an electric drill to drill the ramrod hole, I do it all with hand tools. I attended a class that Mark Silver presented at the Washington Historical Gunmakers' Guild a few years ago. There is a lot of satisfaction in using planes, handsaws, spokeshaves, rasps, files and scrapers. It's a quiet and peaceful way to build.

[Sawatis]

Marks video is a grat resource for a new maker and good refresher for seasoned hands too  ive been making my rifles with only hand tools (period correct ones if i canf find em or make em) for 20 years. i feel it just comes out better...but thats what we do it for...the feel. looking forward to taking one of Marks classes at NMLRA workshop sometime soon...to watch how he uses the tools...thats the art, takes practice and experimenting.  Once had a chance to meet Frank Klausz at a woodworking demo and asked him what the "right" way to use a particular plane was...his reply was "whatever makes it get the work done"...might take longer the first few times, but the time you spend planing is more relaxing than the angst you have feeding a blank over a shaper!
Have fun with it!

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

Somewhere in my cobwebbed mental files i can recall seeing a video of a gun builder roughing out a stock with a hatchett. I can't swear to the accuracy of this recollection as it was a lot of years ago. But it really impressed me.

[coopersdad]

Wallace Gusler does it in "The Gunsmith of Colonial Williamsburg" if I recall correctly.

[dannybb55]

All I have is hand tools, She's coming along between Boat jobs and Honey Dos.