Learning to shape a stock from a blank is the most difficult part of building a long rifle. If you get it wrong there is not much that can be done to recover. Saying that I am not trying to discourage anyone from trying, just saying do your research, measure twice and cut once.
I built my first rifle from a blank in 1982. I paid $100 for that piece of wood then which was a lot of money for me, it still is. All I had for a reference was the book " Recreating the American Longrifle". This book in my opinion is all that is needed to build a rifle from a blank, even your first one. Now all of the other info that is out there is also great and should be taken advantage of to help get the job done. There is so much information available now that it can be confusing to someone trying to figure out which way to go. It is like most things ask 10 people and you get 10 different answers. Pick one and stick with it.
My first rifle from a blank turned out OK, did it have mistakes, you bet it did. The architecture was so bad that it was almost impossible to get down on the sights. My fancy $100 blank had a big bark inclusion right behind the cheek piece. I had very few tools, no band saw and a crude work bench but I did get all the parts together and they did function.
I had never seen a real original long rifle at that point in my life. The only thing I had was the desire to build a long rifle and my book. So like the commercial says if you want to build a long rifle "Just Do It". It will not be perfect and it will have some flaws but you will learn so much that cannot be learned from a book or video or even a class.
That is the reason not to make the first mistake of building from a blank. Do not buy an expensive piece of wood. That was my first mistake but like most of us, pretty curl is a tempting Mistress. My second mistake was not having a good layout with enough drop in the stock. My third mistake was buying a piece of wood without seeing it. Most of the rest of the build went OK and the rifle did shoot and I did kill deer with it. By using the rifle I built it taught me what I needed to do better. After 35 years I am still trying to build a proper rifle that shoulders well and functions properly and looks like the Old Masters rifles. It has been a fun Journey.
Thanks to the internet, many more books, access to many gun shows dedicated to the Kentucky Rifle with original rifles on display, finding other builders and collectors and CD's I do not make near as many mistakes as I used to. As the old saying goes though" if you ain't makin mistakes you ain't doing nuthin"
So buy you a good plain or lightly figured sugar maple plank sawn blank, layout all your parts, use a rifle (original or contemporary) that has good architecture for reference, buy the proper tools and make some chips. More than likely you will take a $1000.00 worth of parts and make a $300 rifle but you have to start somewhere. Enjoy the journey.
