Cheek Rest

[Bill Raby]

I am working on the cheek rest for a Tennessee rifle. I think I got it right, but not sure. Does it look a bit too long?

[M. E. Pering]

Bill... I am certainly no expert on the Tennessee style, but to my eye, it is indeed to long.  The rear of the rest needs to come forward an inch or so, and the front also needs to go back a bit.  Also, it looks like it might be a bit to high, but that could also just be the camera angle, so I am not seeing it right.  If it were my stock, I think I would start playing with a pencil and eraser right now.

Matt

[RichG]

depending on where your cheek hits the stock the front may be a little long. the back needs to be in front of the comb of the but plate. i usually end up cutting the cheek piece back two or three times before i'm satisfied. work on something else for while and come back to it and you'll probably want to change it.   

[Bill Raby]

It is definitely not too high. I think it is camera angle. I would not want to go any lower. But I will take the advice and cut it a bit shorter. Have to spend the night looking over photos of originals.

[B.Barker]

Bill, Tennessee rifles had long and short cheek rest, depends on maker. Like the Beals used long cheek rest and Soddy rifles have one that go all the way to the butt plate. Then others used quite short cheek rest.

[Cades Cove Fiddler]

  ... what Brian said,..... !!!! ... a lot of Unicoi Co. builders used a cheek as long as the one you have shaped-out,.....

[Bill Raby]

I am seeing both long and short also. Even if it is historically correct for some builders, it just looks a bit long to me. So I will shorten it.

[smallpatch]

As said before, both Long and short were used.

I like longer on southern styles, but I think it needs to be lower as well.


guinevere poem

[Bill Raby]

 I took a small amount off of both the front and the back. You guys are right. I have seen them both short and long. I went a bit in between and shortened it a little bit. I can see how a bit lower might be better. But I think it might be too late to do much about that now. When I said earlier that it is definitely not too high, I meant that it was not too tall above the rest of the stock. Seems like a lot of people want to start of with a Southern rifle thinking it will be easier due to lack of carving and such. I have to disagree on that one! When you start to pay attention to the details there is nothing simple about it. The carving just draws your eyes away from flaws in the basic architecture. With this one anything that is off is just going to stand out more.

[Daryl]

Much depends on your cheek bones. a certain politician might need a high cheek rest for high cheek bones, 1,024th of the time.

It looks really good to me, Bill.

[M. E. Pering]

Daryl... Quit making me laugh hysterically.

Bill... That looks great.  And probably the reason I have never done a plain gun is that every flaw will show if you make even the slightest mistake.  When I was in high school back in the 70s 80s, I used to help my friends build kits.  My help was mostly when they couldn't figure out what was wrong.  They really made some ugly kits look even worse. 

Like I said, I am no expert on Tennessee architecture or style, but to me, that photo looks good.  I think I would be tempted to bring the slope to the cheek piece panel lower, and thin it a bit, but you are in roughing stage, so you may be planning that, I don't know.  It will be fun to see the video on this.  For my tastes, you got it just right, now.

Matt

[Cades Cove Fiddler]

  .... some Upper East Tennessee rifles also had great molding lines carved into  cheek-rests..... and some were not molded,...... these two are Unicoi County,..... regards,... Cades Cove Fiddler ...