Cheek Mouldings

[S-SFlint]

Hello,

What's everybody's preferred method for cutting a cheek moulding, particularly one with more than one feature? V-tool and gouges? File? Anyone using planes (side bead, round)?

What is the biggest potential issue in the method you employ?

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I lay mine out on a finished cheep piece with soft pencil, cut it with chisels, and finish by scraping and sanding, always backing the paper with wood or hard rubber.
Watching the grain direction is crucial.  Otherwise, pretty straightforward stuff.  Be careful in your layout that the moulding tapers like the butt stock itself. It's subtle.

[Not English]

I shape mine to basically the finished shape without carving. After that I layout the design directly on the stock. Straight lines are cut with a veiner. I true them up with a small piece of half-round file that's used on edge. Concave moldings, I p put in with a rat tail file with a dog leg just before the handle to give finger clearance. I do very little chisel work on a cheek piece molding. With files and sandpaper wrapped them, you do not need to pay as much attention to grain changes like when carving.

[smallpatch]

A key item that Taylor mentioned...... it is tapered Back to front.   Anything you do MUST be tapered the same.

[Not English]

Agreed that taper is a must. It didn't always point toward the side plate. Sometimes the bottom edge was parallel to the bottom of the butt stock. Other times, not. The key thing as mentioned by both Smallpatch and D Taylor is the taper towards the side panels.

[S-SFlint]

   Yes I've seen quite a bit of variation, especially in the more complex mouldings. The focal point determination is effected by how much carving is done in front of the cheek, and whether there is any beneath the cheek. The stronger these features are the less necessary it is for the cheek line itself to absolutely point to the side plate, (especially on the historical guns with their less prominent cheeks,) so long as the eye is drawn naturally from butt carving through the wrist to the side lock.

The point is well taken on spacing and taper within the moulding itself.

[flehto]

First thing is to determine the starting "flat" and then have in mind what will be in the  flat boudaries. On my  Lancasters, the flat is larger and smaller on the Bucks County LRs. A straight edge is used to draw the lines for the features and then a sharp knife follows the lines. Various chisels are then used for contouring and files and sandpaper finish it up.

The bottom of the cheek piece varies as to how high it will be from the toeline  and preferably at an angle to the toeline. Early on I had a tendency to make the cheekpieces  too long thereby crowding the carving to the rear. The top photo is of a Lancaster and the bottom photo is a Bucks County......Fred