Air Gun Home :: View topic - Anyone ever cut their own stock from the 'ground up'

AirGunEric · Site Admin

I was just wondering how easy it is to find a single block of wood for a stock that would be 7" from lowest-to-highest point, about 4" wide and 30" long?

On a related note- these laminate stocks that are around in funky colors- is the wood soaked in some sort of dye prior to drying to achieve this? And if it's a laminate- wouldn't there be an issue with the glue and the dye?

garththomas · Veteran Member

I looked into getting a block of wood by calling small local sawmills and it seemed most were familiar with supplying material for that purpose.
As far as laminates go for some and I would think the more striking or exotic looking the wood is stained before being laminated. The stain doesn't affect the glue. I am sure there veneers can be sourced as well or even cut yourself if you have decent equipment. I made the stock for my QB57 from Baltic Birch plywood because I found some scrape that was free. Finding tooling that will cut to the size and shape without breaking the bank is the tricky part.

AirGunEric · Site Admin

The smaller mills may be the way to go to get the right size pieces- the "wood specialist" type vendors I have found tend to only stock flooring and basic turning (i.e. table leg) type stuff. Of course if I wanted to use some sort of "exotic" wood, that could be an issue.

garththomas · Veteran Member

I can't remember the name of the place I had contacted about 45mins. out of London but he supplied blanks for a stock maker and he carried some imported types as well. I will also try to get the name of a place near T.O. where a buddy of mine who makes laminated canoe paddles likes to shop. I started in the Yellow pages.

ZipSnipe · Veteran Member

Most stocks are about 2" wide Eric I would look for something if it was rough cut 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 " thick.

Also for 7" I would go to a mill and have them cut it or find something close that they have in stock. A mill would usually have an 8" or 12" jointer which is what ya would need to straighten out the wood. If you have a planer then just have the mill joint two sides square and plane the rest yourself

Also I have seen a few good deals on walnut and other gun blanks on Ebay at a fair price when you figure all the driving around to find a mill.

Slavia · Moderator

Google "gunstock blanks" and you will find several sources. The 30"X7" part won't be a problem, but ZipSnipe is right about the 2 1/2" dimension - 4" might be tough.

AirGunEric · Site Admin

I'm not talking about buying 'blanks'- but raw, dried wood.

ZipSnipe · Veteran Member

Well you can still find those on Ebay as well Eric just type in Wood Blanks, you will have to weave thru the pen blanks but usually there are several blanks close to your dimensions.

Also on your laminate stock question yes they do soak those veneers in dye, each veneer is 1/16" thick. I tried to do a laminate stock but I could only do 1/8" veneers and no dye.

Do you have a jointer and a planer?

Slavia · Moderator

ZipSnipe · Veteran Member

And if you get the wood from a small mill and they don't have one of those press ovens to dry the wood out then the usual rule of thumb is a year per inch thickness of wood and watch for the stuff Slavia mentions

badshot · New Member

Virtually all the laminated plywood for stock blanks is made by this
company http://www.rutply.com/about/index.html Both Boyds
and Richards buy from them.

AirGunEric · Site Admin

Interesting. What are Boyd's and Richards charging for a laminate color stock these days? (some of the prices on the panels is quite high- i.e. $150.00)

badshot · New Member

Eric, here is a link to Boyds blanks. http://www.boydsgunstocks.com/Walnut-and-Laminate-Hardwood-Gunstock-Blanks-s/79.htm

I think boyds buys so many you could buy a blank cheaper from them than dealing with Rutland.
As I don't know how to put two links on the same post I'll do the Richards one in another post.

Les

badshot · New Member

Here you go, http://www.rifle-stocks.com/laminated_blanks.htm
Living in Canada the shipping just kills us.

robert w · Senior Member

might try gun broker as they had some nice blanks up for auction a while back