Custom Gunstock

[Doug Carpenter]

This is a Stock I did for a customer on a Blaser F3 sporter.

[Jeff Bartley]

Doug,
Looks great! How do you put the 'cross-hatch' in? It looks perfect!

[Doug Carpenter]

Do you mean the checkering? It is done by hand with tools for checkering. They are basically little hand tools that cut evenly spaced v grooves. It is an exercise in patience for sure.

You work each line evenly untill the diamonds form points.

[Paul Saffold]

Very nice, Doug. What did you use for a finish?

[Doug Carpenter]

Jeff, Thanks for the kind words.

This stock started as a blank. Here is a picture of the fore arm just after duplicating.

[Doug Carpenter]

I do oil rubbed finishes on my stocks. This particular gun I used a more modern finish knowing that this particular customer shoots in any weather. I used Daly's Ben- Matte.

Before I top coated it with that I had wet sanded it though the grits with BLO.

[Jeff Wittrock]

Beautiful work.

[Jay Jolliffe]

Very nice....What CNC do you use for the roughing out ?

[Doug Carpenter]

Thanks, guys.

I don't use a CNC. I use a 1 to 1 duplicator I built. I fit the gun with a pattern stock that I can adjust to fit the shooter. Once we have the fit right I use the pattern in the duplicator and cut the good blank for the new stock. It takes quite a bit of hand work to get the stock mounted to the gun and worked to the exact dimensions needed.

I have heard some stock makers claim that cnc machines have no soul. I assume they just haven't embraced the technology or couldn't afford one. I honstly wouldn't know where to begin learning that process if I wanted to. since some of the wood used for stocks can be full of character it is nive to have control of the direction of cuts. I imagine a cnc could cut somthing the wrong way and destroy the blank. This particular stock blank was $1000 so I would be afraid to risk it.

[Bruce Page]

Absolutely gorgeous work Doug!

[Mark Ball]

$1,000? woof. What kind of wood is it? Absolutely gorgeous results. Do you do this for a living?

[ray hampton]

did the blank cost a thousand before you did the work to it or after your work got added to it,Is the gun total cost quite high

[Gary Herrmann]

English Walnut? Bastogne Walnut? Beautiful wood and beautiful work.

I've seen walnut gunstock blanks go for $1000 and up. You can probably find half a dozen on an auction site at any given moment. I've got a claro walnut gunstock blank in my shop a friend gave me. It's nice, but it's not exhibition quality.

[Bill Wyko]

I don't know what looks better, the grain or the beautiful sculpting of it. Well done.

[Doug Carpenter]

Thank you. The gun itself is about $6000. The blank was $1000 before I touched it. It is English walnut. You can spend $300 or you can spend $4000 for wood.

I do stocks full time now for a living. I used to be a remodeling contractor but after 23 years of it I was just tired of it. This is completely different than building things flat, plumb, level and square. I am really enjoying it. I have a love of shooting clay targets and this was a way to combine my love of woodworking.

[ray hampton]

Thank you. The gun itself is about $6000. The blank was $1000 before I touched it. It is English walnut. You can spend $300 or you can spend $4000 for wood.

I do stocks full time now for a living. I used to be a remodeling contractor but after 23 years of it I was just tired of it. This is completely different than building things flat, plumb, level and square. I am really enjoying it. I have a love of shooting clay targets and this was a way to combine my love of woodworking.

I not sure of the money different in the two jobs but I see your point in the switch of jobs, cutting the checker pattern will bring out the artist

[Doug Carpenter]

I hurt my neck and shoulder. After several surgeries I decided a career change was in order.

[Jeff Bartley]

Wow! Doug, I thought about this after I posted yesterday and planned to post again to tell you about the beautiful pile of walnut blanks at my local mill.......but now I'm not sure any of them would be up to snuff!!! I had no idea gun-stock material could be so high!
And again: that's really good work, the cross-hatching looks absolutely perfect. Thanks too for sharing a bit of the process with the pic of your duplicator.

[ray hampton]

I hurt my neck and shoulder. After several surgeries I decided a career change was in order.

after the customer decide how he or she want the lock,stock and barrel to look will it takes for you and the metal smith to finish the gun and deliver it to the customer ?

[John Michaels]

Very nice work, that walnut and your craftmanship are top notch! Ben Matte is one of my favorite finishes. Daly's makes lots of great products.

[Doug Carpenter]

after the customer decide how he or she want the lock,stock and barrel to look will it takes for you and the metal smith to finish the gun and deliver it to the customer ?

It varies. The metal work did not apply. This was a brand new gun.

It takes about a week to fit the gun with a pattern stock, then my customer come to the shop to have it fit to them. We tset the fit by shooting a pattern board and clay tagets.

Once satisfied the customer can take the gun with the pattern stock to shoot it for a while to be sure the fit is the way they want it. Then I get it back and duplicate the pattern to the good wood. It can take another couple weeks. The gun is given a temporary finish and the customer can again test the gun for a while or I continue with the work. It takes a month to do a traditional oil rubbed finish and another week or so to do the checkering.

I am doing a stock on an old LC Smith side by side. That got the pattern stock last september and I have not seen it since. It will get a total metal refinish by another company while I am doing the finish and checkering. I do my own desing work for the checkering pattern and work closely with the customer to come up with something that they like and that comlpiments the gun.

[ray hampton]

engraving on guns also include new guns, too bad that my guns can not afford new stocks

[Jeff Hamilton Jr.]

Doug, that is simply AMAZING work and wood. How did you decide on the "flame-like" shape for the fore end checkering? I think it is super cool.

[Doug Carpenter]

Doug, that is simply AMAZING work and wood. How did you decide on the "flame-like" shape for the fore end checkering? I think it is super cool.

Thanks. This customer didn't like traditional diamond patterns. I like to go with the flow of the wood as well. I did sketch maybe 10 or 12 different patterns but it sort of mutated into the flame job. I am glad you got flames from it because that is exactly what we were going for.

[Jeff Monson]

Doug, that is fantastic work! The wood is very unique, I can definately see the price justification for the blank. Your craftsmanship is unreal, must be a nice change from your past work. I thought nowdays most of the checkering on guns was done with a laser?

[Mark Valsi]

Wow is all I can say.

[Doug Carpenter]

There are some manufacturers that are doing checkering with laser. Hand cut checkering has a feel that can't be reproduced. That said they can do some really cool things with laser checkering that would be pretty tough to do by hand.

I am going to work on doing a post explaining the checkering process. I would think some of the members here would enjoy adding checkering to their projects. I have another gun to post as well.

[Ben Hatcher]

I am going to work on doing a post explaining the checkering process. I would think some of the members here would enjoy adding checkering to their projects. I have another gun to post as well.
Yes, please!

[Todd Crawford]

I actually bought a set of checkering knives probably 20 years ago and rechecked both my and my father's gun. They did not turn out bad, but nothing close to that. Great work!

[Mike Null]

I've done some checkering with my laser but the laser checkers by burning. Hand checkering is clearly superior and easy to distinguish.

This is the most incredible stock I've ever seen. WOW!

[George Beck]

Outstanding! This is very nice checkering. It is an art and a test of patience.

Well done

George

[Doug Carpenter]

Thanks! I have been meaning to post a little tutorial on the checkering process.