Squaring Rifle Stock Forend

[Matthew Hutchinson477]

Here's a particular one for ya,
I'm trying to attach an ebony forend to a rifle stock, and I'm having a hell of a time getting the end of the rifle stock dead square and at the exact angle I want (90*). Both the stock end and forend tip faces are about 2x2" and are both end grain, so planing them while secured in a vise is difficult because so little of the plane is actually in contact with the piece. For the forend piece itself I just secured my plane in the vise upside down and pushed the block across the plane, and even that took me a while since I can't get full length/full width shavings on end grain. I can't do that with the rifle stock because it's far too cumbersome to hold at a steady angle.

Perhaps some more experienced craftsmen could tackle this with a block plane alone but I'm not quite that skilled.

Any ideas?

[Jim Koepke]

This is where a shooting board is indispensable.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

Another thought, are you going to have a piece of cork or other shock absorbent material between the stock and the end?

jtk

--Oops! Now that I looked at the image again it looks like I may be thinking about the other end of the stock. Though I have seen some with a band of light colored wood at the front end.

[Stanley Covington]

Here's a particular one for ya,
I'm trying to attach an ebony forend to a rifle stock, and I'm having a hell of a time getting the end of the rifle stock dead square and at the exact angle I want (90*). Both the stock end and forend tip faces are about 2x2" and are both end grain, so planing them while secured in a vise is difficult because so little of the plane is actually in contact with the piece. For the forend piece itself I just secured my plane in the vise upside down and pushed the block across the plane, and even that took me a while since I can't get full length/full width shavings on end grain. I can't do that with the rifle stock because it's far too cumbersome to hold at a steady angle.

Perhaps some more experienced craftsmen could tackle this with a block plane alone but I'm not quite that skilled.

Any ideas?

I got myself into the same predicament some years ago when I made a walnut stock for a Sako in 458 Lott. A shooting board won't work. I was able to cut the ebony clean and square with a chop saw, so it wasn't a problem. I then used a sharp chisel to carefully pare the walnut stock's nose until it was a thousandth of an inch concave. Then I used a kiwaganna, basically a skewed-blade block plane, to shave in to the center from all sides, and finished with sandpaper glued to a flat block. In the end, the plane was more trouble than help.

I highly recommend you cut a slot in both walnut and ebony to insert a loose tenon. Epoxy alone is not strong enough to reliably bond the endgrain of the 2 dissimilar species, at least not in a caliber with heavy recoil. 458 Lott has a wee bit.

Good luck.

Stan

PS:

Here's a pic of it drying in my backyard in Irvine California back in 2007. No metal is attached, including the skeletonized pistol grip cap.

[Matthew Hutchinson477]

Thanks for the replies, gentlemen. I tried my shooting board but there isn't a great reference face on the stock so it's proving to be difficult. My planing skills just aren't up to it and I don't have a low angle plane. I've been using my extra fine Iwasaki carving file and measuring every few cuts. It's tedious but it's been working the best so far. Getting the angle perfect has been surprisingly difficult due to the lack of straight references on the stock. The top of the forend is pretty straight so I've been going off of that.

Stanley,
I was told by an experienced stockmaker to use two 1/4" dowels with either epoxy or a bedding compound like Acraglas, which I have a little bit of laying around.

Jim,
Just out of curiosity, how would you secure the gunstock to a shooting board and how would you prevent spelching? My only thought was to hold the stock down by hand, cut a chamfer around the edges, and plane down to it. But I figured the carving file would be a little safer and easier.

There won't be any spacer or cork on this piece. Just walnut and ebony. It will have a recoil pad on the butt if that's what you meant.

[Tom Vanzant]

Matthew, do NOT skimp on that recoil pad! The .458 Lott has very serious recoil...but you know that, right?

[Matthew Hutchinson477]

Matthew, do NOT skimp on that recoil pad! The .458 Lott has very serious recoil...but you know that, right?

I think there's some confusion. I'm not building a .458 Lott, my rifle is gonna be a .30-06, and I do plan on putting a recoil pad on it.

[Matthew Hutchinson477]

Well I've gotten fairly close with the Iwasaki file but not quite perfect. Both faces are just slightly rounded. I imagine it's my imperfect technique but I don't know how to change that overnight. So from here I suppose the best course of action is to carve out the middle of each face thus making them concave?

[Pat Barry]

I see your picture of the two parts. Do you have a picture of the way you want it to look? Does the ebony pice have a groove for the rifle barrel?

[Bruce Haugen]

I'd skip any hand techniques and cut it on a table saw with a sled.

[Jim Koepke]

Just out of curiosity, how would you secure the gunstock to a shooting board and how would you prevent spelching?

For odd shaped items I would build a holding fixture. I would get the plane blade as sharp as possible and make a slight chamfer on the finished end on the least visible spot. In a case like this it would also be good if a backer board was included to help eliminate any spelching/blow out.

Another approach would be to make a custom shooting board for this particular task if it is something you will do more than once.

Lastly, is it kosher to have the two woods meet at an angle other than 90º? (if this is stupid, please forgive me, I am not much in to shooting with anything other than a plane.) Everyone can spot a slight mis at 90º. No one would notice if a 30 or 45º angle was off a degree or two. Besides, shooting at such angles the blow out/spelching will likely be less.

jtk

[Matthew Hutchinson477]

I see your picture of the two parts. Do you have a picture of the way you want it to look? Does the ebony pice have a groove for the rifle barrel?

It's just a 90* butt to butt joint. In the end it'll look like this:

http://accurateinnovations.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/ebony_tip.jpg

[Stanley Covington]

I'd skip any hand techniques and cut it on a table saw with a sled.

I agree with Bruce. Save you lots of time and trouble as long as you have a very clean cutting blade in your saw.

If you decide to do it by hand, you might consider cutting the stock's nose into a V and splicing the ebony to match. I have never done this before, but I have seen it on custom rifles. If you left out the Weatherby white spacers, it should look nice, and be worth the handwork.

Stan

[Matthew Hutchinson477]

For odd shaped items I would build a holding fixture. I would get the plane blade as sharp as possible and make a slight chamfer on the finished end on the least visible spot. In a case like this it would also be good if a backer board was included to help eliminate any spelching/blow out.

Another approach would be to make a custom shooting board for this particular task if it is something you will do more than once.

Lastly, is it kosher to have the two woods meet at an angle other than 90º? (if this is stupid, please forgive me, I am not much in to shooting with anything other than a plane.) Everyone can spot a slight mis at 90º. No one would notice if a 30 or 45º angle was off a degree or two. Besides, shooting at such angles the blow out/spelching will likely be less.

jtk

Plenty of people attach forends at 45* but 90 is definitely the most common...and it's what I want. It's certainly turning out to be quite the exercise.
On the subject of spelching, a little bit actually won't be an issue. The entire forend is oversize right now and it'll be thinned considerably so if the spelching is shallow enough it'll disappear later anyway.

I've tried to finish the whole process with the Iwasaki file but I just can't get that last little bit. Faces are about 90% or more flat right now but there's just a tiny gap in a couple places. I don't think it's gonna get much better just using the file. I even tried paring out the center of the pieces to make them concave but then when I went back to flatten them I ended up with a little curve again. The pieces are just so small that getting enough contact to keep a plane or file dead flat is tough, and I'm not that good. So we shall see how the shooting board does. I may have to build a new one for this purpose but I'm beginning to think it's the best option.

[Matthew Hutchinson477]

I agree with Bruce. Save you lots of time and trouble as long as you have a very clean cutting blade in your saw.

If you decide to do it by hand, you might consider cutting the stock's nose into a V and splicing the ebony to match. I have never done this before, but I have seen it on custom rifles. If you left out the Weatherby white spacers, it should look nice, and be worth the handwork.

Stan

I do have a table saw but I'd have to buy a blade for this application, which I'd rather not do. I'm still set on doing it by hand but we'll see how I feel in a couple days.

[Andrew Hughes]

I've used my granite surface plate with sandpaper glued down.(Spray adhesive) To flatin ebony parts that are small..
I see you have one piece you can hold.
Thats all I got.

[Ray Selinger]

Here is where hand tools shine, a Douziki(sp) from all sides then I pared with a sharp chisel. But I used cocobolo, shaped with a spokeshave.

[Matthew Hutchinson477]

Update:

Finally got around to this and got the stock forend square and flat. The shooting board was the solution. I got it pretty close using an Iwasaki carving file but any tool that relies on the user to keep it dead flat (i.e. a plane or chisel or file) just wasn't gonna get it perfect. At least not with my skill level. So I flattened the top of the barrel channel walls (they were already pretty close) to use as a reference and hold against the shooting board fence and with a careful, ultralight cut it did the trick. For the forend tip piece I gave in and used a piece of sandpaper on plate glass. The shooting board wouldn't work because there isn't an accurate enough reference face on the block and I don't have too much extra to shave off much. With how close it was it didn't take much on the plate glass to get it dead flat.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys!