Laminated stock blank?

[Teliliad]

I’m just curious as I mull over ideas for future projects. Has anyone taken 1/2” or 3/4” planks and laminated them into a stock blank? I know I’d have to use a tight grained hard wood like maple cherry or walnut. I’ve laminated wood for guitar bodies and such and wanted to eventually try my hand at a gun stock but I don’t want to spend $500 on a blank just to screw it up. I know that Boyd’s makes laminated stocks, I just don’t know what adhesives to use for a gun considering recoil and heat, or if this idea is a common practice. I wanted to put wood furniture on my Pardner pump and maybe that would be where I could start with it. Or maybe buy a cheap traditions buckstalker…

Penny for your thoughts.

 

[64Springer]

I made a laminated cherry and walnut pistol stock once.

3/8th wide slabs. Glued up with Tite-Bond III. Held together fine. Easy to shape. Waterproof.

The trick is to have your boards dead flat in all directions, so the joints are solid.

Any cupping or voids will present serious problems when inletting.

Home Depot sells maple. Some soft. Some hard. Go through the boards and pick them up. The heavy boards are the dense boards. Buy those.

 

[TNTraveler]

As a woodworker any good wood glue will make the bonds stronger than the wood itself, just make sure your glue is water proof if your going to be getting it wet, and will be compatible with your finish, I'm not sure how different glues react to different finishes that people use on these guns, and as 64Springer stated the boards have to be perfectly flat to mate up, which means you need a planer or a good hand plane (and be accustom to using it)

 

[1950DAVE]

A planer will not take care of twist and on wider boards will not cure cup, as the feed rolls will flatten them as they pass thru. They will return to cupped once out of planer.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

Laminated stocks are great,, but not for traditional muzzleloaders

 

[Kevin Houlihan]

I’m just curious as I mull over ideas for future projects. Has anyone taken 1/2” or 3/4” planks and laminated them into a stock blank? I know I’d have to use a tight grained hard wood like maple cherry or walnut. I’ve laminated wood for guitar bodies and such and wanted to eventually try my hand at a gun stock but I don’t want to spend $500 on a blank just to screw it up. I know that Boyd’s makes laminated stocks, I just don’t know what adhesives to use for a gun considering recoil and heat, or if this idea is a common practice. I wanted to put wood furniture on my Pardner pump and maybe that would be where I could start with it. Or maybe buy a cheap traditions buckstalker…

Penny for your thoughts.

You don’t have to spend $500 on a blank. I bought a nice rifle blank from another builder for $100. A pistol blank can be had for less than $50.

 

[ZUG]

When I built my first rifle from a plank back in 1968 I went to a hardwood lumber yard / store near me (Kennedy's in Trenton N.J.) and found a walnut board that was 2-1/4" thick and big enough to make a .22 rifle stock out of it. I think it cost me $20 back then.

 

[HSmithTX]

I don't care for the weight increase you get with a laminated stock over solid wood, I do appreciate the stability you gain over wood in a modern centerfire but the weight and the coldness of laminate keep me looking at synthetics and carbon in particular for those. Laminates are also quite hard to work for inletting compared to wood. In a traditional muzzleloader the barrel is the structure so I don't think the stability will necessarily help anything, it would be tough as heck and might be a good option for a way back backcountry hunting rifle? I'll pass, thank you, but if you do I wouldn't mind seeing pictures.

As far as flat and straight pieces, it matters not if you have enough clamp to get the layers clamped up, they need to be a uniform thickness and a thickness sander is plenty good for that. Once the glue sets the layers will be where the layers are. Titebond III would be what I used to glue it up....

 

[user 34300]

Buy some blanks from Dunlap. $50 for a half stock and $120 for a full stock. Laminated wood will look goofie in a traditional rifle.

 

[Col. Batguano]

A jointer will take care of cup on one side. Once it's flat on one side, you can run it through the planer. Problem is, most guys don't have a jointer wide enough to handle a rifle stock board.

You're asking for problems by doing a laminated stock that you don't need to have. In the past, when ever I've tried to do things on the cheap to save on cost of the raw materials, it's cost me more in the long run and I wound up re-doing the project with what I should have used in the first place. There are places to economize in LR building and places not to (less fancy curl and grain in the stock for instance), but trying to make a stock out of something that isn't really suited to be a proper stock to begin with isn't one of them.

 

[Teliliad]

just saying that I never planned on using this technique on a traditional muzzle loader. Was thinking about doing it to a cheap inline and maybe a shotgun just to practice making stocks.

 

[tallPercshooter]

I did exactly that recently. Laminated two dead-flat rock maple 3/4-inch boards together with Titebond Ultimate glue. Didn't care that there would be a seam showing. Made a 20-ga single barrel percussion shotgun using a modern barrel from a break-open single shot, cut off just in front of chamber. The stock worked just fine. Added benefit - you always have a true centerline everywhere on the stock, ha ha. Made the whole gun for about $100 total.

 

[64Springer]

just saying that I never planned on using this technique on a traditional muzzle loader. Was thinking about doing it to a cheap inline and maybe a shotgun just to practice making stocks.

Don't let anyone talk you out of what you want to do.

And don't try and make your case to them.

Do what you want and be proud of what you achieve.

A laminated piece will work out fine if you go with a really dark stain that blends all the pieces together.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

Don't let anyone talk you out of what you want to do.

And don't try and make your case to them.

Do what you want and be proud of what you achieve.

A laminated piece will work out fine if you go with a really dark stain that blends all the pieces together.

AND, be sure to NEVER take the advice of ANYBODY who has over 40 years of experience building muzzleloading guns.

 

[64Springer]

AND, be sure to NEVER take the advice of ANYBODY who has over 40 years of experience building muzzleloading guns.

I respect you guys and what you've brought to the muzzleloading community for decades and decades.

But there are other ways of doing things. It's just not your way of doing things.

If laminated properly, a laminated stock will be stronger and more stable than a one-piece stock.

The OP was excited enough about his adventure to bring it here and share it.

And I think it's a shame when people start filling his balloon with buckshot.

 

[rich pierce]

It’s kind of a no brainer. Can it be done? Of course.

I’d hate to try to hand inlet the barrel, hand plane the ramrod channel, and so on. There’s a great chance the grain will be all crossed up at the seam. If you use routers and such this would make no difference.

I can’t relate to desires to make longrifles of strange, non-traditional stock woods, laminates, and so on. Different strokes for different folks. To me, the work involved in building a longrifle should result in a gun worth that effort if sold. Others have different approaches.

 

[Robby]

You could do one of these

Who would know?
Robby

 

[waksupi]

I made dozens of laminated stocks when working for Serengeti Rifles, and if you didn't point it out to people, the lines are invisible. The thing is, you need a wide belt sander to properly prepare the wood, and a butt load of clamps to do the job right. They are no heavier than any other stock.

 

[Eric Krewson]

I have a friend who has made some fine percussion and flint rifles and fowlers on a budget. He is an inventive builder, a master tinkerer, sometimes using what I would call junk to make something functional. When I met him, he was turkey hunting with a short smoothbore he made just for turkeys; it had a modern barrel he re-breeched to flint and jug choked with a brake hone, what looked like an old CVA lock, and a walnut stock that was a repurposed modern stock with laminations to fill out the skinny areas.

At first glance his turkey gun looked store bought, he would then point out the parts and what they had once been. This guy was of very modest means, his turkey gun cost him nothing and got the job done.

I had a senior moment once while I was bandsawing a nice cherry stock blank to shape. I still don't know how I did it but instead of cutting the sides of the barrel channel to shape on the raw blank I ran a cut right down the centerline all the way to where the entry pipe woudl have been. This was on a really nice figured blank cut out of storm damaged tree that fell near my garden. I glued the errant split back together but wasn't going to use it but knew my friend would.

I had a 38" Colerain 12ga barrel that was cut off center, I had already had it jug choked before I noticed the off-center muzzle. I notified Colerain about the off-center barrel, they really stepped up to the plate to make it right, the best I have ever been treated by a company that made a mistake. They sent me a new barrel and told me to keep the old one.

I gave the off-center barrel and mis-cut blank to my friend. He made another turkey gun out of the parts; he hid the split in the barrel channel and ram rod groove and made a 40 yard English fowler turkey gun that is pretty amazing.

When I make a rifle or fowler, I want it to be period correct but I do admire anyone who does a credible job on a budget and makes something to shoot and hunt with instead of look at.

My inventive friend can also make any stringed instrument and is an amazing musician, some of his guns may be a bit crude but the instruments he makes look like they were made by a master.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

I respect you guys and what you've brought to the muzzleloading community for decades and decades.

But there are other ways of doing things. It's just not your way of doing things.

If laminated properly, a laminated stock will be stronger and more stable than a one-piece stock.

The OP was excited enough about his adventure to bring it here and share it.

And I think it's a shame when people start filling his balloon with buckshot.

I have a savage bolt gun in .22 hornet with a muli colored laminated stock and love it. Never moves off zero no matter how the weather changes. Which is what laminated stocks are all about, stability. If anyone is going to make a muzzleloader I'll always recommend d a traditional wood. I have plenty of buckshot for balloon filling.
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