Question about Pistol Blank for project

[ky_man]

Hello All,

I'm interested in carving a pistol stock from a blank of wood, but I need to know if it's big enough before I begin, or if I should just buy a pre-cut blank. This will be my first attempt at carving. My buddy has a piece of walnut left over he's going to give me if I can use it, it's burl walnut 15.5"Lx5.5"Tx2.75"W, with the grain running along the length of the block. Also, I'm still looking for a pistol to reproduce, any suggestions?

 

:v Lay your bits and pieces out on the block and see what it looks like. Does the barrel have enough wood all the way around ,sides and bottom . will the lock line up with the touch hole and leave enough room for the trigger and guard, and enough for a grip that looks good. If it does then your piece is big enough. If you are not building a flinter..... oh well. use your imagination and common sense . Does the piece look good on paper? If it does then you have a good start. Bob

 

[paulvallandigham]

Perhaps the single biggest concern with pistol stocks is at the wrist of the gunstock. With straight grain running the length of the stock, as you describe, the grain running through the wrist and pistol grip area is almost at right angles. Walnut, and other hard woods have been known to crack across the grip, often after the stock is completely finished and in use for years.

One thing you can do to strengthen the stock, since you are working from a blank, is to cut the blank in half lengthways, flip the two out surfaces so they are next to each other, while the two cut surfaces are now on the outside of the stock, giving a mirror image to the grain patterns. Then, cut a thin piece of wood from another source- it can be walnut off the same blank, if its thick enough( if you cut that thin piece ( 1/8" at the thickest)and glue the three pieces together as a sandwich, with the thin strip between the two outer pieces. Most of the joint will be hidden under the barrel and ramrod, trigger guard, and tang. But that thin strip, plus the epoxy resin you use to glue it all together will give the stock strength to resist warpage, and movement in any direction. It also will keep the stock together after its built, even during recoil, or a couple of falls to the floor or ground.

Just my thoughts to deal with a nagging problem facing all builders of pistol stocks.

 

Good thoughts !! :thumbsup:

 

[flintlockmdj]

You can always drill a hole up through the bottom af the pistol grip and glue in a dowel.

 

[B.Habermehl]

Your wood sounds just fine. To break your finished gun you would need to either drop it or get really heavy handed loading the gun. The best way to get a pistol stock blank with grain flow that will wrap around the pistol's grip is get a slab with a great big knot in the middle of it. On either side of that knot is a pistol stock waiting to be sawed out with perfect grain flow through the grip.

 

[Jim-Iowa]

You can always drill a hole up through the bottom af the pistol grip and glue in a dowel.

Or depending on barrel weight, you might want to use a steel rod to balance barrel length?

 

[ky_man]

OK, I'm gonna try to use the blank for a project. With the right trigger guard, there should be enough bracing without inserting a dowel rod or other bracing. If it breaks, I'll take my lumps and try again....It's a learning process, right? My next question:

What do you all think about the $25 Hawken barrels on TOTW? Could these be used for anything other than a Hawken-style pistol?

They are 9" long, and have three blind holes tapped for ribs, but I was planning on filing the front one into a slot for an underlug and pin. The other two would be hidden, so who cares - right? With a breech plug, I'd have an inexpensive barrel for my first pistol project.

Here's a link:
[url] http://www.trackofthewolf.com...subId=136&styleId=488&partNum=BBL-54-C-9[/url]