Now that I have the bug, I find myself going to pawn shops and gun stores to look at their muzzleloaders. I have not found many, but I have found something interesting. I have a TC Hawken that has a nice walnut stock. Today I found a TC Hawken that had a light colored stock. It had no figure and no distinctive grain, so it was plain, but it got me to wondering - were there stock options on TC weapons? I have found two like that one and a couple like mine. I have also found a couple of renegades that were somewhere inbetween...
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Thompson Center question
- Thread starter Pork Chop
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I've spent a lot of years with TC Hawkens and have bought/sold/traded an awful lot of them...never known of any "stock options" that would allow anyone to simply select and buy a better grade of stock.
What I have learned is this:
1) The degree of quality (figure, grain, etc) seems to have varied all over the place from one year to another and I conclude it's based upon the particular batches of wood they had available for stocks;
2) On average, Hawken stocks of the 70's and 80's seemed to have better figure & grain than those since then...so much so that I've gradually bought older stocks over the years, refinished them, swapped them out for my newer stocks that I had, and resold my newer stocks;
3) The Hawken is TC's 'flagship' model and as such, about every 5 years TC made special runs (2500, 5000) of Hawken variants like the Cougar, Custom, Silver Elite, etc...all with presentation grade stocks having beautiful figure and grain...so those are out there, and with the interchangability of Hawken parts...years later you might run across a used one where a standard Hawken barrel has been mated with one of those presentation grade stocks.
PS: Another thing I've learned is if the factory automated spray-on finish is removed then the stock is refinished with Tru-Oil, they always turn out significantly better looking than they did with the factory finish...makes whatever grain there is really jump out.
Guest
When I bought my .54 Renegade kit back in 1985 or 86 , it came with an American Black Walnut stock , and it was made by TC (all the parts on the gun were made by TC) . At that time , I believe all thier stocks were made from American Black Walnut . I don't know , but I would guess that the lighter colored stocks might be English Walnut . Sorry I can't be more help .
My brother worked at TC back in the 80s. As far as I know you cannot custom order the stock. He did pick one out for himself tho. He ran the machine that cut out the stocks and saw one that was really nice, decided that it was his. He made a renegade (caplock I believe) out of it. Don't think he has fired it much if ever.
What is the best way to strip off the factory finish?
The lighter stocks do NOT look at all like walnut. They look more like maple to me, but then again, I am not a wood specialist. The ones on the Renegades that I have seen may be walnut - the lighting in that pawn shop was pretty bad.
The lighter stocks do NOT look at all like walnut. They look more like maple to me, but then again, I am not a wood specialist. The ones on the Renegades that I have seen may be walnut - the lighting in that pawn shop was pretty bad.
I tried a stock or two using hardware store products like "Stripeeze", etc...but it was messy, caustic, fumes, spans several days waiting for it to dry so you can see if there's still finish left to remove, and takes a lot of work...plus there are always areas where it just seems you have to sand, but sanding changes the dimensions of the stock.
Then I checked with a local antique furniture store and found that they had a commercial chemical stripping booth...I remove the furniture, drop off a Hawken stock, pick it up a few days later for $20 bucks, and it's waiting in it's original, pure clean dry wood condition, ready for me to apply the first coat of Tru-Oil...no fuss, no muss, no breathing chemicals, no caustic chemicals in my eyes or on my skin, and the wood dimensions remain perfect...that's how I've done several now...
Guest
I just checked out the TCs on Track's website . All of the stocks are much lighter colored than mine and they ARE Walnut . Track says , in the descriptive text that they are American Black Walnut , but I have my doults :hmm: . My stock is very dark brown with , almost black , stripeing in the grain which is what I thought ABW should look like . I did not stain my stock , I finished it with Watco oil finish , so it is the natural color of the wood . I am no expert on wood either , but the TC stocks on Tracks website look like English Walnut , to me . Maybe a wood expert might read this and help us out .
CrackStock
69 Cal.
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I have 4 T/C rifles that were manufactured from 1976 to 1986. Everyone of them is clearly walnut. 3 of the 4 were kits and the 4th was a complete gun.
My biggest complaint is that they tend to crack from the breach area back along the wrist. The first was the cause of my camp name. I showed up at the range bugging everyone about how I could repair that problem and the guys refered to me as "that guy with the cracked stock rifle". I finally stripped the parts from it and sent it off to T/C. They replaced it without question or delay. They are an honorable company. The second to crack was an older kit and I purchased a fancy replacement stock for it. I chose not to overburden T/C's replacement policy any further. I also wanted a really nice piece of wood as that rifle was built for my father.
CS
My biggest complaint is that they tend to crack from the breach area back along the wrist. The first was the cause of my camp name. I showed up at the range bugging everyone about how I could repair that problem and the guys refered to me as "that guy with the cracked stock rifle". I finally stripped the parts from it and sent it off to T/C. They replaced it without question or delay. They are an honorable company. The second to crack was an older kit and I purchased a fancy replacement stock for it. I chose not to overburden T/C's replacement policy any further. I also wanted a really nice piece of wood as that rifle was built for my father.
CS
CrackStock
69 Cal.
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2004
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Widow,
You hit that reply on my post. I doubt that you meant me?
CS
You hit that reply on my post. I doubt that you meant me?
CS
Takes all kinds doesn't it...He's off the Forum now...keeps trying to get back on different forums using different ID's...the latest was '3times' here...some of his others have been noldguy, sumtacks, tacks, triple7, lostid, and so on...seems like after a while he'd figure out the common denominator.
Thanks Roundball for the info/advice here. I know of a furniture stripping place not far from me. I'll get a quote from them to tank strip my stock(s)and hopefully the price will allow me to farm out all my projects to them. Much safer and time saving for me. Thanks again for the tip.
regards,
Bob
It's a long story but I just finished restaining/repairing a Lyman Trade Rifle... The stock was Birch (I think) and I had to strip the stock to make it look right. I just used plain ole paint stripper and steel wool to wipe it off. Not a big deal, but I did have to let the stripper sit longer than directed... anyway here's some pictures.
SP
SP
