Hunting knives and related projects

[Von Gruff]

I got him to mount the rifle and marked this spot as where the center of the butt pad should be.



It was decided that a monty carlo shaped butt stock would be the solution so I drew out and cut the pattern



The inletting almost done



And marked in the new butt pad position

[Von Gruff]

So the grip cap was made and installed



and the shaping started

[Von Gruff]

[Von Gruff]

[Von Gruff]

With some alkanet oil to give the stock a nice tone to the grain and the finishing oils rubbed in the stock can sit for a while till it hardenes enough to handle without marking the surface although it will still be a bit soft for a few weeks.

[Von Gruff]

When assembled it is a much handier rifle with the shortened forestock, and with the butt pad being in the right reaationship to the shooters shoulder a much friendlier rifle to shoot and hunt with as well. The new stock wood has given it a smarter apearance as well.

[Von Gruff]

So we can look at a couple of restocks of damaged or broken stocks.

This one is a BSA Viscount

Had another restock to start today with a BSA Viscount needing a bit of a smarten up. It had been broken through the wrist at some stage and repaired. While it was and is servicable it left the owner wanting it looking a bit smarter.
With a plank of quite plain plank sawn walnut (albeit with a couple of knots in it) to cut the blank from and laying the BSA stock for good grain flow for it to be replicated in all aspects except the white line spacers, the first cuts were made. An ebony forend tip and grip cap with be substituted for the rosewood on the original stock (but keeping the 45* angle instalation) and a thin black decelerator will go on instead of the thick red ventilated pad


Checking for cast before laying out the inlet lines I found there was about 3/16 so have to keep that in mind for setting the recoil pad and shaping.

A while later the barrelled action is starting to find its way down into the blank.

[Von Gruff]

After the main inlet was done the forestock was cut to the 45* angle to replicate the original and a piece of ebony cut and doweled, epoxied and cramped into place overnight. because of the very cld weather a light was kept on close enough to keep the temps in the right setting zone for the epoxy

The next morning the barrel channel can be marked in and extended through the ebony. It is done this way as all inletting is done using a smoker on the steel and it dosent show clearly enough on the ebony to give an accurate reading. By having the channel in the walnut I can use straight edge steel rule to get it all to the same barrel clearance as the main cannel after the first inch or so of the chamber is bedded hard into the wood.

Ater it is all commonally inletted the B/A is set in and checked visually at this stage. Final clearance is done after the bottom metal is inlet and the action screws can be tightened and the floating portion of the barrel can be attended to.

[Von Gruff]

It was time to do a little more on the BSA so shaped the (grindable)decelator pad and set it onto the buttstock for the 3/16 cast


and marked out the cheekpiece



then the shaping got underway

[Von Gruff]

On the other forum I was asked how long it took to get this done so this was my reply

I have 19 hrs in the book so far but there is always more time in trying to replicate something especially in the wrist area as there is some shaping then feeling the original stock and comparing the new stock and then trying to make sure there is the same feel in both keeping in mind that with the shaping there is more to come off when the sanding is started so it is a more time consuming process than doing one to what feels and look right compounded by John being a very big man with hands the size of dinner plates plus this being a 60's design that has wundhummer palm swells and lots of compound curves.

[Von Gruff]

Have got the buttstock about finished with rough shaping although I want to raise the bottom front edge of the cheekiece a good 1/2 in yet and have the forestock close to what it will be.



Have 22 hrs into it now but want to have a fitting check with John beofre I go much further

[Von Gruff]

I will be delivering these two rifles to their owner tomorrow when I am back up that way to see the gunsmith on another matter





There was also a little BSA 22 that needed repair to this side of the forearm and completly re-finished

[Von Gruff]

This one was an embarresment to the owner who had somehow carelessly fired a shot in the house with the bullet damaging the forestock of this rifle. He had thought it to be ruined so sold it on as a parts rifle to my friend who drpped it off for me to have a look at.





With a piece dovetailed in and a bit of re-shaping it was returned to him in a state that put the rifle back into a usable state.

[Von Gruff]

Will leave the rifles aside for a bit although there are not a lot of these projects left to post on so will look at a work in progress for some knives that I will be doing.
I was talking to a local pig hunter a couple of weeks back and the subject of ig sticking knives came up so I said I would design something that would besuitable for him. He mentioned thata there were a number of his friends who would also be interested so I will make up four of them to see how they go.
This is the design I came up with and the 2 x .2 (O1) steel came in for them today. There is also the 1 5/8 x .125 (10840 for one of my light hunters for a forum member so will get them all ground and shaped up so they can be heat treated at the same time. (Summer time here so the fire is not lit for any other purpose at this time of year)



This is how they hunt pigs here in NZ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuu0JQppakQ

[montana]

That Mauser came out beautifully like the rest of your work.
Nice fix on the stock. I think I would have buried that evidence LOL. If you ever get a hankering to move to Montana I would sure love to have a neighbor like you