Custom Gunstock

[Doug Carpenter]

This is a Stock I did for a customer on a Blaser F3 sporter.

[Jeff Bartley]

Doug,
Looks great! How do you put the 'cross-hatch' in? It looks perfect!

[Doug Carpenter]

Do you mean the checkering? It is done by hand with tools for checkering. They are basically little hand tools that cut evenly spaced v grooves. It is an exercise in patience for sure.

You work each line evenly untill the diamonds form points.

[Paul Saffold]

Very nice, Doug. What did you use for a finish?

[Doug Carpenter]

Jeff, Thanks for the kind words.

This stock started as a blank. Here is a picture of the fore arm just after duplicating.

[Doug Carpenter]

I do oil rubbed finishes on my stocks. This particular gun I used a more modern finish knowing that this particular customer shoots in any weather. I used Daly's Ben- Matte.

Before I top coated it with that I had wet sanded it though the grits with BLO.

[Jeff Wittrock]

Beautiful work.

[Jay Jolliffe]

Very nice....What CNC do you use for the roughing out ?

[Doug Carpenter]

Thanks, guys.

I don't use a CNC. I use a 1 to 1 duplicator I built. I fit the gun with a pattern stock that I can adjust to fit the shooter. Once we have the fit right I use the pattern in the duplicator and cut the good blank for the new stock. It takes quite a bit of hand work to get the stock mounted to the gun and worked to the exact dimensions needed.

I have heard some stock makers claim that cnc machines have no soul. I assume they just haven't embraced the technology or couldn't afford one. I honstly wouldn't know where to begin learning that process if I wanted to. since some of the wood used for stocks can be full of character it is nive to have control of the direction of cuts. I imagine a cnc could cut somthing the wrong way and destroy the blank. This particular stock blank was $1000 so I would be afraid to risk it.

[Bruce Page]

Absolutely gorgeous work Doug!

[Mark Ball]

$1,000? woof. What kind of wood is it? Absolutely gorgeous results. Do you do this for a living?

[ray hampton]

did the blank cost a thousand before you did the work to it or after your work got added to it,Is the gun total cost quite high

[Gary Herrmann]

English Walnut? Bastogne Walnut? Beautiful wood and beautiful work.

I've seen walnut gunstock blanks go for $1000 and up. You can probably find half a dozen on an auction site at any given moment. I've got a claro walnut gunstock blank in my shop a friend gave me. It's nice, but it's not exhibition quality.

[Bill Wyko]

I don't know what looks better, the grain or the beautiful sculpting of it. Well done.

[Doug Carpenter]

Thank you. The gun itself is about $6000. The blank was $1000 before I touched it. It is English walnut. You can spend $300 or you can spend $4000 for wood.

I do stocks full time now for a living. I used to be a remodeling contractor but after 23 years of it I was just tired of it. This is completely different than building things flat, plumb, level and square. I am really enjoying it. I have a love of shooting clay targets and this was a way to combine my love of woodworking.