Finally,,,,,,

[shortgrass]

After 60+ hours of inletting, shaping and sanding, the first coat of sealer. Let the 'wet sanding' begin,,,,,,,, tomorrow....

 

[Packrat 6]

Very Nice!

 

[HARPERC]

Very Nice!

 

[Joel Russo]

The work is just beginning... My favorite part of the project is the finishing. Looks good, and keep us posted on the results.
Hurry up, I need it yesterday.

 

[J E Custom]

Very nice work and a very nice looking piece of wood.

Now comes the slow part (Finishing). It is very labor intensive.

Maybe others can see how much work goes into a custom stock and the reason they cost as much as they do.

I try to avoid building Custom stocks because I spend to much time doing them and figure
I make 3 or $4.00 an hour.

Glad to see you do them and do such nice work.

Let us see it when your done.

J E CUSTOM

 

[shortgrass]

This on should fill (the pores) easier than the last one. Turkish Circassian Walnut, very dense. The last one was California Claro Walnut, and I'm still filling the pores on that one. It's a sponge!

 

[shortgrass]

The work is just beginning... My favorite part of the project is the finishing.

That's 'cause you know it's almost done!

 

[Edd]

A late friend of mine told me he charged $4000 labor to make a rifle stock. That was based on 100 hours at $40 per hour. That was finished and checkered.

 

[shortgrass]

Although I know how to make by hand from a blank and have several in my personal collection, today I work from a pre-inlet. I make my own patterns and send off to Jim @ Heritage Walnut and have him turn it on his Dakota duplicator. Having/making my own patterns allows me more control than just ordering from the commercial pre-inletters. They may advertise 90% or 'press fit' but they leave few options for those "custom alterations". They're kinda' 'cookie cutter', if ya' know what I mean. I've seen some real disasters from the 'well known' that I hear a lot about on the forums. The only other pre-inlets that I found to be "user friendly" were those by the late Ed Shulin. Many or my patterns are based on his. They ain't "drop-in"!

 

[mountainman56]

Gonna be a beaut for sure.

 

[FEENIX]

What a beaut indeed!

 

[Joel Russo]

Is it done yet?

C'mon man, I'm getting impatient.. The finishing can't possibly take that long...

 

[shortgrass]

Is it done yet?

C'mon man, I'm getting impatient.. The finishing can't possibly take that long...

I've 'wet sanded' this thing with Permalyn Sealer and 400g wet & dry paper once a day for the past 3 days. It'll take a couple more before I start hand rubbbing oil. Could be a couple of weeks of 'cutting the oil back and hand rubbing another coat in. I'm not into using spray cans and calling it 'good'. I haven't even started polishing metal before rust bluing, yet. The stainless Hart barrel still needs to be sent off for Black Nitriding. If I prep it right, it comes darned close to the same color as my slow rust blue,,, not exact, but close enough most can't tell, and the barrel (chambered in 7 Mag. in this case) has a hard surface layer, ta' boot. I've been paying attention to the "sponge", too (the last Claro stock I made). I'm thinking about the final assembly on that one. You're 'needling' me, Joel! You know how long hand rubbed oil can take!

 

[Joel Russo]

I'm bustin' yer stones Ted..
I know exactly what it takes to turn these pieces out.. When you're all said and done with it, you'll have worked for about $2.00/hour..
It's a "labor of love" for sure.
Keep up the good work my friend.