I worked late last evening. I wanted to possibly get the Woodsman SS action in it's roughed out stock, so I could take advantage of this nice afternoon to test.

Sean has made it clear that he's not "all about" the stock. He doesn't want it to prevent him from using the gun. He didn't order a tricked out pc. He said he'd really rather have a nice synthetic stock for his uninhabitable location of Alaska. He did order stainless steel, and I've muttered under my breath each hour I've worked on it. Stainless steel grabs every cutter, galls every drill bit, resists hand threading, tries to fillet you with it's curling ribbons of steel which come off the lathe. The little snakes of razor wire will not "break" like carbon steel. So I have to endlessly stop the machine and clear the snakes out lest I miss one that is about to strike.

I chose a nice pc. of mahogany to make a good stock for Sean. I wanted it to be light for him. His is a hunting gun. He wants to take it on the snowmobile and carry it in the truck. I've had some nice mahogany planks I choose from the sawmill about five years ago. They were brought home, milled flat to the right thickness ... and set aside to acclimate.



I profiled the stock for the Woodsman. The upper pc. is sawn from the exact pc. so the grain matches. It makes the cheek area that covers the hammer tube inside. Takes a wide plank to do this.



Did extensive inletting of the action into the stock. That's about 5-6 hours I guess you see here, after the plank work, milling, and having gone to get it myself.



As I was juuuuuuuuuuuuuust about finished inletting, while sanding the bottom of the groove ........ CRACK!!!!!!!! THWANG!@!!!!!



The internal stresses of the wood, just tore it apart. It was fine, and I then sanded off about 20 thousandths. That was it.



All inletted now ... but the groove is a bit wide ....

Actually, I'd have preferred it to crack right after being rough sawn. Would have saved me five or six hours of precise work.

This would be the perfect opportunity to discuss just "why" I can't predict when something is going to be complete. I didn't plan on making a second valve body for this gun. That worked out real well, but I didn't plan on the other day and a half to do it. Didn't plan on this stock being ruined. Now I get to start from another plank, and I suppose this one is just firewood (unless I find someone that really likes the forked look in schnabel ends. Contact me at ... mail@glbarnes.com

Back to the shop ....

Isn't that why they make ebony tip caps, to cover up the glue and the through-bolt?

All kidding aside, that's a bit of bad luck but it could have been worse. Imagine, if you will, (blatent Outer Limits rip-off here) the expression on your face if you'd have heard it split as you were tenderly tucking it into the packing case to ship. Or...if you'd have invested several days time carving deep relief work into it BEFORE it split.

Silver lining, I guess...

Would have been worse if it waited until you opened the case in Alaska.

I suppose that if that happened, we could just blame it on the Post Office.

So...this one goes in the big bin of "parts that ALMOST turned out perfect". I suppose you could set it aside in case you decide to do a REALLY short carbine for someone. Or you could see if anyone wants a two-foot-long "tipcap" on their Woodsman stock, it would be a really...uhm..."unique" look, for sure.

The epoxy you glue it together with will be stronger than the wood. Didn't you say he wanted a synthetic stock? Shoot... just make about a dozen parallel cuts and glue it all back together for a cross cut laminate. Reduce, reuse recycle...GO GREEN.

Kent

Hi Kent,

It not only split - and had some serious opening power ... but it dislocated in a twisting manner too. It would be like gluing two truck leaf springs together, back to back.

It's toast.

Happens far more than I tell. I learned long ago ... The time spent trying to save a bad project; only produces more wasted time. Always better to dust off, and start over fresh.



Gary

Murphy,s law had to pull on your nerve,s. Hope everything work,s out for the best,could not imagine how much patience you have.
, and still do. Alaska brrrrrrrrrrrr.

Who knows, maybe that stock will show up as a pistol some day.

I'm sure that Gary could glue it back together and make it work, like you said, the glue is stronger than the wood. But he can't make himself do it...it's just not in his nature. He'd still know that it wasn't JUST right, and it would continue to bother him until he fixed it the way HE would want it done for himself.

Garys perfectionist tendencies are great for his customers, just not for his projected schedule and his own mental serenity level.

Hey ... careful referring to my mental state. You don't want to catch anything.

Yeah ... you got me. I catch myself, all the time, grabbing that extra finer grade of sanding belt to dress some interior part, or having to go back and reset an entire assembly, in order to mill off just a hair more .... because I was trying to fit some out of sight thing better then it ever needed to be.

I'm really not one of the guys that carve the last supper on a grain of rice or some such nutty stuff. But I do naturally attempt to do better work than my tools are capable of. And, I did learn decades ago the meaning of "ruined" and I don't spend any time trying to turn back time.



Gary

Lets see...a dollop of Type A, mix with a good measure of perfectionist obsessive-compulsive behavior...season liberally with "keeps you-awake-at-night" creative genius, throw in a dodgy spinal column, decades of wear-and-tear, bake for forty-some years and you get...an airgunsmith?!?

How the heck did that happen? I must have grabbed the wrong test tube somewhere along the way...

Haha. That's close. Only it's fifty some years and I've spent quite a few of those under the "rock slide of life".

But, that's the formula. Anybody can do it!

I say leave it as is and just slobber some oil on it! It's just at the end! Who cares about the stock anyway, just call it a Lady Gaga design...