Pics of Carving on the 32 Stock.









Hope you enjoy seeing these.

Just a reminder. This is a Ledger Rifle. I know there's a high chance it's not for you. It's also a Ledger Gun so it's not a brand new idea come to life. Please keep in mind what I've done to get moved to, and set up here. That's what I said I'd do to meet my obligations. So; thing is ... I have the wheels turning. I'm making some pretty neat stuff. Long hours. The fact that you've now seen it before, doesn't make it any more rare or take any less talent. I'd appreciate support just by way of recognizing that you've been here. It takes time to post all this. Right now I'd love a cuppa coffee and need to sit down. My back and neck hurt. Please make this a real place to come say a word or two, and get the feeling of having talked to friends.

Thanks!
Gary

Just lying down to get some ice on my back so I stopped by to check in. That's some nice looking work Gary, looks time consuming for sure. I think it will make another ledger person quite happy when it's all done.

Thanks Sal,

I appreciate the comments. Hope the ice helps. It usually does - remember the cotton towel around the ice pack.

The rest of the gun is complete. Was Hot blued in Maryland. One of the last.

The carving is time consuming. Today was quite a reminder.

Thanks for dropping by!

Gary

Very nice work Gary. Its amazing to see you bring this piece of wood to life.

Glad you like it. It is a lot of work. Good thing it lasts a long time!

Wow that some fine detail . I would think making the other side match would be real difficult . Do you use a transfer type of copy method like the smoke transfer with metal? Or maybe just freehand draw it ..... Hmmmm

Thanks
Kurt

Hello Kurt,

Here's the view from the "Artist's Eyes" ... I'd rather see two "Originals" then "One Original and One Copy". So; I draw and carve to the same set of details ... but I do not strive to have it be an exact reversed image.

That's just one of the hundreds of things that make "Artists" so annoying. 999,999 people would expect that the absolute height of accomplishment would be a perfect mirror image from one side to the other. The one left (Gary) would feel that the "Copy Side" was Sterile and had "no Soul". I make it close enough so that people's eyes glaze over trying to remember which leaf went where and if the scroll curled up and left or up and right ..... hahah.

Thanks Kurt!
Gary

As I get some stock oil on this, I'll get the Outrider actions back out for you and Jamie. Keep things flowing as fast as good work.

Hi Gary,

Nice work and great pictures to show the details in the carving. I'm pretty sure that this piece of stock will complement nicely the rest of the airgun. I do appreciate the time that you invest in creating posts like this one and documenting the process of creating a new airgun along the way.

Thanks Julio,

Good to hear from you.

All this carving reminds me of your "Caribou" Rifle and Stock.



Gary

My comments echo most others here. Great work Gary! Love the detail. Again you can see why so many really like stocks. They see the work done in comparison to all the metal work that is "hidden".

Thanks for sharing. Glad you to hear you are feeling "better".

Have a great weekend.

Pedro

I don't want to see the wood. Where is the metal!
Just kidding
Nice carving! Even with the makeshift carving station, you can still find the right spots to remove to reveal the hidden treasure inside.
I'm glad I took the time to stop by today. I hope you get to enjoy some family time this weekend.

Scott

I lost track of your post Scott. Sorry.

Glad to hear from you!

Boy ... Can't wait to have an actual carving area. I'm gonna need a bigger place. . Sorry ... Had a damaging thought there. Initiated automatic shutdown mode - without reboot! "Must - Save --- the Brain!" Hehe

Drop by often. Gonna have some new toys available soon. You know you need something .... . Ha.

Gary

I suspect this one is going to be one your prettiest yet. I particularly like the way the fore stock is shaping up.

Carved all day again. And this was well along when I started.

Some panels are finished.



I had these two last panels to do today.

Kelly came down and ran me out of the shop around 7:30. She reminded me that I was gonna blow out my arm again. Problem is - I'd carve til I died. So; good thing she was on the ball. I can feel it. Hope I stopped in time.

Thanks for all your comments. I want to go thru them seperately.

Gary

That has really come to life Gary, I can't tell which way the carving is going on the second picture, feels like I'm wearing 3D glasses.

Hi Gary,

When can I come down for a visit and take lessons

Enjoying your work! Thanks for sharing it!

Pedro

This will surpass the owner's expectation's without a doubt.

Wish I could draw that let alone carve it into wood. Thanks for taking the time to post pictures.

You are very welcome!

I've work out a drawer full of tools carving it into wood, non ferrous metals, steel, and even titanium. You are correct - it all starts with a drawing that flows and fits the area.

Thanks very much for posting!

I'm getting a bit more organized and faster as I bond with the shops here. Please keep reading as you have time.

Best
Gary

Don't lose the plastic lawn chair, looks comfy.

I will have you know that THAT is a BARNES treated wood Adarondak chair - Kelly and I built 5 or 6 of them 25 plus years ago.



Barbarians!

Gary, it is always a treat seeing examples of your carving skill. This one is no exception. Just magnificent! Thank you for sharing this with us.

Karl

My pleasure Karl. Thanks for reading.

I do enjoy doing the carving, very much. I only really want to do it as the final glory of something that began with an idea, worked through so many tools I actually made, and then finished with deep relief carving .... by the maker himself.

It's all so odd, being at this place in the story, from my side of the screen. I've read countless accounts of old men who worked all their lives making things. The authors just marveled at how the old guy actually did this or that "himself". It might be something quite small ... maybe he sharpened his own drill bits! haha. You know ... or ... maybe he actually made some of the parts for his rifle, himself!!

The collectors just appreciated the given work, so much. They'd rather have carving that looked like a ten year old had done it with an etch-a-sketch .... so long as it was a part of "sole authorship," where ... everything on the work, was performed by the one artist. Seems different today. Doesn't seem like ... of anything I read ... anybody cares. The stories are about assembling kits of parts.

In previous times, the writers and the museum plaques, filled in missing (unknown - lost) information; regarding the artist and his methods. Because, well ... the information was unknown. Might be trivial, but it made a great read. Then, there's today's treatment of artists. There's nothing that is unknown. We have the net. Heck ... the old dude is probably blogging along while making his work. He's the trouble. He should go stop blabbing what he's doing. Allow folks to cook up incorrect theories ... and then plant a clue or two for later.

I very much appreciate you reading and commenting, Karl. Glad you like the carving. I don't think you will find too many gun makers who do as much, or more, then I do on one of my pcs. Seems it would be a bigger deal then it appears. Guess I have that one big "detail" yet ... before all the things I've done get a comment from writers, curators, collectors. You know ... the ... "other then THAT Mrs. Lincoln .... " haha,

Ah ... we do wax poetic late at night ... sorry readers. I'm tired.

Karl - good to hear from you!
Gary

Beautiful work, Gary. Thanks for sharing!

Geez, what's with all the wood.....we all want to see metalwork...

It's so beautiful that I think it's too nice to shoot......

Gary,

Everyone here appreciates the effort and the skill. Maybe others out in the world have lost that sense of wonder at true craftsmanship, but not us...that's why we're here. We know your work is something special. Keep plugging away!

Karl

Oops, my bad, gonna have to start wearing my reading glasses instead of just making the printer bigger on the screen. Certainly not going to get 25 years out of the plastic lawn chairs, you're lucky to get more than one season out of those things.

Which touches on yet another reason I like the stuff you make. It's still going to be around a couple decades from now, unlike many things people buy these days. When you think about the vast sums spent on ephemeral mass-market items like phones and electronic toys and such, it's kind of disheartening how much of it is destined for the dump the second you open the box.

Yeah ... Now THIS!!! This is your grandfather's 8 Track. Ahhh .... And we might have a tape of BREAD to play in that sucker too ..., let me look here .... Ah .... Where'd ya go ...

You joke about it, but I recently had to buy a special adapter to convert the hard disc drive from out old desktop to USB format so I can finally get our old photos off the danged thing. We haven't had a desktop computer in years, so there no easy way to just plug the old drive into a new box and it sure won't fit into a laptop! Good thing I found one before THOSE are obsolete too.

I wouldn't be surprised if we find decades from now that there's a gaping hole in the historical photo record right about the time that digital cameras became popular. People are always unearthing stashes of great Kodachrome slides and prints from decades ago, and all it takes to look them over is a pair of eyeballs. That's not gonna be the case for all the photographs stranded on floppies and old disc drives due to technological obsolescence, those are just going to be gone forever. It'll be too much trouble to sort out what's on there, so unless you're digging it out of some famous artists attic who's going to go through all the trouble?

With your knives and your airguns what you see is what you get. No incompatible drivers, no exotic software or obsolete batteries required, just a spot of oil on the moving parts and you're good to go.

Gary,

Love the carving but did you not get the memo? Stocks are walnut and checkered....

Gary,

Beautiful work!


Lon