I wouldn't know Harry from John Paul or Benedict
This stock is going in a corner of the shop for now. I may use the wood for some fancy pistol grips at some point but I wouldn’t touch it if it had any provenance even though very little of the original stock maker’s work is evident.
It is badly cracked you can see in one of the photos. Moreover it has been significantly changed from its original condition. Three or four years ago a Cheyenne friend of mine was surprised by a divorce and sold the majority of his guns. They were nothing special but I was happy to give him the money.
According to him he bought one of two “nice” Krags from another Indian in the 1970’s. I would have been interested to see them both to see if they had parts swapped.
His rifle was a 1898 Krag. As it was originally commissioned, it was well inlet into a beautiful hard shell European Walnut stock with a buffalo horn forend tip, Neidner style butt plate and steel grip cap. A thin metal ring around the barrel served as a second attachment point up front. This is the very same sort as used by most other gunsmiths of the time and it was fastened by a threaded sling swivel. What sort of sights it may have had are strictly speculative.
At various times changes were made. A new barrel and action was substituted. This was strictly shade-tree with bent-bolt, flat knob and docked cocking knob. Redfield sights were used. The front and rear swivel holes were filled and a military barrel band was substituted. The stock shape was slightly modified to fit and it was refinished, leaving the grip cap and butt plate slightly proud. The stock was re-checkered in a simpler poorly executed pattern.
Later the rifle was reinished again,resulting spar varnish and some flattening of the second-generation checkering. This was how I found the rifle.
The barrel of this rifle was toast so I used another cut-down rifle in the stock and used it as a shooter/cast bullet/hunting rifle. I partially restored the wood finish, removed metal from the grip cap and butt plate to match and re-cut the checkering using the simple pattern but cleaning it up a little.
Typical of many Krags this one had cracks in the thin area of wood around the magazine box. When I leaned the rifle and it fell over (horror!) came the final straw, the nasty cracks through the wrist evident in the picture.
When I removed the metal from the stock I noted that the workmanship was pretty distinctive. The wood to metal fit of the stock was as good as anyone’s but the technique is best described as rough underneath. Note the comparison with Seymour Griffin’s treatment.
The unknown smith worked fast and was not concerned with niceties where they did not matter. A rasp was used as much as gouge and scraper, whereas Griffin used a scraper extensively in his fitting. Our unknown smith used a mortising machine to do the lion’s share of the magazine box and trigger excavation and cleaned it up with a gouge. Note all the small gouge marks in the photo.
One of the things I enjoy in handling old rifles is feeling the eye and hand of the maker. No doubt Griffin is the better artist. Griffin’s work is absolutely meticulous and it is neat that even if Michael’s photo didn’t tell us that he was right handed, is quite evident in the scraper marks on the butt.
So, this post was just to satisfy the last of my curiosity before consigning a tired old stock to the recycling bin. I have ordered a nice blank and will be stocking up a Krag Sporter imitating Griffin’s style and form.
Michael, do all Griffin’s have these conoidal holes in the butt? I think this is how his cradle held and avoided marring the stock.
