doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Stock finishing classes for amateurs???

I like to have some part in the building of my rifles besides simply writing the checks. They call it sweat equity in home building, and the parallels between homebuilding and gun building are many.

While I am not particularly good at it, I do enjoy fitting wood when I have the time, and I definitely like finishing wood - though at times I think it may drive me suicidal; for instance, the highwall I'm building that didn't like BenMatte on top of Permalyn sealer. Something I could have figured out on a test piece, but, well, let's just not go there.

Anyway, that same stock has developed what I can only call blisters - raised spots in the wood that look as though there is some localized fluid pushing the wood's surface up - not just the finish, the wood. The wood was previously sanded meticulously flat, or at least smooth to the proper curvature. These blister like things occur in two or three discrete patches.

Anyway, things like this, things like getting the finish absolutely uniform all the way into the very inside corner of a cheek piece shadow line, and all sorts of other minutia of stock finishing drives me batty at time - or maybe it is just more batty.

In any event, I'm about to take off for Raton/Trinidad to shoot for a couple of weeks and it occurs to me that I could just as easily be going to a 2 wk workshop on stock finishing or rust bluing or both, or whatever. So, finally, does the school at Trinidad offer such workshops for folks that are frankly never going to be more than rank amateurs? Does anywhere else do this? While some general wood working courses exist that covers some of this, gun work is significantly different that I don't want to waste time learning to do things that require orbital sanders and the like.

Brent

Brent: I can't answer the workshop question for you but I have have finished / refinished "quite a few" gunstocks in my lifetime and would be willing to tell you my method - after many different methods / finishes I have settled on one that I'm comfortable with.

Just one qestion for you, did you water feather the stock before applying the finish?

John Can.

John,
I would love to hear what you like to do. I am sure I could learn from it. But I'm also sure that I need some hands on instruction. There are some things that never translate well in text.

As for the questoin about water feathering. Yes, I did. But there is no chance that it left water in the stock because there was literally weeks after that before I got even the first sealer coat into it. In general, I don't do a lot of water feathering but did it once or twice on this stock.

Brent, Trinidad does indeed offer such 1- or 2-week summer seminars, geared not just for the professionals but also for informed amateurs such as we. The specific courses offered in any given summer will vary somewhat depending upon just which instructors can be induced to perform that year. AAMOF the gracious supplier of our unobtainium wall parts has confided to me that he's teaching one of these courses this year, albeit in the machine shop and not in the woodworking area.

Many different gunsmithing courses are offered and usually but not always include things like engraving as well as various sorts of wood- and metalworking and finishing. Trinidad isn't the only school offering these summer smithing seminars, but its location is mighty convenient to Raton & the Nationals!

Since Trinidad is one of my alma maters, of course I recommend their program over the others (BG). Speaking realistically however, any benefits of these sorts of courses depend almost entirely upon A) the particular instructor teaching it that year and B) the attitude of each particular individual student. Also don't forget that one can frequently learn just as much new information from the other students through evening BS sessions and work partnering during the day's seminars.
Regards, Joe

Brent see PM for message --- John Can.

Joe, As one who is paid to profess, what you say about teaching and students and learning is as true as true can be.

I believe our Mr. Unobtainium is out there right about now. I gotta learn more about that place and maybe find a way to attend one of those courses.

John, I don't see anything in my PM's I don't know if the PM's still work or not. Since the last software upgrade, I have not received one.

Brent
PS. My email is brentd@iastate.edu

PPS. Now home to mount a butt plate using the new and approved "Brent's Method of Interchangeable Butts for Meeting the Needs of Discriminating Match Directors"

Brent, a bit far afield for you, but you might check on Peter Lassen College in Susanville, CA. Don't know anything specific but they do have a gunsmithing curriculum and if they had a short course, it's a very interesting part of the world to visit. Few do (part of the reason it's so interesting....).

These classes are through the NRA summer programs, and are taught at various gunsmithing schools (Junior College) throughout the country. Probably too late to get into any of them now, most start around the end of May and run for one to two weeks for half a dozen sessions. I've taken one by Bob Snapp on Single Shot Rifles at Tishomingo, OK, and one by Jack Rowe on Double Shotguns in Troy, NC, also co-taught a class on alternative metal finishing in Troy, all while I worked at Brownells. The link to the NRA Gunsmithing Schools site is http://www.nragunsmithing.com/.

Good luck,
David Kaiser
Montezuma, IA