Gun stock work, Inlays?

BlackPowderJam

I live in the north east and I have some stocks I would like to dress up with either silver or stone inlays, like a cross or maybe a stone pattern. I guess I could ship the stocks out, If anyone has any info that would be great. Thank you.

cbyerly

Any decoration will devalue the rifle. It is like a tattoo, it is personal and will last a life time. Others will not look upon that decoration as a thing of beauty. Don't do it. If you want to decorate the rifle, get it professionally engraved.

hillbille

unless it is an old original rifle, do as you please most modern replicas are only worth a few hundred dollars, and as cbyerly has said it will devalue the gun for resale, but it is your gun do with it as you please it only has to suit your taste until you go to sell it, unless you can find a buyer with the same taste. If you don't plan on selling it you only have to please yourself.

machine gun moran

I do sterling silver inlays on rifle stocks and on one-piece SA grips that I also make. The grips have gone onto Colts as well as Ubertis, but there is no devaluation of the guns because the grips can be changed out for the originals again, at any time. I've done Winchester rifle stocks with sterling American Indian motifs, both Plains and Southwestern. The guns were '94's, postwar but pre-64's. It didn't seem to hurt the value any, and the number of collector arms is not actually diminished because Winchester made over a million '94's in the period that is subject. Because of the nature of the inlays, they will just eventually become 'Americana'.

Inlay work is not really difficult, it just requires an average skill level, with an exacting attitude and patience. I use 20 or 22 gauge sterling and cut the inlay first, then inlet the wood to match. I encourage anybody to try it, first on scrap wood and with brass or aluminum for inlay material. They will probably surprise themselves.

A couple of photos here of my grips:

Pitmaster

MGM,

Could you send me some contact info. I'm considering having a pair of grips made with a couple of state quarters inlaid for my Ruger Vaqueros.

Pitmaster
bruce@bdbbq.com

dandak1

MGM, how do you keep the inlay in the wood? Is the wood undercut like a dovetail and the inlay pounded in and swaged, or is it epoxied? Nice work BTW.

machine gun moran

Pitmaster - I'm sorry, but I don't do any commercial work, I do it privately for myself and for a small number of other old-timers that I go way back with. Essentially, I'm a retired putz, and I should have mentioned that. But I encourage anybody to try it. It doesn't take a lot of equipment, I use a Dremel for the major grip shaping and X-acto knives for the inletting. Mostly what it takes, is the determination to not hurry it.

dandak1, I don't undercut the wood, I use straight-in cuts and epoxy the inlays in with a decent 5-minute epoxy. The inlays, with the edges finish-shaped, are hand-formed (by bending and tweaking) over the all-but-final sanded grip contour, and then held in place with finger pressure while the outline is scribed with an X-acto knife. The scribe lines are then deepened to the inlay depth, and the wood inside the lines is cross-hatched everywhere, to about the inlay depth, with a small square-ended X-acto blade, by lightly tapping. This enables the wood to then be removed in small bits, out to the outer lines. When the outer boundary is first scribed, I make it a bit undersized. Then I can shave it to snug size as I go, starting at one end of the inlay and working to the other (when one end of the inlay begins to fit in, it is easy to see where the shaving needs to be done next).

When the inlay can be pressed in with light pressure, I want it to be a little above flush with the surrounding wood. I sand the back of the inlay with 150-grit or so, and clean both it and the inletted area with alcohol and allow to thoroughly dry before applying epoxy to both surfaces. The epoxied inlay should be a little above flush so that I can then file it down to close to flush before sanding the wood and the inlay together.

When the wood splits or when I just screw it up bad, I just make a little bigger, or a completely different, inlay. All is never lost.

Thanks guys, for what I take as real compliments. [:)]

Pitmaster

Thanks for the reply. I have absolutely no talent for projects like this. I wish I did. I have a couple of other places I was thinking about contacting.

spasmcreek

done the same sort of thing with a turbo carver air tool 400,000 rpm & tiny bits...less expensive than a gravemeister...way smaller than dremel..haven't done enough to be really good yet but it's fun ..found italian pewter buttons in shape of lizard, buck deer, other things but store went out of business 3 years ago..used dyed acura glass epoxy

machine gun moran

I did do silver inlays on a butt stock once, of a bear taking a dump. It got me cussed by some folks, but those are the ones who only attend Church or gun shows if everyone is dressed in a tuxedo. I still hunt with it.

I've always wanted to do an inlay, on a riot gun, of the police chasing certain kinds of people down the street. We could give it to Joe Arpaio. MSNBC would just crap [:D].

mtnman31

Machine Gun Moran,
I like your sense of humor. The bear in the woods sounds hysterical.

wpage

We should take a collection to commission that project for sheriff Joe A. He would love it!

grizzclaw

I bought my inlays at the Logcabin shop in Ohio. They have everything you could possibly want for blackpowder guns.

wpage

Thanks Grizz heres the link...http://www.logcabinshop.com/