Skalkaho wrote on Aug 25^th, 2022 at 10:33am:


Same for me also. I've got some very nice wood chisels, but afraid to use them much as it scares me to think about getting a little too deep. So I also use wood rasps to do most stock shaping, as less chance of me getting too heavy handed.

marlinguy wrote on Aug 25^th, 2022 at 10:40am:


Now, that's funny.  I use chisels because it's too easy to take off too much and screw things up with a rasp, especially because the unintentional scratching of coarse teeth makes you have to overcut considerably during sanding to get below the roughness.  The chisels give much more precise control.  I use rasps to hog off material (like in the picture where I'm thinning the bulge behind the wrist) quickly, where control doesn't matter too much.  Rasps and then files also make it easier to establish a flat plane or surface, preparatory to sanding.

The key to chisels is learn to sharpen them.  So, it doesn't take a whole lot of force to get them to cut.  Too much force equals out of control, and then you can screw things up.  Very sharp, and small cuts at a time make for precise work, and relatively fast.  You have to have good chisels, not your Craftsman or Stanley carpenter chisels and certainly not your current China or India imports.  I use Dastra and antique English made ones myself, along with some Greenlee or I think Brookstone minii and palm chisels.   

I almost never use the scrapers others show; only on barrel channels and maybe some bolt action inletting.   

To those that are afraid of chisels gouging too deeply (legitimate concern, also that it splits a chunk out), notice in my pictures that as I cut away from the receiver to thin the stock to match, I do short cuts, and leave the curl in place.  I'm not a skilled fine woodworker, or a stock maker, I'm a hack.  I just lift a curl away from the receiver, and then do cross cuts to cut off those curls, so they don't split out a piece when I try to separate them.  You can see my cross cuts in the pictures, before I start to rasp behind them to remove bulk material.  If a person ever got really good with chisels, which I do see guys that are, you could make small, perfectly separated cuts, and not do this hack work.  I'm content to just coast on the same way, it gets the job done, just not elegantly.

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That is fantastic work! I'm more than a little envious. Good wood work certainly takes patience and the right tools. 
Looking forward to seeing the finished rifle.

John

Good job on the buttplate inletting, but what impresses me the most is the old hand drill. Haven’t seen one of those in a long time! Also the belt sander is impressive!
Going to be a neat old Ballard.

SSDave,

Getting off topic a bit, way back before the internet there was an article in a gunsmithing book that suggested that a semi-inletted stock blank for a Winchester Model 12 could be adopted to a Ballard action.  It is irrelevant to your thread, but I thought I would pass it along in case someone wanted to give it a try.

Back on topic, great work on stocking the Ballard.

You know, AJ, I was starting to think I'd lost my mind.  I was sure I'd read the same suggestion and I've looked and looked but have been unable to find it. 
  Any idea what book it may have been in?  Also thanks ssdave for the thread!

Regards,
Joe
AJ wrote on Jan 3^rd, 2023 at 8:38pm:

I know this is pretty routine to most, but thought I would post some pictures and thoughts on rasping and smoothing the stock, and getting it to size at the buttplate.   

The buttplate is about 1/16" smaller than the stock, so wood needs removed to fit.  The important thing is to not round over the stock so it rolls off into the buttplate, goes up in the middle, and then rolls down toward the receiver.  That makes the stock look poorly done and amateurish.  Take long, smooth rasp strokes parallel to the stock.  As I work it, I notice that there's a seeming low spot just in front of the plate.  The temptation is to rasp at that area, until the edges are cut down and you're down to the low spot.  The correct answer is to thin the rest of the stock, in front of the low spot, because it's too high.  A straight edge to identify where the humps are so you can cut them off is helpful.  I tried to show the low spot, and how I work the rest down.   

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Once I get one side done, the cheekpiece side is next.  It's similarly too thick, I mark the high areas using the straightedge, and cut similarly.  I work right up to the cheekpiece edge.  Final is filed to just start cutting plate edge.
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