I didn’t waste any time and got in touch… He’s well known in the area and some of my own friends and colleagues recommended I talk to him. She was a lovely lady who turned out to be wife to a professional stockmaker, one Greg Morris, based on my doorstep in Shropshire. I was lucky enough to make an acquaintance at a BASC Ladies’ day not that long ago (I highly recommend all gals with guns out there to sign up to one in their area). The best way to learn about stockmaking is to find a reputable stockmaker and have a proper conversation, see their work first-hand and ask some questions. I decided to call it quits after coming across someone covering an entire antique stock on a musket with grey masking paint. But like with anything else in life, apart from the good, there was also plenty of the bad and the ugly in the mix. Yes, there are many schools to this particular work, and a lot of the videos were truly impressive. Intrigued by this beautiful craft, but not knowing much about what’s involved, I took myself to YouTube to conduct a little research… and quickly realised that probably wasn’t the wisest decision! Then, the final touches to make this piece of art complete – checkering, carving, staining, oiling and polishing… all the bits that make guns beautiful. There’s the cutting and shaping a stock from a slab of wood, sanding it all down once, twice, thrice… and then some more – until it’s smooth as a baby’s bottom. There are the mundane tasks like stripping old varnish or removing oil from the wood there’s waiting for the stock to dry fully before work can continue. Whether it’s making a stock from scratch or restoring an old one to its former glory, the work is complex and takes, well, however long it takes. It is a process that demands heaps of patience – it is labour intensive but also entails a lot of waiting during the processes which require time but not immediate involvement. So, gun stock making and restoration definitely fall into the surgical-precision work category – one which also requires an exquisitely gentle touch and an eye for detail. Working with wood is a delicate art – even when you’re doing massive carvings with a chainsaw.
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