Ron J

Those came out cool. They really reddened up. So what is a Brazilian export? Is it a Smith of some kind or something else that the grips just fit? Some things on it look S&W and some don't.

Good AZ. Glad it worked. Here in Clevelandville all my stock work is done in the dead of winter when my basement is kept 70 deg and almost no humidity. Oil finishes and humid air is a bad mix. No doubt the poly will hold up much better than tung oil as it is much harder. I've read where a "varnish" finish can be dulled with rottenstone for a more oil like finish, but I've never had luck with it. It gets hazy and clouds the grain. The Soverns finish seems to have both sides of the spectrum. If you didn't get 20 yrs out of an oil finish, then someone forgot to pass on the old oil finish adage: "Once a week for a month, once a month for a year and once a year afterward!" Or "When one fingertip drop of oil will cover the whole stock, it's done." I've done it, it's beautiful, but it's only worth doing to a high dollar pc of wood. It's about like trying to spit shine an asphalt driveway.

I haven't used poly, but most thinned oil finishes can be "scrubbed" into checkering with a soft toothbrush. Now the deep wide groove around the pattern on SW grips might be another story. I guess do everything and dig out any build-up in the groove before it starts drying. Maybe an old t-shirt piece tight around a flat needle file will fit. Or just do what's done on most stocks. Finish everything, re-cut the checkering and just toothbrush some boiled linseed oil into the diamonds.

Thanks for the ideas. Something was telling me the cross sections were going to end up too thin. The thicker the barrel wall the thinner the sleeve and vice versa. It was as much to use up a 7 mag barrel as save money. I wish Adams and Bennett sold their barrels unthreaded also. I don't like fitting a 60 deg thd into a 55.

Thanks. The 40.00 barrel ain't bad-wish it was a little longer. I need more than a thread diameter adapter, though. The 7 mag chamber is deep and huge so a bunch of barrel is going to get cut off. I will need to replace the bulk area of the chamber once it's cut cause the win barrel tapers down right away. This is hard to explain - I don't think I'm coming across. I need to make a sketch and attach it.

I'm going to tap the minds here. I have a Danzig small ring 98. Large ring threads and relief. I want to make it a 7x57 and hope it doesn't stretch. I've also got a take-off 7mm mag win mod 70 barrel. First I'll cut the chamber end off the barrel. Then turn down a few inches of the end and thread the O.D. maybe .750-16. Make a sleeve to go over it (.750-16 inside threads) to bring the chamber area & thread end back up to the front ring diameter. Will this hold together? I have access to pre-heat treated 4340 for the new sleeve. I figured that would be close to the win barrel strength. If anyone has tried this, someone from this group has! My experience with metallurgy is limited to what I do and I have no idea what dynamics are taking place in a rifles chamber when firing. Ron

Sounds like a plan. If you're gonna wet sand after every 3 coats, maybe go finer grit each time. By the time you get to 1500 it'll be so smooth you'll have to checker to keep it from sliding out of your hands when it goes off! Good luck and hopefully a pic or 2 when it's done.

Bob, I should have mentioned that my rifles spend 95% of their life decorating the inside of a gun cabinet, 5% being toyed with and all the rest at the range! My finishes tend to run traditional and more for looks than durability. If I lived in a state where they could be used for hunting things would be different. That Soverns finish appears to have both ends covered well. That would most likely need to be finished, then checkered.

I made my cradle from the picture in the Brownell's catalog. I need to get pictures figured out. Not posting them, taking them! I've taken alot of pictures of people, dogs, houses..etc. Fine. When I take a picture of a gun it's all screwed up. Anyway, some food for thought. I don't know how far along your re-finish is, but I re-cut my checkering before I finished. Backwards? Maybe. New checkering should be done after finishing. It is easier to cut new crisp lines and they show up better. But since I was coloring the wood with Alkanet root I wanted everything the same color without going back and coloring the checkering after. This was a hand-oil finish, thinned with turpentine - no varnish to gum up the diamonds. I oiled that area with a small brush while rubbing the rest with fingers/palm.

Okay, I'll fess up. I've opened this post about 50X to look at this rifle. I love it. I see a Sauer at our gunshows now and then. It's the same style and always facinated me. And like Z pointed out, so much of this one was hand done. Just a beautiful rifle. Should I attempt another Mauser, this will be my blueprint. Sometimes I see these raised panel stocks with a little oval shaped metal plate in it. What are these? Something tells me they are more than ornamental. Like a type of cross bolt to keep side pressure on the wood or something? Ron

I've recheckered and 724 is right. A single cutter and a veiner will get you a long way. This is especially true with some Euro checkering that's not a standard # lines per inch. You're forced to follow the old lines one at a time. I do like multiple groove cutters cause depth consistency is easier. 3 things I found very helpful were: a checkering cradle - fairly easy to make, a head mounted magnifier and having the lighting correct. I use a desk type light that comes at the work BETWEEN your eyes and the stock. Adjust until you are shadowing the diamonds and they stand out clearly. It helps keeping from crossing into another row and wiping out a few diamonds. Keep a stiff toothbrush close and clean the tool and pattern often. I'm no expert. I re-did a Ruger #1 that was fair and now does look better, however it took a ton of hours over several days. My first was rough like Vlads, but I'll doctor it up somehow with sandpaper. I had too much time in the re-finish to scrap it, but one side looks awful. Go slow, live and learn.

Been there done that, except I was cutting up Hungarian hots. Also, it was someone elses privates. All I could say was sorry dear. Man she had some moves that night!!!!!!!!!!

Well it's shootin' "minute of whitetail" and that'll do. You'll have time to dial her in. For now it's shoots like a store bought. However, it was put together much nicer. I saw it in the other post and it's gorgeous. You'll have time to play with it after season and it'll probably shoot just as good as it looks.

Wow cool site. Worth printing out and making notes for gunshow trips. Thanks, Kenny.

Tony, I'll be able to help out with some cash for January too. We'll need your new address. Maybe pm us. I'm off next week. One morning I'll practice archiving. I love reading the older posts so I'm game.

Me also, oh great gaseous one. I'll help do stuff, but fair warning. You'll want to pass the grunt work my way. Archiving, paying bills and that stuff I could be taught. But running the computer end...well this thing would resmble a pregnant pole-vaulter before long. Also, one other condition. You can't leave. Take a break, bum around in your stang for a month, whatever. But do not leave the institution you so cleverly crafted. Ron

How about braze? Assuming it lends itself size wize.

Now that's funny, SS. 'cept maybe for fox hunters!

What was the finish? Was it a Tung oil based finish that stays on the surface or was raw Tung oil involved? I have not seen what you described, but raw Tung oil should never be left as a top coat. That being said I've had maple turn odd colors with oil finishes. Yellows and sometimes pinkish areas. Then again, you said it happened a year and a half later. I take it it looked fine when originally finished.

You may be able to go to a gunshow or shop and let her pick up some youth guns or anything shorter than normal and see how it feels. Then measure length of pull and use that on your gun. After you take off the existing pad / plate, stand the butt up on something dead flat and scribe your new line. I cut some off my No 1 to add a thicker recoil pad. We used a table saw and decent carbide blade. I don't think we scored it. We tried a cut first that was still long and it cut clean. You gotta know someone with a table saw. I'm not good enough with a file to flatten that much area after a cut from a narrow blade. It's tough to bring an end grain flat enough not to show gaps. But thats me, you may be more talented.

All day job, but look what you did. I read your original post and damn near killed an afternoon trying to figure out how to help! I've quench and tempered stuff to get a "spring" action or effect. but making a spring with that small angle inside corner is another matter altogether. A job well done. The hand fabricating by members of this group keeps me reading all the posts.

Not to hijack, but 10 years ago my wife decided our solid wood front door needed to be red. 80 yr old house and probably 10 coats of paint on the door. So I stripped it bare then sanded it. It looked new. I primed it with Behr primer from HD. It would'nt dry. 3 days later I scraped it all back off still tacky. I was ready to kill someone. This thing has 8 windows and is quite a job. I called everyone and someone from HD "mentioned" that they had some issues with the Behr paint lately. I painted it with 2 coats of Sherwin Williams, no primer and it looks like I did it yesterday. Our house faces west and gets all afternoon sun. I need not say what I buy and don't buy since.

I don't think it's overkill just more fun woodworking. I look for things to re-finish just to learn finishes before doing a stock. I've been dreaming up a very similar vise, but get stumped on how to hold the forend. Do you find that the rest support is rigid enough for inletting? I'm going to steal the sliding / rising idea if you don't mind. It all looks cool, rifle too.

Some of us northerners do understand your hellraising. Never been to Cali, but after 2 visits to Texas, I would've stayed. Nicest place and people I ever visited. Texans that is. It's a shame what's happening and the reasons you mentioned are all correct - Washington.

Yeah, I remember my parents telling me they did that same stuff for my grandparents when they came here from Italy. Yeah right! Alot of my older relatives never learned to drive - they walked to work - happy for the opportunity. This whole alien thing totally sucks!