waw44
Member
What's the market? How many stocks to you thing you would sell per year?
Pile of “Wood”
- Thread starter fishermankw
- Start date
What's the market? How many stocks to you thing you would sell per year?
heavy_mech
RKI- Reasonably Knowledgable Individual
Yikes! That's insane. I have a rescue t block with an odd-sized laminate stock that someone took an industrial grade sander to. It's sad.
heavy_mech
RKI- Reasonably Knowledgable Individual
Well I'd suspect there are hundreds just here on the forums looking for stocks and probably a 1000 longer term? Don't know.
Not sure it's any kind of money making thing but more likely a labor of love. Maybe make a few ducets.
CloudDancer
Well-known member
I buy stocks. I like them. Love. I love them.
waw44
Member
Me too! But my AMZN, TSLA and NVDA seem to appreciate more than the laminate and walnut variety.
Muncher 1953
Senior Member
Well I'd suspect there are hundreds just here on the forums looking for stocks and probably a 1000 longer term? Don't know.
IMO, the biggest obstacle is finding the ‘correct’ type of plywood material to fashion the replicas from. Beech plywood isn’t readily available, & birch plywood doesn’t look right, AND its’ grain structure is wrong (too stringy). Perhaps the material has been an obstacle for Lesek Foks, would be interesting to know his thoughts about it.
Muncher 1953
Senior Member
me too, both kinds!
in my quest to find inexpensive K98k rifle stocks, I’ve accumulated 15, (a Vz24, Spanish M43 & a mystery Mauser included) but most of them have breakout behind the recoil lug, so not usable as shooters w/out repairs. (one might think I’d have learned by now!)
Muncher 1953
Senior Member
I can attest that his model for a Mauser stock was the slightly shorter Yugo length. I have one. It’s also birch plywood, which is good enough quality but not ‘correct’. a couple of years ago, his wife was having health issues, & he had his hands full. don’t know if he got a better model for a K98k or not. IIRC, he was willing, but needed a good model to reproduce from. Jesse Towne.
Cyrano4747
Well-known member
I've always thought this was a weird hang up. K98k stocks aren't exactly hard to find. If you're making and selling a repro buying one - even at ebay prices - isn't exactly too crazy an outlay and when you're done you can turn around and sell it off again anyways. Not to mention that chances are you could find a collector local to you willing to let you borrow one in return for one of the repro stocks if you wanted to go that direction.
Fal Grunt
Senior Member
Since Bruce let the cat out of the bag, with his assistance, encouragement and goading I have been working on developing K98k forends. It has been a long, tedious, and expensive endeavor. A few comments in response to what has been said here. New manufacture k98k stocks are, in my opinion, not viable for the time being. I have approached several manufacturers of laminate and all have categorically refused to even consider quoting, let alone consider making a historically accurate laminate. There are some technical issues that can be over come with money, time, and demand, which these stocks lack all 3.
Part of the problem people don't understand with wood is the variability. From the beginning to the end, there are countless issues to over come. Even to make a walnut stock, finding suppliers of high quality, straight grain, appropriate length blanks is difficult, if not impossible, never mind the expense. If you manage to find the necessary blanks, the next issue becomes capital and labor. In any manufacturing process, you either pay in capital investment or you pay in labor. The stocks could be made the labor intensive route, using multiple machines, to complete single or a few operations. However this requires significant space and either a number of idle machines or a number of workers. On the flip side, the stocks could be made complete with minimal labor, using CNC. This avenue is so expensive it simply is not justifiable for the quantity and cost of the products we are discussing.
All of those issues brings us back to producing fore ends in an attempt to save/salvage as many duffle cut stocks as possible. Bruce has been collecting original material whenever stocks can be found cheap or free that might be able to be salvaged. I've been working through the processes using maple and walnut to get a reliable process nailed down. Wood is anything but reliable or consistent. Trying to mix in 80 year old laminate sections recovered from stocks is daunting to near overwhelming.
I have always had a healthy does of respect for the machinists and tool makers of the era. I have metal working machinery dating back to 1895, and started out in the trade running a shaper from 1904 and a horizontal from 1923. Most people simply don't have the knowledge or experience to even appreciate what it took to manufacture a rifle, be it an 1871 or a K98k. I have since learned an extreme appreciation for the stock makers and wood workers from that era. When I pick up an 1871, I am simply dumb founded at the complexity of the stock.
If there is enough interest I can start another thread and detail the process. I will warn you it is a SLOW process. I've been working on it here and there for near close to a year. It'll likely be spring next year before any product is really available.
Part of the problem people don't understand with wood is the variability. From the beginning to the end, there are countless issues to over come. Even to make a walnut stock, finding suppliers of high quality, straight grain, appropriate length blanks is difficult, if not impossible, never mind the expense. If you manage to find the necessary blanks, the next issue becomes capital and labor. In any manufacturing process, you either pay in capital investment or you pay in labor. The stocks could be made the labor intensive route, using multiple machines, to complete single or a few operations. However this requires significant space and either a number of idle machines or a number of workers. On the flip side, the stocks could be made complete with minimal labor, using CNC. This avenue is so expensive it simply is not justifiable for the quantity and cost of the products we are discussing.
All of those issues brings us back to producing fore ends in an attempt to save/salvage as many duffle cut stocks as possible. Bruce has been collecting original material whenever stocks can be found cheap or free that might be able to be salvaged. I've been working through the processes using maple and walnut to get a reliable process nailed down. Wood is anything but reliable or consistent. Trying to mix in 80 year old laminate sections recovered from stocks is daunting to near overwhelming.
I have always had a healthy does of respect for the machinists and tool makers of the era. I have metal working machinery dating back to 1895, and started out in the trade running a shaper from 1904 and a horizontal from 1923. Most people simply don't have the knowledge or experience to even appreciate what it took to manufacture a rifle, be it an 1871 or a K98k. I have since learned an extreme appreciation for the stock makers and wood workers from that era. When I pick up an 1871, I am simply dumb founded at the complexity of the stock.
If there is enough interest I can start another thread and detail the process. I will warn you it is a SLOW process. I've been working on it here and there for near close to a year. It'll likely be spring next year before any product is really available.
Cyrano4747
Well-known member
please do. I’m sure I speak for a lot of people here when I say I’d love to hear the details.
