SOLD: >> Back ON: I've got WOOD! NICE English Walnut stock from 'Kaveman Kev'

[Enquiring Minds]

Kev's BACK! (see below)... but I see his shop + FFL have transferred to someone else about 5 years ago, but there's still some Jen-Era FALers who remember the DIY/Gunsmithin' battle cry "I've Got Wood!" ... still remember when folks with skills were stepping up with US-made parts, incl. Hammer-Trigger-Sear sets, or in this case, WOODEN furniture!

Anyway, username 'Kaveman Kev' (owner of Gunroom, in LaPorte, Indiana) was selling us these unfinished English Walnut stocks, already flanged (for buttplate and ferrule), and drilled and countersunk (for recoil tube), and notched (for lower receiver tang)... but for reasons long-forgotten, the sling-swivel area was left largely undone... ANYhoo, with a wee bit of Dremel-ation and hand-sanding, then stain/oil/urethane to taste, a Build-It-YerOwnSelf (BIY) FALer could have a cheek-weld of FAL-nirvana Sweetness! (He never made the grips and handguards.)

<insert Wiley E. Gary Rules of Auctions here>

Auction to (nominally) end Sunday night 30 October 2022, 10:45PM EDT... (avoids grown-up Halloween parties Sat. 29th, and kids Halloween Mon 31st...)

Starting Bid: $40US "foe-TEE dollah!" (Crikey, IIRC, we paid WAY more for these back during GW Bush's 1st Term...) <<--Yep, see below...

Shipping: $10.00 incl. Tracking... Faster/Fancier might be extra.

Payment: PayPal F&F or PopMoney is fastest, but open to suggestions...
... USPS M.O. works but is... slow.


Measures 9-5/8" from ferrule-flange to buttplate-flange, 10-3/8" from front of ferrule to very end of butt, both measured along axis of recoil tube bore. Additional pics (in bright sunlight, pink stripper-lights, etc.) and measurements available. Parkerized (Izzy?) ferrule included.



Grain on the Right side... DENSE heavy wood, impervious to recoil.



Yep, it's a US part for purposes of 922(r), and related old-womanish diktats...



Another pic of Left side, sans ferrule, slightly different lighting. Remember, this is ROUGH, almost "knobby" to the touch (IIRC he CNC machined them), but with some heavy sanding and linseed/tung/emu/wowie-zowie oil, (Black?) Walnut grain is really going to POP!



Strange "Sling swivel goes-->> Here <<--" area.



Dark marks indicate he may have checked the fit with an actual lower... soooo long ago... fer-gettin' the details...

Anyone remember why he sent these milling machine stubs along? Was it so peeps could practice doing the sling-swivel indent, er whut?
Anyway, winner gets all 3, WECSOG away!




Winner must not let Le' Wood languish, err, I mean "season" for 20 years, and is obligated to post/humble-brag pics of finished stock!

PS: There's only one 'G' in Gunsmithin'!

 

[fod]

good grief
I have no legit need for this, sooooo tempting
have a bump

 

[Enquiring Minds]

Durn, more investigation needed... hmmm... wonder if Jen got 'Search' fixed for... The Ancient Era?

 

[MutherTucker]

Did this sell ?

 

[Enquiring Minds]

Nope, not a nibble... guess the "Build Your Own" fad has passed... trying to dredge up the old threads so I can provide more background... but IIRC they were good-to-go, except for that swing-swivel area... IIRC W.E.G., Mark Graham (aka GunPlumber), and many others did up a couple of these...

STAY TUNED, may put it up again SOON!

 

[kev]

Hey, I'm still alive,.....just haven't had the time to visit much the last few yrs. I'm searching my computer for bits of info I've held onto since I'm incapable of actually remembering anything.

*************************************************************

This is ancient history, not current events. I no longer have any stocks for sale.

V V V V

Well guys(and gals), I'm just now back from my vacation with a load of wood humpback stocks made right here in the US. I had these turned from some really fine English Walnut stockblanks that I lucked into a couple years ago. These are contour turned and inletted. Will need final sanding and finish application. I've been using several types of tung oil finish which are easy to apply and make the wood look great. English is a very fine textured wood and takes a beautiful finish. It's the only wood most quality custom stockers will use.

These stocks are limited, but are available in standard length and about 3/4" longer. Most are inletted for the sling swivel, but I do have a few of each without the cut. All are cut for the Steyr pad and come with the metal stock ferrule. Priced by wood grade; $80, $100, $120. The standard $80 grade is a beautiful stock. These blanks were priced at $150 each when I bought them at auction. I have approximately 40 stocks total and the likelyhood of turning any more is very slim. I still have another 50-60 blanks, but they are all of a plainer grade and my costs will actually go up if I do decide to turn them. Also available are one or two pieces of Bastogne for the true wood-aholic, priced the same as top grade stocks.

Check the link for a few pics and descriptions.

See my photos of FAL Wood Humpback Stocks at PhotoPoint

First off, these are metric and work with the Steyr StG and R1 kits currently available. I didn't have any inch stocks cut. I also didn't cut any grips or forearms. The cost was quite high and I wasn't sure I could locate hardware for the F/E's. Besides, I happen to like the wood butts alone.

I'm not a stockmaker. I have no skill and damn few tools myself. Even so, I spent a few hours working with these just to see what was involved in finishing them up. I'll be doing at least a dozen for myself. Before shipping any stocks out I'm trimming the excess from the duplicator mounting, I'm rough fitting the ferrule to the head of the stock, and I'm fitting the stock onto a lower to be sure everything lines up adequately. There will still be a bit of fitting to do on the ferrule, but only sandpaper or file would be required. Fitting and sanding shouldn't require more than an hour or so. Some guys will want to sand all the way thru 600 grit paper, and this wood will allow that. 220 or 320 is plenty unless you really want a shine.

**********************************************

What I do remember,......I bought all the walnut blanks from Fajen when they went out of business back around 1999 or so. I bought two pallets of English buttstock blanks that were all dated 1994 and iirc were priced individually at $150-$175 apiece. Best auction of my life,....I got the blanks for a few pennies on the dollar. I sent the blanks out to California for turning at Great American Gunstocks(which burned down and went oob back around 2010. I think they were turned on a 16 spindle carver and I sent an STG stock as a pattern. I think we did five initial runs of 16 and then I got some custom requests and that's where the +3/4" length and a handful of no-swivel stocks came from(bet there were never more than 4 or 5 no-swivels ever done). All together I think I turned about 150 stocks and my sole purpose of having them turned was that I wanted some nice wood stocks and nobody else was doing it,.....and I already had the blanks and I already knew Henry at Great American.

It was a fun project. I got the stocks I wanted and sold the rest to basically break even. I only had a couple of bucks each in the wood but it cost $35 each to turn them, there was some loss due to wood imperfections, etc, and I had to ship them to Cali and back. I never got my original StG stock back nor the complete lower I sent out with it for fitting,......All that burned up when the factory burned down.

I did test fit every stock to an StG lower before shipping out. Didn't final fit anything but I did sand the recoil tube tunnel to be sure it could be installed for final adjustment to the tang.

Never did handguards, never did grips. I did what I did and that didn't seem to be enough,......I got swamped with special requests for all sorts of things I had no interest in making,.......A's and B's, metric and Inch, longer, shorter,.....probably a couple dozen variations. And the way it works, if you don't turn out at least 16 of each individual type it COSTS money! You have to do them on a 2 spindle or a 4 spindle carver and the setup and turning time is almost the same as for the big 16 spindle carver. So instead of a $500 setup charge being spead over 16 stocks it'd be spread over 2 or 4 stocks. Nobody would want to pay for that! The most maddening thing was the number of requests for boring, ugly cheap wood that people hoped I could sell for next to nothing. What people didn't understand was that I already had good grade English walnut I'd paid next to nothing for and could sell for basically the labor and transport. Had I gone out and bought crap wood(which would have cost a minimum of $30/blank), my selling price would have had to go UP $25 minimum and chances are 100% that I'd still be here sitting on thousands of dollars worth of ugly stocks I couldn't sell and didn't want.

Oh, those three cutoff stubs are the pieces I cut off after the stocks have been turned. That's not something I normally sent out. The buyer may have requested wood samples for practice finishing or maybe he wanted to graft a piece on to extend the stock length,.......I dunno. Surprised to see those.



This is the kind of color and finish you get out of them with tung oil,.....but obviously the grain pattern depends on the individual piece of wood. Just lightly wet that piece with a little water and it'll show the color.

 

[denny]

How much for the top two on the right ?
D.

 

[Ak kali]

PM sent

 

[kev]

Sorry guys, no, I don't have anything for sale. I was just giving EM the back story on the stock he had up for auction.

 

[Enquiring Minds]

WOW!... how did I miss The Return of Kev! Thanks for making an "encore"!...

What a phenomenal back-story (and BUSINESS lesson), a real contribution The FAL Files Knowledge Base!

The drama of Great American Gunstocks burning down... a building full of wood, SAWDUST, and probably mineral spirits, turpentine, and linseed oil to boot... yeah, that's gonna burn for a while.

So there you have it, the pedigree of this stock from The Creator Hisownself!

 

[EinheitElf]

All right i am in for $40.....

 

[Enquiring Minds]

It's Einheit FTW!... PM on da way...

 

[jugrunner]

WTF .............................................................. ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????

 

[Enquiring Minds]

Jug, whah-happened? Didn't think an $80 stock would go for $40??... Beauty of The Files...

 

[Story]

I was just giving EM the back story on the stock he had up for auction.

Thank you for taking the time to type that out. If this was NETFLIX, I'd give you a good rating,