Turn a very old gunstock into scales?

H

HoosierQ

Joined
Feb 9, 2010
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2,327
I bought an old Spanish 93 Mauser at an auction. The stock, while the original wood, had been butchered into a "sporter"...the bane of all milsurp gun enthusiasts...that's another thread and forum. So it has no value as is.

The wood has never been in cosmoline and there is a lot of it in terms of scales. The wood (what's left of it :grumpy:) is just beautiful and I suspect maybe 6-10 nice scales could be made from the thing. I would imagine it is some species of European walnut that for all I know is not longer available at all. I know the stock is original for the period because there are still a few armory cartouches on it.

Haven't got either the tools or the skill to make nice flat scales for myself. Obviously this wood is nice and stable.

Is this something that can be jobbed out somewhere? Anybody every done this sort of thing?
 
Anyone with a bandsaw can cut it. Unfortunately, most wood that looks great on guns doesn't look good on knives. Yours may be an exception, but beautiful wood for knife handles is inexpensive.
 
I hear what you're saying Bill. I may just be run of the mill brown wood. Just seems a waste I guess...nice old wood like that. I am very intrigued by the use of old wood for new things. I have a lot of extremely old oak. The boards are so warped you cannot use them even for short straight pieces. They were sawed green and put up in a barn loft for purt'near 100 years, laying flat. I grabbed a bunch when my folks sold the place after living there 35 years. The lumber would have been sawed in the 1880 or 1890 probably.

It is beautiful wood and I know some nice chess pieces have been made of it by others.
 
You could check some of the woodshops in your area to see if they will custom saw what you want out of that. It may not look good but you wont know until you try :)

Even if it doesnt have marvelous chatoyance and beauty beyond compare , it would still be very conversation orthy to announce your knife scales are from a very old firearm that's probably seen some sort of action. IMO

Tostig
 
Hey now. Some time ago I sporterized a '93 Mauser myself - now it's my truck gun.

If you haven't gotten this taken care of yet, and you want to send me the stock, I'll cut it into whatever you want. You pay shipping.

Parker
 
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