Another Lee Speed style stock

[Hunting Sailor]

Very nice work @Von Gruff.
I have a Lee Enfield based rifle that I would have loved for you to give a handy and light stock should life have turned out differently and we would have been in the same country.
Thanks for letting us in on the journey of this rifle.

 

[Von Gruff]

A stock is only a piece of wood Gus, and so nothing to stop one being made here and sent there, like a few others I have sent off shore

 

[AZDAVE]

@Von Gruff Have read this post with great enjoyment. The jigs you made for drilling the stock bolt hole and attaching to forend cap just saved me many hours of thought for many of my future projects. A couple years back I built a lee speed in 40/60 maynard and just reshaped and refinished the stock and did the basic metal work slapped on a coat or cold blue and put it in the safe and planned on finishing that winter. Well this has given me the inspiration to pull it out and restock and finish properly. Like the bolt peep sight. I also enjoy seeing someone else use the old classic finishes. My red oil stain is 50/50 pure linseed and turps with alkenet root. On light woods I usually put on two coats then use the same BLO 600/1000 grit routine to fill the pores on English walnut. For the carlo walnut no stain but start the filling with 400 grit as the pores are larger. than use a commercial tung oil/varnish mix for several finish coats then rub out with rotten stone. I always have to do some stock work on most all my rifles (15 1/4 LOP) except my doubles most come with enough LOP that the most I have had to do was a little thicker recoil pad. Have a great day!

 

[Von Gruff]

@AZDAVE be great if you would post up something on your 40-60 MaynardLee Speed.
As you know the the Lee Speed only applies to the patent for the improvments that JJ Speed made and not the actual stock which was still the military configuration although there was embellishments made to it through some of the comercial outlets. The stock we have come to know as the Lee Speed was the sporter stock that was offered later by BSA and others.
This is a good read on the subject
http://rifleman.org.uk/Lee-Speed.htm

 

[Aaron N]

Great looking stock!

Is there any particular reason you used BLO to fill the grain? Can tung oil not be used?

Also, are there pros and cons to a BLO vs tung oil finish?

Just wondering because I would like to dabble into a bit of refinishing

 

[Von Gruff]

Great looking stock!

Is there any particular reason you used BLO to fill the grain? Can tung oil not be used?

Also, are there pros and cons to a BLO vs tung oil finish?

Just wondering because I would like to dabble into a bit of refinishing

I use the blo simply because it is a good medium for carrying the fine dust into the pores. It is always on the bench for many different uses but the tung oil would work equally as well.

 

[huntermn15]

You are a talented man Garry! Thank you for sharing.

 

[Aaron N]

I use the blo simply because it is a good medium for carrying the fine dust into the pores. It is always on the bench for many different uses but the tung oil would work equally as well.

That was a quick and easy answer! Thank you very much! You do beautiful work!

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Was able to make a start on this today. as mentioned I used an action of mine without barrel to do the initial inlet
View attachment 244032
I was then able to sit barrelled action into the action inlet and mark in the barrel dimensions. Mark them in undersize till the actual fitting reveals the propper finished dimensins.
View attachment 244034

This is when the smoker gets fired up
View attachment 244035
This make it so much easier to see where wood needs to come off
View attachment 244036
And the process begins. I made another scraper from an old file to make scraping small areas more easily done.
View attachment 244037

Should get this part done tomorrow.

@Von Gruff
Great start Gary I look f forward to seeing the finished job
Bob

 

[Von Gruff]

@Von Gruff
Great start Gary I look f forward to seeing the finished job
Bob

It is shown at the bottom of the previous page Bob.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

It is shown at the bottom of the previous page Bob.

@Von Gruff
I have to get that far mate I like to comment as I read.
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

This Lee Speed Stock project of yours is moving right along. And to think that it is all being done with hand tools and not a profiler.

@Shootist43
Art If'n you saw my gunsmith ripping into a,$1,000 piece of walnut with a hand ripsaw and big hammers and chisel you would have a coniption fit and a case of the horrors. The end result tho is a thing of beauty even his basic stocks. You should see his hand rubbed london oil finish with hand cut 24 lpi checkering on an exhibition grade blank topped with a rust blued custom 505 Gibbs built on a highly modified P14 action it would make you swoon. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of it and it will never see a hunt anywhere. It was built for a gent for the big bore hunting target club that only hunts charging paper cut outs.
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

All waxed this morning so thought I would get a couple of pics to finish the thread with

and of course the companion knife with walnut handles from the same blank.

@Von Gruff
Excellent job mate a pure classic and especially love the knife, great blade design both rifle and knife are pure underrated elegance in simplicity of design that is hard to do correctly. You have done this admirably worth hard work, intelligent design and the end result is beautiful practicality.
Bob