All this talk of wood reminded me that my hoarded Walnut log was not properly prepared yet, so I went out with the mattock and finished debarking the whole log and brought it in on the concrete.
The truth is that I need the exercise, so I did it, but I'll tell you I have a lot of respect for the people that did this stuff in the 10,000 years before power tools.
I'm drenched in sweat with sore biceps, but I have a fine bottled adult beverage and a beautiful wife to console me.
Now I'm planning a setup so I can buck this thing into a relatively straight piece of lumber with my electric chainsaw. I've never cut dry walnut with a chainsaw but I can tell you I'm going to use a lot of oil and it's going to get well sharpened first.
I don't think this log will be big enough to get a single-piece rifle stock out of it unless I am incredibly lucky or willing to accept some filler.
I could make a laminated stock but I need a bigger saw to cut the lams.
I wanted to create a thumbhole stock for my Savage bull-barrel .22 long rifle, but I think I will end up making a parrot head and corn cob set for my Mossberg 500 and maybe Walnut scales for some of my pistols and knives which have plastic scales.
But it's been sort of a dream of mine to carve a rifle stock for that Savage that fits my arm and hand exactly. It shoots so well now I can imagine it will only get better if I have a proper stock under that fabulous Savage barrel & trigger.
