Advanced Stockwork: Installing Exotic-Wood Fore-End Tips

Lately the trend in stocks for boltaction rifles has moved toward the synthetics, with stocks made from just about every imaginable type of composite material. There’s no doubt that the synthetic materials used for gunstocks have proven to be durable and stable under extreme hunting conditions. Nevertheless, there are still a lot of us who prefer a gunstock made from a block of nicely figured and nicely finished natural wood.

Fore-End Tip Material Over the years, I’ve used several species of "exotic" woods for the foreend tips on bolt-action rifle stocks. Cocobolo, Brazilian rosewood (when it could still be had), burl walnut, and ebony from various parts of the world all make attractive fore-end tips. The type of stock that’s often chosen these days by those who prefer a wood stock over the synthetic variety is what I describe as the "classic" style.

These stocks commonly have afore-end tip of the 90-degree type, which is attached parallel to the end of the forearm. In the past, I’ve been asked to install fore-end tips at a 45-degree angle like those found on older Weatherby rifles, but those requests aren’t that common any longer. With many of the exotic woods, especially cocobolo and the various rosewoods, a natural oil in the wood fights efforts to permanently attach these fore-end tips with normal woodworking glues.

The oil also resists attempts to apply a finish. The natural oil found in cocobolo has a habit of bleeding out just below the surface finish and will often turn orange over time and obliterate some of the beautiful coloring that’s found in this species of wood. A thorough cleaning and a quick drying lacquer is usually the solution to this problem.

Once the fore-end tip has been squared and is ready to attach to the fore-arm, a thorough washing of the mating faces should be done with acetone to remove any natural oils before applying the adhesive. With burl walnut or ebony, the oil doesn’t seem to be as much of a problem. These species of wood take epoxy and stay in place very well without shrinking. Nevertheless, it’s still a good idea to wipe down the mating surfaces with alcohol or acetone before applying the adhesive.

When choosing the species for afore-end tip, keep in mind that there should be a contrast with the wood of the stock, but it should not be so gaudy that the eye’s focus lingers on

the fore-end tip. For the most part, I prefer to use ebony for fore-end tips, and try my best to persuade a potential customer that this is the way to go. When I choose apiece of ebony, I look for apiece that has some slight gray or light brown streaks in it. The reason for the lighter streaks in the wood is to distinguish the ebony fore-end tip from the black-plastic tips that some firearms manufacturers use.

Drilling Jig There are two fixtures I made several years ago that help to simplify the process of attaching fore-end tips. The first fixture is for drilling the reinforcing dowel holes into the front end of the forearm and the face of the foreend tip that will be attached to the end of the forearm. The body of the drill jig consists of an aluminum block 2 inches wide by 1-1/2 inches high and 1-inch thick.

This block has been milled as square as possible with the previously mentioned dimensions being used as a guideline for nominal size. To get the hole spacing for the two drill bushings installed in the aluminum block, scribe a line across the 2-inch-wide front face of the aluminum block, 13/ 16 of an inch down from the top edge of the block. Mark the top edge with a black felt-tip pen for reference later.

Place the block on a flat surface with one side of the 2-inch-wide front face down, and then scribe a line 1/2 inch up from the edge that is facing down. Flip the part around and place the other side of the 2-inch block down on the flat surface, and scribe another line 1/2 inch up from the edge facing down. You should now have two intersecting points 13/16 inch down from the top edge and 1/2 inch in toward the center of this block on each end of the 2-inch-wide face.

Carefully poke these intersect points with a center punch, striving to hit the exact center of the crossing lines. We now have the location for the two drill bushings that are installed after the holes are reamed to size. We next need to scribe a couple of lines on the top of the block that was previously marked with the felt-tip pen. The block is 2 inches wide, so we now need to scribe a line 1 inch from each side from the front edge to the back edge, with this line as close to the exact center as possible.

The next two lines will create intersection points by scribing lines across the line we previously scribed 1/4 inch from the front and back edges. Dimple these intersection points with your center punch to produce a starting point for a drill bit. The drill bushings in my fixture are the headless type. They have an outside diameter of 1/2 inch, with a bore size of .257 inch or letter "F" size. The holes for the bushings are first drilled with a 31/64-inch drill and then reamed to .500 inch.

The headless drill bushings measure around .0005 inch larger than the finished 1/ 2 inch reamed hole, but that’s what we need for a press fit. The end of these bushings have a reduced diameter on the end going into the aluminum block that is around .003 to .004 inch smaller to help the bushings align with the reamed hole in the block.

It’s best to press these bushings into the block with an arbor press, but a drill press will work just as well if you remove the drill chuck and place a 1/4-inch steel plate between the drill chuck receptacle and the top of the bushing. Smear the O. D. of the bushing with some thread-locker that will act as a lubricant and will keep the bushings in place once they are pressed flush with the front face of the aluminum block.

The two dimples we made on the top of the block are then drilled and tapped for a #10-32 thread to a depth of around 1/2 inch. These two holes are for a Lexan plate that measures 2inches wide by 18-inches long and 1/4-inch thick. A center line is scribed in the middle of the 2-inch-wide plate

along the entire 18-inch length. This will be a guide line for the two through holes that need to be drilled for mounting the Lexan plate to the aluminum block and also used as a witness mark that determines where the center of the barrel channel is in the stock. Dimple a spot on the top of the Lexan plate 1/4 inch from the front edge and another spot 3/4 inch from the front edge on the center line you scribed in the plate.

Drill two #10diameter holes through these two dimples, and then chamfer the holes with an 82-degree chamfer tool to accept flat-head socket screws that will anchor the plate to the aluminum block. Another piece of Lexan will be needed that measures 2 inches wide by 17 inches long and 1/8 inch thick. The purpose of this piece will be explained later. Positive Pressure Clamp Once I had this drill jig made, I felt I needed a better way to clamp the foreend tip in place while the epoxy achieved a permanent bond.

Various it to my neighbor. The method I now use consists of a couple lengths of 5/16-18 threaded rod, a nylon and aluminum bar, and wing nuts. The aluminum bar measures 4 inches long, by 1 inch wide and 1/2 inch thick. This bar has two letter "P" holes drilled through the 1inch dimension, 1/2 inch from each end of the 4-inch-long dimension. These holes will allow the 5/16-18 threaded rod to slip through. I made the other bar from hard nylon, but there’s no reason that aluminum can’t be used here also.

This bar measures 4 inches long by 1-1/4 inches wide and 1 inch thick, and again, has letter "P" holes drilled to the same dimensions as mentioned above. The thinner aluminum bar is demethods were used with good results but created somewhat of a mess in the aftermath. Surgical tubing was stretched from the front face of the fore-end tip to the butt end of the stock. This held the fore-end tip in place, but often got glued to the joint between the two woods.

I tried a three-foot woodworking bar-clamp once, and it proved to be so cumbersome that I gave signed to fit into the front face of the magazine mortise with a 5/16-18 nut and a jam-nut holding the first nut tightly in place on one end of each of the 18-inch lengths of the threaded rod. The nylon block slips onto the front end of these threaded rods and goes against the front face of the foreend tip, and is clamped tightly in place with 5/16-18 wing-nuts over washers.

When I get a stock job where there is no magazine cutout to allow me to use the aluminum bar, I use a pair of 5/16-18 coupling nuts to add two more lengths of threaded rod so that the aluminum block will go crosswise on the butt end of the stock and the nylon block crosswise on the foreend tip. Attaching the Fore-End Tip A rule of thumb for forearm length is half the barrel length minus one inch.

For example, if we have a rifle with a 24-inch barrel, the final forearm length should be around 11 inches from the front face of the recoil-lug mortise. If afore-end tip is part of the plan, an additional 1-3/4 inch will need to be cut off the forearm. Once the forearm has been cut to length, that end of the stock will need to be squared and sanded as flat as possible. This is best done on a stationary belt sander. The fore-end-tip material will also need to be sanded

flat so that it fits as flush as possible to the forearm end. Place the drilling jig on the top of the forearm channel, and place the 1/ 8-inch Lexan shim between the top of the forearm and the 1/4-inch thick drill-jig Lexan. Clamp the jig in place once you have the scribed line in the 1/4-inch Lexan aligned to the center of the forearm. I’ve had very good luck using Jorgensen woodworkers clamps for this.

The dowels I use for attaching the fore-end tip to the forearm end are 2 inches long and have spiral grooves on the outside length to allow air to escape and they hold epoxy well. This brings up the reason why we are using letter "F" bushings for the 1/4inch spiral-grooved dowels. The simple reason is, we can’t get a 1/4 inch dowel into a hole drilled the same size, but the "F" drill (.257 inch) will allow some clearance for air to squirt out and the epoxy to fill all of the inside surfaces.

To act as a visual stop, wrap apiece of tape around the drill bit 2 inches back from the front edge of the cutting flutes (as measured from the outside corners, not the tip of the drill). All drilling can be done with a variable speed hand drill. Once the holes are drilled into the fore-end, we’ll need to drill two matching holes into the fore-end-tip material.

Place the face of the fore-end-tip material against the inside back face of the drill jig, and clamp this piece in place (this time without the shim), and drill the holes up to the edge of the tape wrapped around the drill bit. Drilling without the shim will place the fore-end-tip material above the top of the barrel channel around 1/8 inch just in case the wood is not quite square. Blow out any sawdust from the four holes, and insert your dowels into the stock for a dry fit.

Slide the fore-end-tip material onto the dowels to see if there are any gaps between the two, and correct the situation by drilling into the stock until both pieces fit flush. Scribe a line around the fore-end tip where it meets the foreend of the stock with a white-lead pencil. This extra material can either be sawn or sanded away before the final gluing. When attaching these two woods, I’ve had good luck with Brownells Acra-weld two-part epoxy.

If the foreend tip is ebony, I put a dab of black dye in the epoxy to help mask the seam between the two woods. Wipe both opposing faces with either acetone or alcohol and then coat the dowels and each face with the epoxy. Assemble the fore-end tip onto the dowels that have been inserted into the fore-end and slowly push the two together, allowing excess epoxy and air to ooze out.

Use your clamping jig with the nylon block at the end of the fore-endtip material to tighten up these two pieces with the wing nuts on the outside of the nylon block. Let the epoxy dry overnight until the bond has setup, and then you can begin the final shaping of the fore-end tip. Conclusions If you choose to make these jigs, the end result will only be as good as the accuracy you build into the drilling jig.

Make sure both faces of the stock and fore-end tip are absolutely square to one another and the Lexan plate is perpendicular to the aluminum block. Then the drilling jig will take care of accurate hole spacing, and the clamp will ensure the pieces fit tightly together. From that point, all you have to do is to give the fore-end tip a pleasing shape. I