Greg has some useful tips for owners of guns with wooden stocks. This particular rifle is a flintlock with a 52″ barrel.” Its name derives from a certain shape to the stock to help board ships (there is a hook in it for catching the rigging). “My oldest gun at the moment is a gentleman of fortune’s rifle – think pirates – dating from around 1740. Greg sees some true gems at his workshop – antique firearms with a lot of tales to tell. Greg also gets to work with many different people, including some well-known names in the shooting world. And while he doesn’t have a favourite project, he did say he really enjoys the variety this work offers – from making and repairing gun stocks to finishing and checkering, as well as gun fitting and stock bending. His biggest, most time-consuming projects are re-stocking sidelock shotguns. He still does almost all the work by hand – the only machine he uses is a band saw to cut out a basic shape of the stock. One has to really admire Greg’s commitment and skill. And it’s not just shotguns – several rifles and even airguns have benefited from Greg’s TLC. He has more than 60 in his register as an RFD, too. He reckons he has probably repaired, finished or re-stocked over 1,000 guns so far. Greg has been repairing stocks for about 12 years and now has plenty of requests coming his way. He was so happy with the finished product that he showed it to other people and the work started coming in.” So, I made him a new one (it was a sidelock). But I then found it to be in too poor a condition to fix. When a local chap asked me if I could repair his gun stock, I agreed. Another useful skill Greg acquired was working with hand tools rather than automated machinery – the workshop was very traditional and nearly all the work was done by hand.Īfter Greg moved to Shropshire, his adventure with gun stock repairs and restoration began: “I built a name for myself as being somebody that was good with wood. He learned the trade from an experienced cabinet maker who instilled in him the importance of precision and accuracy. Greg first worked as an apprentice at a Lincolnshire-based joinery company for six years from 1978, before moving to London at the age of 22. I didn’t waste any time and got in touch… He’s well known in the area and some of my own friends and colleagues recommended I talk to him. She was a lovely lady who turned out to be wife to a professional stockmaker, one Greg Morris, based on my doorstep in Shropshire. I was lucky enough to make an acquaintance at a BASC Ladies’ day not that long ago (I highly recommend all gals with guns out there to sign up to one in their area). The best way to learn about stockmaking is to find a reputable stockmaker and have a proper conversation, see their work first-hand and ask some questions. I decided to call it quits after coming across someone covering an entire antique stock on a musket with grey masking paint. But like with anything else in life, apart from the good, there was also plenty of the bad and the ugly in the mix. Yes, there are many schools to this particular work, and a lot of the videos were truly impressive. Intrigued by this beautiful craft, but not knowing much about what’s involved, I took myself to YouTube to conduct a little research… and quickly realised that probably wasn’t the wisest decision! Then, the final touches to make this piece of art complete – checkering, carving, staining, oiling and polishing… all the bits that make guns beautiful. There’s the cutting and shaping a stock from a slab of wood, sanding it all down once, twice, thrice… and then some more – until it’s smooth as a baby’s bottom. There are the mundane tasks like stripping old varnish or removing oil from the wood there’s waiting for the stock to dry fully before work can continue. Whether it’s making a stock from scratch or restoring an old one to its former glory, the work is complex and takes, well, however long it takes. It is a process that demands heaps of patience – it is labour intensive but also entails a lot of waiting during the processes which require time but not immediate involvement. So, gun stock making and restoration definitely fall into the surgical-precision work category – one which also requires an exquisitely gentle touch and an eye for detail. Working with wood is a delicate art – even when you’re doing massive carvings with a chainsaw. Biosecurity: shooting and the countryside.
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