doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com I hate to desecrate such a beautiful buttstock...

Some sharp eyes out there. I'm not too worried about the pores. The gun is a well used DMB O/U 12 bore with a number of nicks, scratches, dents, etc. One of the challenges with altering these guns is what I understand to be an inability to bend the wood much due to the trigger plate mechanism. So the stockers had to sharpen their pencils to compensate for some dimensions they couldn't alter. They were concerned that the result would not be aesthetically pleasing, but my instructions were to prioritize fit over aesthetics. I'm happy and most importantly the gun fits great.

How thick is that extension? I have a stock I want to add 1-3/8 inches to the LOP and I am trying to get an idea of how a horn or ebony extension of that length would look.

Thanks.

That's 2 DMB's we know you have. Some people have all the good guns/luck. <g> Gil

I had David Trevallion do an ebony extension on a Holland #3 for me several years ago. It was about 1 3/8" and although the quality of the work was very good, the thing was rather unsightly. I think you may well be disappointed with an ebony (or horn) extension anything more than 1" in thickness. Just my humble opinion, but the less the better in terms of thickness.

The original LOP was 14 3/4 and the finished LOP is 15 3/8. I have a gun with an ebony extension >1" and I will see if I can post a pic unless someone beats me to it. I don't like the looks of any extension >1" but prefer wood to pad/spacers for longer extensions.

Mr Owen, I like the look of the ebony extension very much - pores and all. I personally hate working with horn, the shop smells like burning finger nails for a week after with the added benefit of attracting worms down the road.

I do have a couple of questions. How is the extension attached - glued or screwed? The extension looks much longer than 5/8" is that true? I personally like leather covered pads, is there a reason why you chose this route instead of a leathered covered pad?

Doug

Ebony is dense as heck and should wear like steel. I added an 1/2" extension years ago to a gun I had but instead of running the grain long wise I ran it the same direction of the stock. That was a mistake. That meant I had to work the end grain of both sides of the extension, the stock side and the side which fit against my shoulder. I did not want to trim the factory stock and loose the slight curvature it had and that made fitting it a pain in the butt. It took for ever to cut that end grain. It looked really good when I got done but it took me thirty hours at least to complete it.

Then checkering ebony is no fun either and end grain ebony is worse. I ended up buying and using an electric checkering system. You had to cut every groove to almost full depth, one line at a time. It took four passes with the machine and then a couple hand passes by hand, when done, to even everything up. That was the last ebony extension I ever did but if I had a gun which needs one I would do it again but not cross grain wise. Live and learn as they say.

Extension looks very nice. The reason I always suggest the use of ebonite in place of ebony is that everything ebony I own...is cracked or has started to crack. Ebonite can be easily checkered or grooved. Horn is beautiful, but sucks in the long run and I don't know anybody who enjoys working horn.
Anyway, the extension is classy and looks up to the quality of the gun, thumbs up.

Ebony is a great traditional material, but this I would keep in mind as a real possibility. It's not all created equal.

I don't do the work myself so I'm not quite as bothered by the smell of horn. LOL But having had a couple done, why do you say it sucks in the long run. And how long a run do you mean. 10 years or 80 years.