What Dennis said.
The Wesbrook book is good, AAMOF IMO it's the best one out there if you're limited to just one book, but it's only one man's view of a very complex subject. Any careful workman who plans properly and has a few of the proper tools can make a fine stock from a blank with the knowledge gained from this book or from several others like the Linden ones.
My library contains all the smithing books I can afford including the Wesbrook one (bought back when new and relatively inexpensive!) and all the other major smithing works I could find printed in English. None of them contain all the necessary info for all stockmaking applications since most concentrate on bolt actions, but the basics are there. If you're seeking a single book with all the stockmaking methods & details in it then IMO you'll never find it 'cause it hasn't been written yet. When I was reading the Wesbrook and Linden books I remember thinking, "I know of at least 3 other ways of doing this, and I'd shape that differently, and I wish he had shown the details of how to do this other thing!" Just read the smithing books you can find, and combine the info from the books with the info you get from your friends and your own thoughts to form a plan, then execute the plan.
Like Dennis, you won't necessarily need a lot of tools. I use a lathe to drill any drawbolt hole, a bench-model drill press to drill some of the holes and a hand drill for the others. I use 3 rasps, only 3. One is a medium cabinet rasp with semi-coarse teeth, the second is the small 4-way wood file sold by Brownell's and the third is a rat-tail file. I use 7 wood chisels, 3 half-rounds and 3 flats all of different widths plus a bottoming chisel. Five scrapers including 2 for the barrel channel. Sure, a wider tool selection would be cool, but it's not absolutely necessary for good work and does not guarantee a thing except that now you have more tools. I have lots of wood tools but these are the ones I use almost exclusively.
BTW I've found that I absolutely CANNOT find/buy the chisels and scrapers already shaped like I need, so I have to make about half of them. IMO you should expect to do the same, for best results.
Make a full-size accurately-dimensioned drawing of the entire rifle or gun BEFORE starting any cuts. I say again, make a full-size accurately-dimensioned drawing of the entire rifle or gun BEFORE starting any cuts!
IMO the Wesbrook book is so expensive now because "They don't make 'em any more!" and not because it's the only good one. It's good, perhaps even the best, but it's not the only good one.
Regards, Joe
