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Re: Bending a shotgun stock. - 12/22/08 12:47 PM
Jay Cee asked me to post the text of an e-mail he received from Mike Orlen.

Juan,
Here is the text of an article that I wrote for "American Gunsmith"
magazine. All that I would add is that with 250 watt infrared (red) lamps, you must keep them 11" to 12" away from the wrist to avoid burning of the surface. If you use white lamps, you can get a bit closer.
Mike Orlen

Of all the ancient procedures employed by the double gun gunsmith, perhaps the one most veiled in mystery is stock bending. Just the mention of bending a buttstock conjures up images of nineteenth century European master gunmakers brewing a secret mixture of heated oils and applying them to the wrist of a shotgun stock in such a way as to turn the walnut temporarily to “rubber”. These ancient craftsmen seem to share a place in our imagination with alchemists and wizards. Well, let me assure you that stock bending is neither black art nor is it rocket science. With the proper equipment, a bit of instruction and a fair amount of practice, this procedure can be safely and successfully done by the modern gunsmith, and once the buttstock has been moved to its new position, the bend is permanent.
First, you are going to need a setting table. This is the fixture that is used to clamp the gun in place, measure its drop and cast, and bend its stock. I won’t bother to provide a measured drawing of this fixture, since you will see by the photographs that the setting table is a very simple device and its design can be altered to fit the storage and workroom
requirements of any gunshop. My table is 48” long and 12” wide. The bending cage has an opening of approximately 8” wide by 11” high. There is a milled channel running down three quarters of the table length that is 1/2” deep and 1/2” wide. This channel is for the barrel‘s rib. The table was made of maple to insure its strength and stability. The shotgun is mounted on the
table upside down and is securely clamped to the table by both the barrel and the receiver. Bending is accomplished either by the use of clamps pulling the buttstock toward the side of the bending cage or by hand screws pushing the stock away from the cage.
The setting table can also house the heat source. For this, two 250 watt infrared heat lamps are used. Arms and pivots can be built to locate and hold the heat lamps, or “off the shelf” desk lamps can be used. In either case, be sure to use lamps with ceramic fixtures to insure that they can withstand the heat of the infrared bulbs. You might want your lamps separate from the
setting table, but I have found that mounting them on the table simplifies storage of the setting fixture when it is not in use. The accompanying photographs show three different setting tables with three different methods of lamp attachment.
In addition to the infrared heat source, most gunsmiths like to apply oil to the hand of the stock being bent. This can be applied simply by dampening a shop rag with the oil and wetting the stock with the rag every five minutes or so while the lamps are on. If you happen to be bending an old and well oiled buttstock, this might not be necessary, but oil is very
helpful in heating the hand area of the stock and seems to make the job of stock bending much quicker and easier.
In choosing an oil to use in stock bending, it is important to consider a few factors. The function of the oil is to add the efficiency of conduction to the infrared radiation used in bringing the gunstock up to a proper working temperature. You are not looking for penetration of the wood, nor is the oil being used to add to the finish of the gunstock; almost any oil could be used. Once after reading an article about stock bending, I decided to email its author (Michael McIntosh) and ask him what oil he and gunsmith David Trevallion used. He had referred to the oil as a “secret blend” and of course I wondered what that might be. To level the field, I divulged my “secret blend” (Canola oil). Admitting that cooking oil would no doubt
work, he suggested that olive oil might make the gunshop smell a good deal better. One popular choice is mineral oil. It is very stable and has a very high smoke point. Many gunsmiths still choose to use the traditional boiled linseed oil. This works well, but it has an unpleasant odor and it tends to harden as it dries. This can make it difficult to clean out of both checkering and the inside of a shotgun receiver (if it should find its way in). Canola oil is inexpensive, has a relatively high smoke point and its odor has the slight hint of French fries. The high smoke point of Canola oil is an important factor. If you ask any chef, they will tell you that peanut
oil and Canola oil smoke points are much higher that other oils used in food preparation. That is why these oils are used so often to fry foods. You do not want to exceed the oil‘s smoke point in stock bending, since this would no doubt add an unpleasant color to the heated area. Also keep in mind that mono-unsaturated and poly-unsaturated oils go bad. Do not try to reuse these oils and be sure to clean all surfaces and shop rags that are used.
Once your setting table and its heat source have been built, you are ready to bend your first buttstock. I try not to get involved in the fitting of a gun stock to its owner. There are many experienced teachers and stock fitters who provide this service; they can be found through high end gun shops or at any sporting clays teaching facility. When it is determined
exactly which way and how far a buttstock needs to be bent, the first step taken by the gunsmith should be a thorough inspection of the stock and its fit to the receiver. Examine the hand area very carefully for any cracks or evidence of cracks that have been repaired. You must remember that the heat required to bend a buttstock is nearly the same amount of heat required to
soften any glue that might have been used to repair a crack at the wrist. Be sure to remove the trigger guard to inspect the wood beneath it. You will want to keep the trigger guard aside during the bending process. This will allow you to fill the guard screw holes with oil. Observing the bubbling oil in the trigger guard screw holes will let you know when you have heated the shotgun‘s wrist all the way to its center. It is also a good idea to check that the barrels are “on face” before the stock is bent. If they are not, this condition should be corrected first. Tighten all stock screws, especially those connecting the upper tang to the trigger plate. Often, you will run into older gunstocks that have shrunk a bit. You will no doubt need to shim both the upper tang and the trigger plate to compensate for the wood shrinkage. If you don’t, you risk altering the often critical safety to trigger distance. Once you are sure that the stock is tight and that it has no defects, lay its rib in the channel of your setting table and clamp the shotgun down tightly. Wipe the checkered area of the wrist with oil and turn
on your infrared lamps. 250 watt infrared lamps (red, as opposed to white light lamps) are best placed 9” to 11” from the wood. Do not be tempted to move them closer or you risk charring the surface of the buttstock or damaging its finish. Once the stock has been heated for just over 30 minutes, you can begin to bend. Measurements are taken from the base of the setting table to the heel of the stock to determine its drop, or from the side of the
bending cage to the stock to determine its cast (off or on). Carefully apply pressure with either hand screws or QuickClamps to bring the stock to its desired position. This should be a slow and deliberate procedure, being sure not to move a stock that requires excessive force. Once the stock has been moved to the desired position, you must move it a bit more to allow for
spring back. This additional movement might be as much as 60% of the desired bend. With the clamps in place, continue to heat the stock for another 20 minutes or so. This additional heating soak tends to lessen the spring back that will happen when you remove the clamps. Shut off the lamps and let the stock cool for several hours. Once the stock is cooled, remove the clamps
carefully and measure the result. Whatever spring back is going to occur will happen shortly after the clamps are removed.
Replace the trigger guard and clean the shotgun thoroughly to remove all traces of oil. If you have had to tighten the upper tang screw and trigger plate screw, the gun should be test fired with special attention paid to the function of the safety and barrel selector (if so equipped).
You are going to find that some gunstocks bend much more easily than others. American Black Walnut cannot be bent as easily or as far as English or European walnuts. I have seen some American Walnut stocks that simply would not bend and some English Walnut stocks that bent so well that drastic changes in drop (up to 1”) were easily done with little if any spring back. When a large change in drop is required, I often like to do it in two sessions with a few days between. This may be just superstition, but doing half of the bend at a time seems to make the process easier and lessens the spring back.
Shotguns with through bolts attaching them to the receiver and shotguns with full pistol grips can also be bent. They may require a bit of additional heating time and a bit more effort, but they will move and they will stay bent.
Late nineteenth and early twentieth century double barreled shotguns were typically made with a great deal of drop at heel and little (if any) cast. With the addition of a setting table to your gun shop, you will be adding a profitable service that will allow your customers to custom fit many older shotguns to both their physical size and their shooting styles.

I have had Larry Fieland in Houston bend several for me. He does a lot of work for the peigon shooting crowd and was favorite of Cyril Adams.

I used Jim Greenwood in the Wichita, Kansas area to do two BR550's. They came out well and they have stock bolts.

Thanks for all the great replies. My main reason for wanting to to remove the cast is aesthetics. I feel like the guns are almost perfect. I am surprised how well they shoot with this amount of cast. The original fitting was done at a dealer. I am weighing the risk of damage undoing the cast vs my desire to make they prettier.

I hunted ducks with one of them Saturday and cleanly folded a duck with the first shot fired from the gun I decades.

Below are the guns:


[img]https://hosting.photobucket.co...=180&height=180&fit=bounds[/img]


[img]https://hosting.photobucket.co...=960&height=720&fit=bounds[/img]


[img]https://hosting.photobucket.co...=180&height=180&fit=bounds[/img]

[img]https://hosting.photobucket.co...=180&height=180&fit=bounds[/img]

[img]https://hosting.photobucket.co...=960&height=720&fit=bounds[/img]

It may be an optical illusion in the photos but it looks like the trigger guard tangs are bent to match the cast. If so there is more involved than just bending the stocks.

Correct. They would need to be straightened. I would think that’s easier than bending the wood. Both were originally straight and bent at a high end gun dealer in Europe.

Looks about perfect to me.

I wouldn't change a thing. 😁

They look central vision to me. My guess is the trigger plate and top tang have a fair bit of sweep to them.

Many shooters are able to do a passable job of shooting, and accommodate guns that don't fit them perfectly. But if you shoot these guns really well in their present configuration, it seems that you are running a very real risk of changing the stock fit to the point where you may find yourself unable to hit targets near as well as you do now.

If it was cheap and easy to ship your guns out to bend your stocks, and then potentially pay the same gunsmith and two-way shipping costs again to bend them back again, without any risk of breakage, or damage, or risk of shipping loss, then it might be a good idea to give it a try. Alternately, you might screw up the fit, and end up selling them because you can no longer shoot them as well with less cast. At very least, I would try temporarily adding some material to the cheek area to your desired amount of cast, and seeing if it screws up your ability to hit targets. In this case, it sounds like it may be better to leave well enough alone.

Being a lefty, not my politics of course, I find it difficult to find the right gun. Virtually every old gun is cast off. Cast is one of the first things I look for . Too much cast off eliminates a lot of guns right off the bat. Almost all my guns need stock bending. Some for cast and drop. My latest gun was bent for both. The cast held but the drop sprung back up making me send it back for another bend. I hope this time it stays. I can’t shoot a 2 “ drop worth a dam. Finding a shotgun with the measurements I want ain’t easy