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Description
Sometimes, when you really want to make something, and you don’t have the time to start or continue on with a ‘long’ project the best thing is to tackle little projects. By that I mean projects that can be started and finished in a day or two. You get all the accomplishment of a larger project and in the case of highly personalized items you get the enjoyment of actually using them.
Starting at the top, is a custom knife carefully crafted more or less to a design I came up with, made by my now retired brother in law Dave Golnik of Richardson TX.
He had previously made a skinner style knife that was really cool... I saw it and handled it and the lines and shape stuck with me. Based on that blade I sketched up something called the shark.. or shark bite. Dave suggested several improvements and off we went. The blade is 3. 1/2” long, with a pointed pommel that is drilled for a lanyard or wrist strap. An aggressive set of serrations were added as the sharks teeth, the drop point was modified to also reflect better the animal form. The finger guard was extended as a safety measure. I sent him a bar of 5/16” 440C steel and made a set of blank scales from my favorite wood, a lovely curly oak. When the knife showed up I loved it and one of the small art jobs was to make a scabbard for it.
The scabbard is designed to hold the knife securely in any position but capable of being drawn by pressing down on a hickory wood spring which lets the knife slide out over a wood bump that engages the teeth. The sides are made of matching oak and the thing works so well that I have all but invented a martial art based on drawing it! Now I am not a knife fighter and hope to never be one but the child in me is unchanged from the kid who used capguns and played neighbor hood war games. It is a thing of beauty and while I have not added a belt clip yet I stick it in the change pocket on my jeans and the handle is perfect for cross draw. I do have two clips, one steel from the back of a Stanley tape, the other a home made hickory wooden spring latch style. It doesn’t look like much compared to the knife itself... but designing the spring and lock mechanism was the most fun I’ve had in some time. People I show it too can’t seem to comprehend the idea of using wood as a spring, and I’ll mention what about bow and arrow? As old an idea as dirt. This is one of my prized possession and I’m considering having a second made!

Below that is a carved stock fit to a Thompson Contender single shot rifle. I’ve modified gun wood to add finger grooves and to slim an area or round over an edge but had never carved one.The standard Thompson stock is a fine stock, no doubt, but it’s look has never inspired me. Aftermarket stocks are made including several that are greatly improved over the basic. I saw one by a guy named Renner that really got my juices flowing and I considered sending him my wood to have one of his made at a cost of about 600. I didn’t though, as there were certain design parameters I wanted to incorporate and the only way to assure I had the dimensional changes incorporated was to lay out the in letting in a drawing and work to that. The comb where the cheek goes was raised a full inch, the length of pull was increased to 15” and the angle of the grip was moved forward by about 5 degrees. I laid it out on vellum and started to play with designs. This one, like the knife design just hit home so I took some of my favorite wood to the band saw and cut one out. Before any shaping, the table saw was used to do whatever in letting needed to be done that could be done on a table saw.. basically the slot for the square steel action. Then in another design variation the table saw was used to mill out forearm space, both sides were worked evenly to make it Ambi. After, the table saw was used to take as much wood off the stock as could be taken with angled saw cuts done against a fence to keep the cuts even from both sides. Finally the grinder.. then chisels, then file and sandpaper were used to final shape it. It went on and off the frame a dozen times as it was fine tuned to my hold. One thing done that I was advised against by Several gun people was to make the connections to the butt as slender as possible, and this is key to creating the look and keeping the weight down. I carefully laid out the pattern on the wood in a way that assured fully and completely straight grain to disperse the recoil through to the butt and having no fear of grain run out I pushed it beyond what I’ve seen. The whole stock is sealed and finished with thin cyanoacrylate glue.
I’ve fired it set up as a .22 rim fire and also as a .300 aac blackout and in both calibers it shoulders with a perfect sight picture as only a truly customized item can and two other designs are in the works with similar geometry. Rifles with long stocks are best suited to offhand shooting and walking the back forty doing offhand plinking is pure enjoyment.

Description
Sometimes, when you really want to make something, and you don’t have the time to start or continue on with a ‘long’ project the best thing is to tackle little projects. By that I mean projects that can be started and finished in a day or two. You get all the accomplishment of a larger project and in the case of highly personalized items you get the enjoyment of actually using them.
Starting at the top, is a custom knife carefully crafted more or less to a design I came up with, made by my now retired brother in law Dave Golnik of Richardson TX.
He had previously made a skinner style knife that was really cool... I saw it and handled it and the lines and shape stuck with me. Based on that blade I sketched up something called the shark.. or shark bite. Dave suggested several improvements and off we went. The blade is 3. 1/2” long, with a pointed pommel that is drilled for a lanyard or wrist strap. An aggressive set of serrations were added as the sharks teeth, the drop point was modified to also reflect better the animal form. The finger guard was extended as a safety measure. I sent him a bar of 5/16” 440C steel and made a set of blank scales from my favorite wood, a lovely curly oak. When the knife showed up I loved it and one of the small art jobs was to make a scabbard for it.
The scabbard is designed to hold the knife securely in any position but capable of being drawn by pressing down on a hickory wood spring which lets the knife slide out over a wood bump that engages the teeth. The sides are made of matching oak and the thing works so well that I have all but invented a martial art based on drawing it! Now I am not a knife fighter and hope to never be one but the child in me is unchanged from the kid who used capguns and played neighbor hood war games. It is a thing of beauty and while I have not added a belt clip yet I stick it in the change pocket on my jeans and the handle is perfect for cross draw. I do have two clips, one steel from the back of a Stanley tape, the other a home made hickory wooden spring latch style. It doesn’t look like much compared to the knife itself... but designing the spring and lock mechanism was the most fun I’ve had in some time. People I show it too can’t seem to comprehend the idea of using wood as a spring, and I’ll mention what about bow and arrow? As old an idea as dirt. This is one of my prized possession and I’m considering having a second made!

Below that is a carved stock fit to a Thompson Contender single shot rifle. I’ve modified gun wood to add finger grooves and to slim an area or round over an edge but had never carved one.The standard Thompson stock is a fine stock, no doubt, but it’s look has never inspired me. Aftermarket stocks are made including several that are greatly improved over the basic. I saw one by a guy named Renner that really got my juices flowing and I considered sending him my wood to have one of his made at a cost of about 600. I didn’t though, as there were certain design parameters I wanted to incorporate and the only way to assure I had the dimensional changes incorporated was to lay out the in letting in a drawing and work to that. The comb where the cheek goes was raised a full inch, the length of pull was increased to 15” and the angle of the grip was moved forward by about 5 degrees. I laid it out on vellum and started to play with designs. This one, like the knife design just hit home so I took some of my favorite wood to the band saw and cut one out. Before any shaping, the table saw was used to do whatever in letting needed to be done that could be done on a table saw.. basically the slot for the square steel action. Then in another design variation the table saw was used to mill out forearm space, both sides were worked evenly to make it Ambi. After, the table saw was used to take as much wood off the stock as could be taken with angled saw cuts done against a fence to keep the cuts even from both sides. Finally the grinder.. then chisels, then file and sandpaper were used to final shape it. It went on and off the frame a dozen times as it was fine tuned to my hold. One thing done that I was advised against by Several gun people was to make the connections to the butt as slender as possible, and this is key to creating the look and keeping the weight down. I carefully laid out the pattern on the wood in a way that assured fully and completely straight grain to disperse the recoil through to the butt and having no fear of grain run out I pushed it beyond what I’ve seen. The whole stock is sealed and finished with thin cyanoacrylate glue.
I’ve fired it set up as a .22 rim fire and also as a .300 aac blackout and in both calibers it shoulders with a perfect sight picture as only a truly customized item can and two other designs are in the works with similar geometry. Rifles with long stocks are best suited to offhand shooting and walking the back forty doing offhand plinking is pure enjoyment.