Overview

• Because of their small surface area, many gunstock carvings require hand tools or power tools with very fine bits. Gunstock carvings range from intricately detailed to simply designed and require a range of woodworking tools that can remove large and small amounts of material. Hand tools come with a variety of grips to make usage easier and more efficient while power tools come with a variety of motor speeds to create precise carvings.
  
  

Checkering, Chisels, and Gouges

• Some of the most common tools in woodworking that are specific to gunstocks include checkering tools, chisels and gouges for their variety of sizes and control. Checkering tools include specific chisels and lining tools used to create the checkered pattern found on gunstocks. A basic set of checkering tools includes a course layout cutter, fine layout cutter, double cutter, left spacing cutter, right spacing cutter and short curve cutter. Chisel sets remove material from a carving design and are used mainly for their precision and control. With a chisel, the woodworker directly controls the depth and size of each cut. Gouges work similarly to chisels except that they remove material using a v-shaped blade instead of a flat blade. Gouges work well to create texture and deepen lines in gunstock woodworking.
  
  

Handsaws and Knives

• Knives and handsaws serve similar functions in gunstock woodworking. Both create precise cuts and remove chunks of material all at once instead of slowly carving the material down with a chisel or gouge. The thin blade of a knife is also ideal for tracing a carving pattern onto a gunstock or making thin texture lines in a design. Handsaws for gunstock woodworking must have a fine, short blade since the surface area of a gunstock is limited. Handsaws are also used to shape the gunstock itself before carving a design. Certain gunstocks have a particular shape that must be hand sawn or shaped along the outside edges.
  
  

Power Engravers

• Power engravers pulse or vibrate a bit that cuts the wood of a gunstock. Different speeds produce different depths and widths of cuts. Many gunstock woodworkers use power engravers for their efficiency and control. Power engravers commonly used for gunstock woodworking come in sizes that range from the diameter of a pen to that of a bottleneck. Different motors in power engravers produce different speeds for greater functionality. Engravers with larger motors have a wider range of speeds available. Depending on the brand of engraver, an optional cleaning function may be available to keep the work area clean and visible. Most often engravers use a water or air mist to clean the work area.