News

A Custom Carved Wedding Gift

Custom Carved Weatherby stock for a Wedding Gift

 

       I received an email a few months ago from a woman who wanted to surprise her fiance on their wedding day with a custom carved gunstock for one of his rifles.    After we did some design work and found the right subject matter she started looking for the right rifle and stock for this project.  

 

      With the help of some of her future in-laws,  she found and old Weatherby Mark V that was in the family and had a stock that needed some refinishing TLC, but had truely beautiful grain in the Walnut stock.

 

      The subject matter was Whitetail Deer in a meadow and she wanted me to have the family Cabin carved in the corner of the meadow.  Many photos of the cabin area as well as the cabin itself were emailed to me to assist in the design.    the old checkering was removed and basketweave and oak leaves added in it’s place.

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     My client had planned well in advance so there was not a rush –  we could plan it and I would complete it with a month to spare.  Planning in advance like this is a luxury that I am not used to and I really enjoyed it.    Rushed work and artistic expression do not go well together.

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     If you have ideas for personalizing an item or creating an Heirloom like this , contact me and we can discuss it.

 

Thanks for stoppin’ by…

 

Lance Larson

 

 

 

 

News, Uncategorized

Custom carving a classic .22 target rifle

Hand carved Stock on a CZ .22 Ultra Lux

     This is a new project I just completed on a CZ Ultra Lux .22 caliber target rifle.   This Target Rifle has beautiful lines  with it’s Europeon style stock and it’s 28.5 inch barrel makes it a very accurate rifle for punching hole in paper.  
      It has a stained Beechwood stock and I wanted to carve something simple yet classic on the stock.   I did not want to take away from the clean classic lines of the rifle itself.
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     The first thing I did was remove the pressed checkering from the pistol grip area and replace it with fishscale carving.  The checkering that was heat pressed into the stock at the factory was not too deep and I just shaved a little bit of the surface to remove it an leave a clean slate for the carving to come.    The same factory outline was kept for the Fishscale carving.
     I then added just a few oak eaves and acorns to the corner of the buttstock and a few more leaves wrapping around the forearm for a little grip.   Once again the key here was not to over do it with the design.   A few leaves “here and there” was all that was needed to make this a one of a kind stock.   The stock now is reminiscent of the leaf carvings on 18th century Europeon rifles.
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     The Carvings on the stock were stained with a walnut stain after carving and finished with Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil Gun Stock Finish.   I applied two coats of this finish diluted 50/50 with mineral spirits to give it the protection needed.

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     This rifle is now a Family Heirloom and also will hopefully be punching paper for generations to come.   Drop me an email if this type of classic carving interests you.
Thanks for stoppin’ by…
 
Lance Larson

 

 

 

News

Hand carved Gothic Cross on a rifle stock

Custom carved Flowing Vines and a Gothic Cross

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     I was commissioned to work on the stock for a 30-30 lever action rifle like the photo above.   The client had a special request for the carving.   It was something I had never carved in a gunstock before.    A Gothic Cross surrounded by flowing vines.

 

    You never really know where a client will get their ideas from in regards to a craving design for a gunstock.   This design idea came from an Iphone cover she saw for sale online.   You can see what I started with in the photo below.

Christy Kovas Commission for 30-30l

    We spent some time working out a design together through emailing design drawing and and came up wigh a design that fit the client’s vision.    After we worked out the design for the stock , the stock was shipped to me.   When the stock arrived it have pressed checkering on the grip and forearm that I was not aware of and the design had to be adjusted to cover that area.    

 

    Since there was checkering, that had to be removed in between the carved vines on the forearm and pistol grip areas.   Initially this was planned as an inlaid carving but had to be changed to a relief carving becuase of the checkering removal  

 

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     The stock was a white hardwood and needed to be stained and finished after the carving was complete.   Since the areas of checkering had to be carved in relief, the same style had to be continued through the entire gunstock.   The flow of the design needed to go through the entire gunstock.

 

    After the stock was carved I stained ithe carved areas with two coats of Minwax “Special Walnut” stain and added color to the leaves and cross with deluted oil paints.    The Stock was finished with a spray on satin wood finish . 

 

   I took time to shoot video of the carving of this stock and if you would like to see the process, go to YouTube and search “Lance Larson Studio – Gunstock Carving”.   You can see many aspects of carving this piece.

 

Thanks for stoppin’ by…

Lance Larson 

  

 

 

News, Uncategorized

Hand Carved Labrador Retriever on a Shotgun

His Lab is always with him in the field…

 

     This custom carved shotgun was planned to be a wife’s surprise gift to her husband, time  was an issue so it turned out to be a gift they planned out together.   She wanted a carving of their Labrador Retriever holding a duck on the buttstock and His initials carved in the forearm of the shotgun.   As far as I know, their Lab is still with them and this carving is not a memorial.

 

     I received the stock from the client and found that it was from a shotgun that was his favorite and the finish was worn off in a few places.    His shotgun had seen much of use and had more than a few stories to tell.   I did had to lightly sand it and give it a couple thin coats of finish before I could start the carving.   This was done only to prevent stain from invading the uncarved areas during the final stages of finishing this carving. 

 

     The carving was done in an inlaid style leaving the wood around the carving untouched.   The wood was a light colored hardwood so the carving had to be stained after carving.    It was stained using a Burnt Umber color oil paint that I diluted with mineral spirits to turn it to a stain.   Since his dog was a Yellow Lab, I left the dog a mostly natural color of the light hardwood with a few highlights and stained the duck darker.

 

     As you can see, a stock does not have to be new or perfect to look great with a memory carved on it.   Contact me if I can help you with creating a Family Heirloom of your own.

 

Thanks for Stoppin’ by……

Lance Larson

 

 

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Another 1911 “Katana” Grip set

1911 “Katana” or Samurai Sword style grips

 

     I just finished another set of Model 1911 grips carved in the style of the grip of a Samurai Sword or “Katana”.   My Client purchased the smooth 1911 grips from Raascogrips.com and they were very high quality grips and they are reasonably priced.   The grips were sent to me after my client test fitted them to his pistol.

 

    The outer areas of the grips were carved to look like the wrapped string and the diamonds cut out to look line the tanned Stingray skin that is underneath the wrapping.

 

 

     The carving was kept the natural wood color except for the diamond cuts in the center which were stained Ebony. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

     Here is the final look.   I fitted them on my own 1911 to see how they would look.   They have a very classy look to them.    Is it a look you would like for your Model 1911? 

 

Thanks for stoppin’ by……

Lance Larson