This custom carved kitchen sign now resides in my mother’s kitchen. I was asked to tile her backsplash around her counters. After completing this she made a comment, “Now I will have to see what I can do to come up with a new sign to go over my sink.” My dad over heard her say this. He went outside and called to me. When I reached him, he had a hickory board which matched mom’s kitchen cabinets. The edges had already been put through the router to form the edge. He said to me, “well there you to.” Of course I knew what he was referring to.

I custom carved the words into the sign first. Then carved the leaves. If you have not carved hickory before, I’m here to tell you it isn’t easy. Hickory wood is as hard as Oak. Some would say it is harder. After carving/sculpting the leaves into the sign. I inlayed the ivory. Then hand painted the leaves to match mom’s kitchen decor.

Christmas day came and she received her sign. She loved it. She made dad go right home and hang it up for her. Guess that will teach him to give me a board to carve. Thanks dad for giving me this opportunity to create something special for my mother. I hope everyone else likes the sign too. Happy Carving, Deb

L to R: Deb Lindsay’s, Doris’ & Jane’s

L to R: Deb Lindsay (Me), Doris & Jane

 L to R: Craig Hone, Doris, Jane, Jeff Wolf & Deb Lindsay (Me)

The class was a total blast! One I would recommend to anyone wanting to learn to sculpt or carve. As you can see by the pictures, we very fortunate to be taught by one of the best, internationally renowned master wood carver, Craig Hone and internationally renowned bronze sculptor, Jeff Wolf. These two men are the world’s best teachers, very patient and knowledgeable not to mention friendly! I look forward to taking more classes from them in the future. Thanks Craig and Jeff for a wonderful and educational experience.

I am writing this blog post to thank everyone who visited with me at my booth during the International Sportsman’s Expo this last weekend, and to all who are interested in my custom carved gun stocks. The Expo was fantastic! As usual! There where thousand of people roaming around seeing all the exhibits and booths. Of course the Mule Deer Foundation and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation was present. I enjoyed visiting with many of the participants at the show as well as seeing all the different booths. It was great hearing what everyone was interested in and what they would like to have on their guns, antlers or on their fireplace mantles.

I would like to take this time to extend an invitation to become a subscribe to my email list. This invitation is for each and every person who visits my web site, came to my booth, or who knows someone who would enjoy my custom carvings. When you subscribe to my email list, you will receive information I post here from time to time. Normally, I will post two to three times a month to my blog. You are under NO obligation to sign up or to stay signed up as a subscribers on my email list. You can end your subscription at anytime. My blog keeps you informed as to the what is new. Not to mention the history of guns, gallery of custom carved guns, and custom carved wood sculptures. There is hand painted gun stocks, basket weave carved onto guns stocks, hand painted art, wood sculpting, guns for the collectors, and guns everyone will want to hand down from generation to generation. As well as other interesting facts I have uncovered throughout the years. I do hope you will consider joining my subscribers email list.

This weekend is the International Sporting Arms gun show in Las Vegas Nevada. It is being held at the Riviera Hotel. This gun show is being sponsored by the NRA. The International Sporting Arms gun show is one of the largest gun shows in the nation. The show will be held January 14th through the 16th. There will be every type of gun imaginable there. Not to mention the gun collectors. I will have some of the guns I have custom carved/engraved there.

This year I will be attending the show as a vendor. At my booth you will be able to see the custom carved/engraved gun stocks I have completed. Each gun has been custom designed and sculpted, then hand painted to enhance the detail. There will be custom carved gun stocks, display cases, wall sculptures and ivory inlays for my clients to view. The guns have many different patterns on them, such as, basket weave, sculpted leaves, and hand painted art,  to name a few. There will also be a few gun there that I have repaired.

I hope everyone will have a chance to come by and see the designs and sculptures. I look forward to meeting and visiting with each of you while you are there. See you at the gun show! Deb

Happy New Years everyone!!! I sure hope everyone has enjoyed this holiday season. Today I have been thinking about the goals I would like to accomplish with my custom carved gun stocks this year. In doing so, it has given me a chance to looked back on the goals I have accomplished last year. It still amazes me how many goals I was accomplished. So, for this reason I am going to set goals for my custom carving even higher this year. The first one is to attend 3 major gun shows within this year.

I am scheduled to be a vendor at the upcoming Las Vegas Antique Arms Show™International Sporting Arms Show™ Invitational Knifemakers Showing™ in Las Vegas NV. The show will be held at the Riviera Hotel on January 14th thru January 16th, 2011. The show is being sponsored by the NRA (National Rifle Association). I will be there with several of the guns I have listed here on my web site. Some of the other guns being displaying have been borrowed from my customers who love to show them off. This Las Vegas Antique Arms Show™ International Sporting Arms Show™ Invitational Knifemakers Show™ should prove to be the best of the year. I am looking forward to meeting many new people.

Gun collectors and enthusis’ alike will be there. As I’m sure you know by  now, my gun stocks are all hand carved/engraved and hand painted. Each design has first been molded into clay then many practice pieces are carved/engraved before I start on the final piece. This process helps me to insure the custom carving will look exactly like it should on each gun stock. Customers who have purchased wood sculpting/carving/engraving from me in the past are simply amazed at the detail and clarity each piece has. Come to the gun show and judge for yourself. Then you can see why everyone who looks at the pictures on my web site all say “the pictures do not do justice to the art on the guns.” Wouldn’t you like to hand down your guns from generations to generation?

If you have the chance to come to the Las Vegas Antique Arms Show™International Sporting Arms Show™ Invitational Knifemakers Show™, please look me up. I would really enjoy meeting you and placing your name on my waiting. Then you will also have bragging rights and can show everyone your own custom carved gun stock.

Happy New Year to all, Deb

I am asking this question of my readers. What animal would you like to see me carve next? I have custom carved, or engraved, many animals on different gun stocks over the year. I have enjoyed carving each and every one. Some of them are more challenging then others. Still, I get a tremendous satisfaction from completing each carving or engraving I do. Now, I am wondering if there is a certain animal you would like to see carved? To date I have carved elk, moose, mule deer, a mountain lion, grizzly bear, and mountain goats to mention a few.

There are lots more animals out there to be carved. Which one should it be? Help me decide by commenting below. You will be the one making this decision for me this time. So hurry and leave your choice below in the comment section. I will be adding the basket weave and something else to the forend and/or grip of the gun.

Here are a few ideas. Please do not limit your decision on just these pictures. Antelope, Black Bear, Big Horn Sheep to name a few.

I will keep a tally of requests. The highest number will decide the next carving. The decision date will be August 15th. I will post the results here on my blog. The gun will be for sell and on display at the Cross Roads of the West Gun Show in Salt Lake City, Utah, this coming September 25 & 26, 2010. I’m sure this gun will make any gun collector proud. Will that person be you?

Thanks for participating in this decision! Deb L

It has come to my attention I have never explained what relief carving is or the different types. So, I thought I would do my best to explain this to you. Here goes…

There are actually several types of carvings. The type of carving I use is called full relief carving. This means I have a smooth piece of wood, like a gun stock, that I carve part of the wood away. The end result is the place where the picture is and there is no part of the original gun stock left in the area of the picture. In other words, the front side of a picture in 3D. There is 2D carving, or semi relief carving, which is a carving you would get if you left part of the original wood in the picture. You usually will see this from carving which has been completed by a laser. You do not get much shaping, (deminsion) to your picture/carving. There is also full round carving. This would be when you take a block of wood (say 4 inch by 4 inch) and carve the entire animal or object out of the wood. Like carving the complete elk, legs and all. Like the status of animals, etc. Here are a few of examples.

(Full Relief Carving)

As you can see this gun stock of a moose. I have used the full relief carving method to carve this gun stock. There is nothing left of the original gun stock in the picture. There is, however, the original gunstock outside the design.

(Semi Relief Carving)

Yet on the wood carving of the horses head, (shown above), there is still part of the original plate left in the main picture design. This is knows as semi relief carving.

(Full Round Carving) – ( This carving is a Craig Hone original)

With full round carving, (shown in the picture above) there is nothing left of the original outside portion of wood. The difference is you have all sides carved with the full round carving, only one half of a carving is left with the full relieve carving method, and with the semi relief method you still have part of the original wood in the picture.

After I have carved my design, I sand the project. Then I hand paint each carving. To me this helps to define the carving even more and it helps to bring the carving to life.

I hope this helps you to understand the types of carvings as well as just how unique each type of carving is. If you have any questions about this or have a question about something I have talked about on one of my posts. Please feel free to ask me in the comments below. I would be happy to explain it to you. If I don’t know something I will find out for you and let you know.

Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your comments and feed back. Have a wonderful summer! Deb L

Update March 7, 2010: I have had a hard time finishing this gun. The burs I use have been back ordered for the past three weeks.  Pictures will be put on here either Monday or Tuesday. Thanks for waiting so patiently!

 Today I have started another gun. It is a Ruger .243 Model M77. This Ruger gunstock carving has been inspired after finding a mount from a taxidermist. It is of a mountain lion attacking a mule deer. The image that formed in my mind helped me develop this custom carving on this gunstock. (Pictures will be forth coming). To bring some of the old west into this century has been a wonderful experience. This gun has been carved and painted to show the detail even more.

Just a little history of the M77 Ruger rifles. They where first produced in 1968.

Design details

From the beginning, the Ruger M77 was intended as a modernized Mauser 98, though numerous changes were made. Bill Ruger wanted to use investment casting in place of a forged receiver. The Sullivan-designed bolt dispensed with controlled-round feeding and instead used the simpler plunger style of ejector. A two-position tang safety and redesigned trigger system were also designed from scratch.

Perhaps the most novel feature of the M77 is the only one that has not been redesigned, the angled action screw. The front action screw of traditional bolt-action rifles draws the receiver directly down against the stock. The M77 uses an angled screw that draws the action down and to the rear, tightly bedding it against the stock.

Variants

The M77 has undergone one minor and two major redesigns. The first change involved incorporating a proprietary scope mount milled integral with the receiver. The first rifles had simple rounded-top receivers drilled and tapped for separate scope mounts.

M77 Mark II

The M77 was retooled almost entirely and reintroduced in 1991 as the Mark II. The safety, bolt, and trigger were completely redesigned. The claw extractor was retained, but the bolt face was opened up to allow controlled-round feeding. The plunger ejector was replaced with a Mauser style blade ejector. Finally, a three-position safety allowed the bolt to be operated while the gun was still on safe, making unloading of the rifle less hazardous. Ruger also eliminated the adjustable trigger that came stock on the original M77.

Hawkeye

In 2006, Ruger introduced new features and a new name for their rifle, the Hawkeye. Major changes were made to the trigger system and the stock was recontoured, but otherwise the rifle remained unchanged.^{[citation needed]} The LC6 trigger addressed complaints from consumers that the Mark II trigger, though safer than the earlier one, was poorly designed for accurate shooting.^{[citation needed]} The LC6 trigger is lighter and smoother. Despite the listed improvements of the LC-6 trigger there still seems to be nagging complaints about it

While attending one of the many gun shows my husband and I frequent each year. We found several guns that, in my opinion, needed help. We purchased this Winchester .308 model 88 rifle. I chose to put a gunstock carving on this Winchester 308 because the stock was in desperate need of being refinished. There are several deep nicks and scratches on the butt of the gun. Along with the fact, someone has applied several coats of varnish to the stock. I would venture to guess they where trying to cover up the large scratches in the stock. In doing this, they have filled in the original checkering on the grip and forend of the gun. Thus making the gun look like the checkering is almost warn off.

I have stripped the stock of the old varnish, carve mountain goats on the stock, carve the basket weave pattern on the grip and the forend of the stock. As well as painted the carved sceen to bring it to life even more.

The history or background of the gun I am carving has become a very intersting past time for me. Here is some of the history I have found of the Winchester rifle. I hope you enjoy reading about the gun as much as I have. (If the pictures do not load. Please right click on the picture and choose “show picture”).

History of the Winchester Rifle

The term Winchester Rifle is frequently used to describe any of the lever action rifles manufactured in the United States by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, although the name is usually more specifically used in reference to the Winchester Model 1873 or the Winchester Model 1894 rifles.

Winchester rifles were among the earliest repeating rifles, and as such the Winchester name has become synonymous with lever action firearms. The gun is colloquially known as “The Gun that Won the West”, though public perception of its role in the Western Expansion is exaggerated due to the Winchester’s prominence in 20th Century fictionalized accounts of that period.

Predecessors

The ancestor of the Winchester rifles was the Volcanic rifle and pistol of Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson.

 Volcanic Pistol .41 cal

It was originally manufactured by the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company, which was later reorganized into the New Haven Arms Company, its largest stockholder being Oliver Winchester. The Volcanic rifle used a form of caseless ammunition and had only limited success. Wesson had also designed an early form of rimfire cartridge which was subsequently perfected by Benjamin Tyler Henry

 Henry 1860, Winchester Musket 1866

Henry also supervised the redesign of the rifle to use this new rimfire ammunition, retaining only the general form of the breech mechanism and the tubular magazine of the Volcanic. This became the Henry rifle of 1860, which was manufactured by the New Haven Arms Company and was used in considerable numbers by certain Union Army units in the American Civil War.

Development

After the war, Oliver Winchester acquired majority control of the New Haven Arms Company, renaming it the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. This company modified and improved the basic design of the Henry rifle, creating the first Winchester rifle: the Model 1866. It retained the .44 Henry rimfire cartridge, was built on a brass frame, and had an improved magazine and a wooden forearm. In 1873 Winchester introduced the steel-framed Model 1873 chambering the more potent .44-40 centerfire cartridge. In 1876, in a bid to compete with the powerful single-shot rifles of the time, Winchester brought out the Model 1876.

 This is the Winchester 73 toggle link action.

While it chambered more powerful cartridges than the 1866 and 1873 models, the toggle link action was not strong enough for the popular high-powered rounds used in Sharps or Remington single-shot rifles.

From 1883, John Moses Browning worked in partnership with Winchester, designing a series of rifles and shotguns, most notably the lever-action Winchester Model 1886, Winchester Model 1892, Winchester Model 1894, and Winchester Model 1895 rifles, along with the lever-action Winchester Model 1887 shotgun and the pump-action Winchester Model 1893 and Winchester Model 1897 shotguns.

This history was found on the website www.wikipedia.org

This is a custom carved gunstock for a long time friend. It is carved on a Remington 22-250 cal. The sceen that inspired me to carve this for him came from one of the many rides my husband and I take every weekend.

If you ever get the chance to visit the Uintah mountains in the fall of the year. You will find a serenity of peace and harmony. My husband and I enjoy going for rides in the mountains. It is a time to see the changing of the leaves and hopefully see some wildlife. One of our favorite animals is the majestic bull elk. They are usually in the rut about this time of year. Just after the bull elk shed the velvet from his horns. He will begin bugling to entice the cow elk to come to him. This is called “the rut.” The rut can begin as early as mid August to early September and will last well into November. When two bull elk want the same herd of cows they will fight each other for the rights to breed with the cows. This keeps the herds strong and healthy.

If you ever have the chance to be in the mountains and hear the bulls elk bugling. You will never forget the sound. It is the call of the wild. Nature’s way of helping animals to reproduce thus carrying on the species. We look forward to this time of year. We love to be out in nature. Looking and listening not only the majestic bull elk, but for the deer and other wildlife as well.