An original Philly Sterly on top and the patient about to undergo surgery on the bottom:
After beginning to take wood off in order to get it closer to Fox size and shape:
When I put the two pieces together it was very apparent that I had my work cut out for me in trying to match the color. Notice that the forend wood has been deoiled and the checkering recut, with the diamonds pointed up. It was not stained ... that is the natural wood color. A line has also been scribed to square up the butt and get it the right length to accept a Hawkins pad, and end up being the right LOP for me:
Well, staining began on the buttstock, with one eye on the forend wood at all times. After three light coats of one color Minwax stain, one coat of another, then a final coat of the first color again, here's the two pieces together for comparison. Pretty close, I thought:
I designed a pattern for the grip, reminiscent of the early Sterlingworth pattern, cut it out of paper (R and L), and boxed the buttstock and pattern and sent it off to my checkering lady in Montana. I wanted it done in the same number of lines per inch as original. I forgot to tell her to put a line border on it, and didn't even realize it until it came back from her. She did a really good job, I thought, and the pattern is a mirror image right and left. I don't think it looks too bad without the border. Nobody would ever mistake it for an original buttstock anyway. New checkering, diamonds still pointed up:
I began formulating a plan for the gip cap. I got an early style Fox cap from Jason Barden, and realized it was too small to cover the slightly larger size of my grip end. I cut a piece out of a black buttstock spacer that would be large enough to cover the wood properly, and epoxied it to the underside of the Fox grip cap. After some careful shaping and coloring it turned out good. It looks original, except for the extra "step down" in the base. Sorry this one is out of focus:
So, after the diamonds were flat-topped using a fine riffler file, the checkering was carefully stained to bring it nearer to color, without getting it too dark which is easy to do. A light amount of finish was brushed on the checkering to toughen it up and blend everything in, an original red Hawkins was ground for the butt, and it was all reassembled. The finished product. I think it looks a lot "Foxier", and it fits me to a "T". With a few years' honest usage wear on it, it will look even more at home, I think. What say the brethren?
SRH
:
