Freeland Stocks

C

cbrock

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Over the past 3 years I've acquired 5 Freeland Stocks. 2 are Winchester Internationals, complete rifles. One is a 40X repeater in what appears to be an across the course stock. The third is just the stock, an International well used from Gun Parts Corp. for a 40X or 700. And the last is a prone stock fitted to a Winchester 52D by a well known Ohio shooter and smith. All but the last are the typical Freeland lamination. The last is a solid piece of walnut. First off I find them all to be pretty comfortable to shoot. All also have Freeland adjustable buttplates. The biggest down side is the weight, but again I like the shape. There's probably a bunch of you that may have worked on these stocks when they were made by Al Freeland or for him. My biggest questions regard the type of glue used in laying them up and what finish was used on the stocks. The Prone rifle was really taken care of, but the others have varying degrees of use and wear. One has a large chip out around the trigger guard. I like to make the repairs and do the refinishing as close to originally done as possible. Thought that this would be the place to get the "straight scoop". Much thanks, Charles
 
I have one on a 40X rim fire that was original by Freeland. One on a 52C and one for a 37. Doan Trevor refinished my 40X as the stock was shoeing some sweat migration on the stock. It looks like Santa dropped it off yesterday, I told Doan to refinish the stock like Freeland did it last week. What a beauty.

Contact Doan you can't go wrong.

John
 
John, It's a small world. Sometime in the last 3 weeks someone mentioned Doan Trevor as having restocked a Kenyon rifle, I checked out his web site and as you suggest his work seems terrific. I'll try and contact him and see what he has to say. Thanks much for the suggestion. Cheers, Charles
 
He is great and timely. You will enjoy his friendship and craftsmanship. He will answer the phone or you may get his wife.

John
 
The glue

Al Freeland and Sam Bond both used Weldwood Rescorena glue ( a red water based resin glue of the 50s)

Cheers
 
The Glue

Larry, Thanks for the response. Is that Resorcinol? I've used that back in the 70's and 80's, laminating beams, building curved stairways, and working on boats. That makes sense, Resorcinol is tough as anything, I believe it's near totally waterproof. It wouldn't fill voids and offer strength there, but with the nice flat dimensional pieces of walnut resorcinol would work great. I remember hearing that in WWII they used resorcinol in aircraft and wooden boat construction. Up here on the Maine coast there are lots of folks still building and repairing wooden boats. I know many use epoxy, I'll try and see if any are using resorcinol. Larry, who is Sam Bond, was he another stock builder? Thanks much, Charles
 
Sam Bond

Good to help.
Sam Bond was an old woodworker in Penn. that made stock blanks, using 1/4 X 1 3/4 by 14 or 15" pieces of walnut. All laminated into a stock blank.
He made these blanks for Al Freeland and Roy Dunlap. Roy furnished these stocks for the Miltary Teams in course and free stocks. I have two in freerifles, 22 & 308..
Interestin your work in biulding, glue lam etc, Spent 35 years in construction and am well ware of the mterail.
Anyway good to hear from you,
 
Larry Wilkins said:
Al Freeland and Sam Bond both used Weldwood Rescorena glue ( a red water based resin glue of the 50s)

Cheers[/QUOT E]
Weldwood rescorcinal resin is not water based but a 2 part epoxy that cures. Weldwood Plastic resin is mixed with water and is water resistant
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