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Factory Tour: Stocks
Russell Wilkin, Technical Director of Gunmaking in London, details a crucial stage in the manufacture of a best London gun.
A best London gun costs a comparatively large amount of money to buy. This is because the process of manufacturing a gun of best type will never break away from the spirit of perfection. A tour of the factory at Harrow Road will explain how we achieve our high standards, and quickly account for the cost of our guns and rifles. On our website, in the course of the next year, we will guide you through the complete manufacturing process of a best London gun.
Nowadays, the appearance of wood can be of overriding importance in the choice of a new shotgun or rifle. Much as a gun's mechanics might interest the client, he may have only a limited influence on the design, but the appearance of the stock can be his choice alone.
 Each gun is made of four basic components - the lock, stock, barrel and the action, and the processes through which these components pass are partly sequential and must pass from one craftsman to another. Manufacture, therefore, is difficult to accelerate. The barrel and the action both start from a relatively crude forging, the walnut stock blank and fore-end may have been brought in some years previously, then stored in the stockroom until they are fully seasoned. Between 75 and 120 hours of craftmanship will go into creating the stock and fore-end.
 One single type of wood is deemed suitable for all best quality guns, and this is walnut. Walnut's status as the gun stock material was established long ago, and was based on its strength and figuring. It is strong enough to receive heavy recoil, yet it is sufficiently lightweight to impart a pleasing balance to a gun.
As with all things special, it is often the rarity that makes it so, and highly-figured walnut is no exception. Although frequently seen on furniture, more often than not, this is a veneer requiring little mechanical strength. In contrast, a gun's stock is a critical component of a gun, and must combine strength and figure. This is made possible by using wood from the base of the tree where the strong, straight grain of the trunk changes dramatically to the figuring of the twisted roots.
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