a while back i posted a teaser pic of the custom handguard that i was having Tony at LAW483 Enterprises do for me. it all started when i had a vision of a tiger striped birch GI stock with an old school wood handguard........but not just any wood handguard..........a birch handguard with matching figure (striping). we all know that this is something that never existed as the early wood handguards were all walnut. therein lied my problem.
now, Tony at LAW483 does beautiful grade A custom M14 stocks and handguards in both the traditional and E2 style platforms......and the wood ranges from laminate to fancy exotic wood like "striped" maple. i presented him with my concept of matching a new custom handguard to an original 40+yr old GI tiger birch.......and he met my challenge with determination and enthusiasm as it seemed to be an auspicious moment for his creativity to try something new and neither of us were 100% how it could be pulled off.
the first hurdle was finding the birch wood with the matching figure and even then.....the wood must then be "finished" to match the original stock. he told me the easiest way to "match" the wood is to strip down the original stock and finish both pieces of wood together. i didnt make his job easier as i told him that i wanted to preserve the original GI stock as it was. my concept being that i wanted to protect the historical integrity of the original stock and create an authentic original "old school" GI look that never was (if you will).
as you can see from the pics, the project did get done and it turned out WAY better than i thought was possible.
the cherry on top will be putting one of Hawk's dummy switch kits on there. most of my stocks have the "button" kit, but i think i should go with the "switch" on this one.
