lee enfield mk4 forestock help needed please

[browningautorifle]

it is deactivated.

Sort of anti climactic...

[Flying10uk]

Agreed F10, I take my hat off to those starting such a project, it's well beyond my humble woodwork skills.

I find nowadays that a lot of men seem to lack the confidence to even have a go at practical tasks such as woodworking and simple metalworking and I do try to give encouragement to "have a go". The first attempt may not be perfect but if you don't try, you don't learn. The brilliant engineer Brunel didn't get everything right first time and I'm sure that he was involved in some embarrassing projects that he would rather forget. I am no more clever or better than anyone else but I'm never reluctant to try my hands at making something which I haven't done before. When something doesn't turnout as well as I would have hoped I put it down to experience and learn from it.

Today we are lucky in that we have the internet and how to do almost anything can be found out from it. For example, I needed to know how to splice rope together in order to make some new rope handles for a Bren chest, a while ago, and this was something which I had no idea how to do. I looked online, found the information, printed it out and I had several attempts at it. After 3 or 4 attempts I managed to splice the rope together, solely by looking online.

[Peter Laidler]

The spliced rope handles for the Bren chests were done by prisoners. Those that came to Elliotts of Newbury (Chests marked EoN) were done at Winchester Prison. Another useless bit of info..........

[mrclark303]

The spliced rope handles for the Bren chests were done by prisoners. Those that came to Elliotts of Newbury (Chests marked EoN) were done at Winchester Prison. Another useless bit of info..........

Not at all useless Peter, it's precisely this sort of detail that gets lost with time, many thanks for sharing and please keep doing so!

[Flying10uk]

You don't seem to hear about prisoners in U.K. jails doing work such sowing mail bags or as Peter has just mentioned splicing rope handles. Do prisoners still do work in U.K. jails or has someone thought up a reason why they shouldn't?

[Mk VII]

They used to repair mailbags, now that the Post Office uses plastic mailbags there is no point. They used to make kitbags, one I've got here is marked HMP BAR (Barlinnie). They do have opportunities to earn small amounts but the unions don't like it, see it as slave labour.

[avin]

hi all
can i start by thanking Roger Payne, Peter Laidler, and mrclark for you very kind offers and helpful advice, as you will have read roger has offered a forestock thank you so much.
i hope to pick the rifle up tomorrow all being well, my intention was to go today but a 30 minute hospital appointment stretched out to 5 hours what with being sent to different depts.
i have decided that i will still attempt to copy the forestock from roger, reason being it will be something to do over the summer while using the original forestock to start to build the rifle,i will document and photograph the task as i go along, hopefully it will be of help to others, i know it`s only a replica but to own a war 2 rifle means a lot to me, i already have a mosin nagent rifle along with a couple of original iron crosses as well as a few other german medals found by metal detecting.

it`s only the financial situation at the moment till i can work again that is pushing me towards making what i can for now, as time goes by i would replace anything i make with original enfield fittings, but thats for the future.

i have emailed badger to ask if i am allowed to offer something in return for all the help and advice you guys are throwing my way, i will keep my fingers crossed.

thank you all, i really appreciate your help.

kind regards
al

[browningautorifle]

A thread of where you've started and where you progress to would be great, you can update it whenever you have something...

[avin]

will do jim, i have a few ideas`s as to how to go about it already and i must admit i am looking forward to making one. will let you all know when i am off and running with it.

regards
al

[30Three]

I would suggest that you try and make the inner parts of the fore end fit as original. I realise that this rifle is deactivated, and it would be easier to just make it look correct outside. But if you have the time and the skill's necessary; it would be a worthwhile project.
Could be useful if you ever decide to rebuild a live fire rifle.
Looking forward to seeing the progress; please post photos.