Making A Set Of Stocks
Introduction
Stocks are one of those classic pieces of medieval equipment that conjure up immediate images and thoughts of all kinds of kinkiness. They are also a reasonably easy piece of woodworking to try for a new, would-be, kinky handyperson.
What You Will Need
The Wood
The stocks themselves are simply two planks of wood. I used two 2x6 inch x 4 foot pieces of pine. You can use pretty much anything you want.Over about two inches thick and you will start to have problems getting a battery-powered jigsaw to cut through the wood and using a harder wood will make that more of an issue.
My local lumberyard supplies all of its planks in 14-foot lengths. While you can cut them down at home, they will generally cut them for you, for a nominal fee, if you ask. Getting the lumberyard to cut them means you will generally get much more accurate cuts than you are liable to get at home - it also means you are going to have a much easier time getting them in to the car to get them home.
The Accessories
Rather than building a frame for them to slide in to, I wanted them to work fairly well on their own so I made mine with a gate hinge on one end. Try and choose a hinge that is about as large as the ends of your wood as, the larger the hinge, the more stable it will be.To secure the stocks, I used a pair of trunk-style clasps. By putting one on each side, you make the stocks more stable and also ensure that there is no way the person in them can get their hands to them both.
Finally, for those times when you want to make a show of locking the stocks, I used a locking hasp on the opposite end to the hinges.
Tools
The main tool you are going to need is a saw. I used a battery-powered jigsaw though you could use a hand powered one if you are feeling energetic. While a normal saw will work for much of the work (as explained later), having a jigsaw really does become necessary to get the constant curves you will be making.With all of the accessories, you are going to need a screwdriver for attaching them.
You may find life is a lot easier if you pre-drill any screw holes with a drill-bit that is slightly narrower than the core of your screws.
Another tip for putting in screws is to use a braddle (it looks like a screwdriver but with just a point on the end - Americans call it an awl) when deciding where you want to place screws. By creating an indentation, the point of the screw will sit exactly where you want it and you will avoid any of your fixtures drifting as the screws get out of alignment.
To smooth off the edges of the holes, a heavy file (rasp) or a router is needed. You will also need to sand down the final surface. Electric sanding is much quicker but getting an electric sander into the inside of curves can be pretty difficult. Hand sanding is more work but allows you to get it to where you want.
Finally, a tape measure, compass and a pencil will all be useful for marking the wood.
Taking Measurements
The first thing you need to do is find out how large the wrists and neck are of whoever you intend to put in to the stocks. Make the holes too large and they will be able to slide right out, make them too small and they simply will not fit in.Measure their wrists at their narrowest point. Make sure that you consider a good inch on either side of that as the thickness of the wood means they will have a couple of inches of their arm inside the hole.
When you have the measurements, halve them to get a radius, then use a compass to mark a circle on a piece of card. Cut out that circle and use it to check that their wrists fit through comfortably but they can not get their hands out. Once you have the template for the wrists, do the same for the neck.
Using card saves you a lot of wasted effort later, when the holes through the wood are the wrong size. It also provides you with a template for marking the wood.
Marking The Wood
Place both pieces of wood next to each other. By placing them together now you can easily ensure the holes line up.Mark the center with a tape measure then mark points, the radius of your neck hole, further out. They will allow you to make sure you have that template centered. Once it is in place, draw around the inside.
For the wrists, hold your elbows at about ninety degrees, upper arms straight out. This should give you a reasonable gauge as to how far apart you want the wrists. Mark one side, then measure and mark the same distance for the other wrist, to keep things symmetrical. Use the same template approach as for the neck when marking the wrists.
On my set, I made two sets of wrist holes. Kitten has a badly injured arm from an old car accident and having the second set means she can have some variety of position that her wrist goes in, making things more comfortable for her. You may want to consider doing the same, even for uninjured people, as holding a single position can get uncomfortable.
Once one side is marked on both pieces of wood, you can separate them and mark the other sides. To make sure both sides are lined up, mark lines straight down the narrow edge and then use them to line up the new semi-circles.
Marking both sides is not essential - you will probably only cut from one side - but it allows you to make sure your cuts are straight later. You will find that even jigsaws with guide plates tend not to cut perfectly straight down and so having a mark on the other side helps ensure everything lines up properly.
Do not worry about the effect of the pencil lines on the wood. As you will be sanding down the edges when you are finished, the pencil lines will disappear.
Cutting The Wood
Jigsaws are designed for cutting around curves. For all that may be the case, keeping a smooth curve tends to be very hard work. If you are using a battery-powered jigsaw, you will probably also find it seems to put more stress on the saw.The most convenient way I found for cutting the wood is to make a series of narrow cuts in from the side. It gives an effect almost like the teeth of a comb. If you make them narrow enough, you can then easily snap them out and are left with pretty much the curve you want - which you can then tidy up with either the jigsaw or a heavy file. Make sure you do not make the cuts for the teeth all the way up to the line as snapping wood tends to be a little inaccurate and you want to leave a margin of error.
Always try and keep your cuts just inside the lines you marked. It is always possible to make the holes larger, later, but making them smaller is next-to-impossible.
When the holes are cut to roughly the right size and shape, use a heavy file to get the curves smooth. While filing down wood may seem like a slow process, if you use a rough file, you will be surprised by how quick it can be.
For final work, you will probably want to stand the two pieces next to each other so you can make sure each hole perfectly lines up. Temporarily fitting the hinge at this point is another way to help ensure that.
Smoothing The Edges
You should now have two sides, each with nice, clean holes cut from them. If you try using the stocks now though, they will have angular, uncomfortable edges.The easy way of smoothing the edges, if you have the tool, is to use a router. Routers are designed for grinding away small curves and other such shapes from wood. If you have one, run it around the edges, making them in to smooth curves.
For those of us who do not have routers, the rough file is needed again. Use it to file the edges down in to rounded curves. I found that holding it like a dagger allowed me to work very, very, quickly with it.
Finally, sand down everywhere that you have been working on. Smooth sanded curves also have the effect of really showing off the grain of the wood.
Fitting The Accessories
Fitting each fixture is fairly simple. Place it where you want then use a pencil to mark the center of each hole. Mark all of the holes before proceeding, as the fixture is liable to slip around otherwise. Use a braddle, ideally with a quick tap of a hammer, to create an indentation in the wood in each point. The indentation means that screws will not slip around as you start screwing them in.Pre-drilling the holes makes putting the screws in easier. Use a bit that is slightly narrower than the core of the screw and use the indentation you have just made to make sure you drill exactly where you want to.
What accessories you choose to use are entirely up to you. As mentioned earlier, I used a clasp on each side, a gate hinge on one end and a locking hasp on the other for putting padlocks through.
SoulThief
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This page was last updated on Monday 23rd 2001f July 2001