Shaping Layers?

[JC Javelle]

How do you shape leather that is several layers thick? Lots of seamless skiving?

My husbands new competition rifle has a cheek rest, but for him it is not tall enough to put him comfortably "eye level" with the scope. I am going to try making one out of leather. A solid, layered block would be simple enough, but my husband asked if it could be molded to his face, so he has a specific niche that he can push into every time he shoots; one that doesn't require any adjustment, insuring a level of repeat accuracy that doesn't come with using a smooth flat piece and plenty of room for adjustment.

My question would be, how do I do it? My first idea was to mold the first layer to his cheek, and then skive the next few layers to fill in the gaps between the top layer and the flat lower layers. Or do I play hit and miss, keep skiving and adding layers until it is comfortable to him, and then lay over a top cover piece?

Let me know if I am going in the right direction, or redirect me if you have better approaches. Picture of the rifle in question below; the black block on the rear of the stock is the cheek rest that came with the rifle when he bought it.

Thank you for any and all relative and useful input.

Jessica

[TZHunter]

Jessica, What a nice wife who will try to do this for her husband ! I love to do one-of-a-kind things like this. Rather than try to skive and mold the leather, I think I'd consider making something else that perfectly conformed to his cheek and then cover that with leather. . . one thought would be to use some silicon caulking and have saran wrap or something thin and protective between the caulk and the cheek. . . if you squeeze it out onto something which allows it to begin to dry in a shallow "box". . .then as it dries...you can have him place his cheek on it firmly (with protective separation like saran wrap or something else) and then let the caulk dry completely. . . then you can cut it to whatever shape you want, then attach/glue it to the gun and cover the cheek portion with a thin layer of leather. . . just my initial thought of how I'd do it, rather than gluing lots of pieces of leather together and skiving LOTS of pieces.....Doug (TZHunter)

[JC Javelle]

Aww don't make me blush because I love my hubby . I went to Tandy's this morning and one of the lovely ladies suggested using kydex, which would be useful as the main body of the rest. I wasn't sure how to mold the kydex since it would have to be heated, but I really like the silicone idea, that would make an easy mold to start with! Thank you Doug!

Jessica

[McJeep]

I think I'd make the soft mold as a guide - then glue and stack multiple pieces of leather into a block - use the guide to know how to shape the leather block (grinder with a really coarse wheel should do it and allow good control speed of this part) - then wet mold the finish piece of leather over top of the whole works - dunno much about this type of application but would seem that this might work pretty good?? Nice and solid for long term as well.

Hope it helps