A little too much off the top...

[Roy]

IMO, the candle and oil lamp method of blackening a part is traditional. That's about all I can say good about the process.

Burning my fingers on a blackened part, adding heat inside a house I'm trying to cool and possibly setting the house on fire don't offset the simplicity of using factory made inletting black.

um.. setting fire with a candle or a lamp? maybe I should avoid heating the house with a wood stove?.. I wasn't saying my method of blackening was better.. just mentioning how I do it.. all in all its all about getting the same result.

I have seen people paint too much lamp black on.. and was just saying that its not needed is all. :v

Redistributing the lampblack that is initially applied usually gets me through the entire inletting job.. that is spreading around what is already there if there is any confusion.. not adding more. :v

 

[54ball]

It's not the mistakes, it's how you recover.

To recover from mistakes though you need to know what they actually are. In my opinion you may have several things going on. Just by the photo the following is what I think you need to work on or at least think about. From most likely to least likely

1. Dull tools.
2.Improper reading of inlet compound.
3. Improper use of cutting tools.
4. Heavy handedness or to aggressive with your cutting tools.
5. You mentioned clamping the work too tight in the vise.

My suggestions for the above.

1. Work with sharp tools, know what sharp is and how to sharpen. Have a tool that can be sharpened. Some of these econo carving chisels are no better than low grade steak knives. Know how the stone and strop, your chisels need to be scary sharp and capable of shaving tiny slivers with very light pressure. Sharpening is a skill difficult to master.

2. Know how to apply the black and what it is telling you. Too much can not only cause a mess but it could give a false reading. When the part is removed from the mortice it may mark an edge and give a false reading if it does not come out straight. Example...When a barrel is pried up by the muzzle, it could mark the tang, simply due to the prying action, same goes from parts that come out crooked. Always try to install your parts straight up and straight down. Use your head, if it fits it fits even if it leaves a mark.Example 2 If a part goes down past an area in the mortice, say a lock plate goes down into the mortice but there is black on the sides where the lock hoes down, even though that spot is marked by black, it does not need to be removed since it's not a factor as the part already fits there. I hope that makes sense. I'm not say it won't need attention but it's not a factor for fitment as the part is already past it.

I'm not a fan of tapping things in with a hammer. Really the only place I used one is tapping the muzzle lightly for breech fit. I much prefer steady/hand thumb pressure.

3. Dull tools force you to be heavy handed as they cannot function otherwise.Example A flathead screw driver out of the tool box is not a good tool for inletting. No matter how hard you try, it's not going to remove the material, at least not with any precision simply due to the fact that it has no cutting edge. With out a good edge, it has to be driven deep to catch and gouge out material. Ir ironically that same driver can be ground and properly sharpened and be much much better than a dull wood chisel.

Most of the time for fitting, especially on the sides is oh so slight removal of material.

4. Sometimes the print mark is very very small. Sometimes it takes just a oh so slight removal of material to make things right or at least get it going in the right direction.
Make sure the chisel has the flat side to the out side edge of the inlet. Turned wrong the wedge shape can mar the edges of the inlet.

No need to dig in and take out large chunks when a small sliver or even scraping away some dust will do.

5. Be aware of how the work is held and secured and how that can effect things.

 

[Col. Batguano]

Sandpaper grinds the grime back in to the wood. Scrapers are the way to go when cleaning things up, especially the last little layer before you put the finish on.

I use a random orbital sander (w/220 grit) to level off my inlays to the wood and progressively finer paper with a block to smooth it from there (NO STEEL WOOL if you're planning on AF as a finish!). that leave the wood around the inlays pretty grubby, but the scrapers clean it off almost like magic.

 

[fpatton]

All good points. The one part I am confident about is the sharp tools. I have high quality chisels, and thanks to a lot of time spent sharpening lathe tools and straight razors, I know what makes a sharp edge.

I'm pretty sure I'm not reading the compound correctly, though, and I while I'm trying to be delicate about the cuts, I'm sure I could do better. Initially, I was fooled by marks left behind when I pried the barrel up, and I' m still having a bit of trouble in that area.

Fred

 

[fpatton]

Good advice about the scrapers. I wouldn't have thought about that.

Fred

 

[Dean2]

It's not the mistakes, it's how you recover.

To recover from mistakes though you need to know what they actually are. In my opinion you may have several things going on. Just by the photo the following is what I think you need to work on or at least think about. From most likely to least likely

1. Dull tools.
2.Improper reading of inlet compound.
3. Improper use of cutting tools.
4. Heavy handedness or to aggressive with your cutting tools.
5. You mentioned clamping the work too tight in the vise.

My suggestions for the above.

1. Work with sharp tools, know what sharp is and how to sharpen. Have a tool that can be sharpened. Some of these econo carving chisels are no better than low grade steak knives. Know how the stone and strop, your chisels need to be scary sharp and capable of shaving tiny slivers with very light pressure. Sharpening is a skill difficult to master.

2. Know how to apply the black and what it is telling you. Too much can not only cause a mess but it could give a false reading. When the part is removed from the mortice it may mark an edge and give a false reading if it does not come out straight. Example...When a barrel is pried up by the muzzle, it could mark the tang, simply due to the prying action, same goes from parts that come out crooked. Always try to install your parts straight up and straight down. Use your head, if it fits it fits even if it leaves a mark.Example 2 If a part goes down past an area in the mortice, say a lock plate goes down into the mortice but there is black on the sides where the lock hoes down, even though that spot is marked by black, it does not need to be removed since it's not a factor as the part already fits there. I hope that makes sense. I'm not say it won't need attention but it's not a factor for fitment as the part is already past it.

I'm not a fan of tapping things in with a hammer. Really the only place I used one is tapping the muzzle lightly for breech fit. I much prefer steady/hand thumb pressure.

3. Dull tools force you to be heavy handed as they cannot function otherwise.Example A flathead screw driver out of the tool box is not a good tool for inletting. No matter how hard you try, it's not going to remove the material, at least not with any precision simply due to the fact that it has no cutting edge. With out a good edge, it has to be driven deep to catch and gouge out material. Ir ironically that same driver can be ground and properly sharpened and be much much better than a dull wood chisel.

Most of the time for fitting, especially on the sides is oh so slight removal of material.

4. Sometimes the print mark is very very small. Sometimes it takes just a oh so slight removal of material to make things right or at least get it going in the right direction.
Make sure the chisel has the flat side to the out side edge of the inlet. Turned wrong the wedge shape can mar the edges of the inlet.

No need to dig in and take out large chunks when a small sliver or even scraping away some dust will do.

5. Be aware of how the work is held and secured and how that can effect things.

Very well said and great advice. Judging from the picture of the inletting posted I completely agree on the need for a much more delicate touch and like the others have said, way less inletting black. The overflow is causing false touch readings.

 

[Eric Krewson]

The first lesson I learned about inletting a part is not to touch the sides of the inlet as you go down unless your part won't go down any further. I lightly file the black mark the side of the inlet with a riffler file, very lightly, a couple of strokes and try to get the part in again. Most of the time a few thousands is all it takes to get a part in. I never remove all the soot on the side of an inlet. When I removed all the soot on my first build and ended up having to glue wood shavings in when my tang inlet got sloppy, real sloppy.