Brown Bess Contract project

[jhenry1728]

So here's the story on this project; a friend of mine, I'll call him Corporal John to protect his identity, recently traded another flintlock for the parts for a Long Land Pattern kit. In the end, he'll have traded up. He wants to do this as an American built contract piece. And he want to have it ready by an event in the middle of August.

Now, here comes the problem. We suspect the pre-inlet stock is from TotW, the barrel is from Rayl, and we're not sure were the lock is from. The barrel needs some inletting, which is just time consuming.

The lock is the problem. It's coming about 1/8" short of the inletting and I've been trying to inch it forward. I think I've got it as far as it can go without loosing contact with all the necessary components.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

When I get a chance to take some pictures, I'll post them as well.

 

First, I would throw out your time table, unless you planning on turning $500 worth of parts into a $150 musket, unless you have built a few of these parts sets already. It doesn't matter where the parts came from, with a pre carve you need to start by inletting the lock, Some can inlet one full assembled, but most disassemble and start with the lock plate and reassemble the lock as they remove wood. I assume you have one of the building manuals, and are using some type of inletting black, such as candle or lamp soot. next would be the barrel, followed by the trigger, last will be the guard, thimbles, and butt plate.

Bill

 

[dave_person]

Jhenry,
Your project is not going to happen by mid August. That doesn't even leave you time for the finish to cure properly. Arrange for an alternative gun for the event and then have your friend go slow so he doesn't ruin his investment. A proper job will take him easily to October or November if he knows what he is doing. The research alone to do a historically correct job will take you a few weeks at least. Based on your post, it sounds like neither of you have much experience building guns.

dave

 

[Mike Brooks]

Throw away that precarved stock and build from a blank.

 

[jhenry1728]

I will entirely agree that the timelines is, well, let's call it... aggressive. (I do have 144+ hours of comp time and 80 hours of personal time available from work.) The promising thing is that the stock is 90% inletted, and obviously therein lies the problem. The thumbpiece, for instance, fits perfectly as do the thimbles.

Starting from a blank is certainly popping up on the radar. For me, I'm done with pre-inletted stuff. The lock and barrel never line up. I had a similar problem with a pre-inlet rifle stock. My original work plan went out the window once I brought it into the shop. I'll typically start with getting the barrel in place first, then moving onto the lock, but here...

As for the inletting black, I'm switching to garish lipstick as with the humidity (97% today) the walnut has turned black and one drip of sweat will do the same. The humidity puts me into another issue of working the wood with high humidity and high temperatures.

I'm not ready to give up yet. If I do go with starting on a new blank, I'd be interested to hear suggestions on wood. This would be from the PA and VA areas.

 

[jsn]

Personaly I would buy a blank.

Ive seen precarves and I am not impressed. Its soo much easier to start with a blank, Working with a blank worked better for me because I did not have to worry about rasping away 1/4" on each side of the stock to make it right! You could take the stock and machine it down to a very manageable level and it gives you a more stable platform to drill pin holes for furnature and the barrel.

Maple or Walnut should be fine.

 

[jhenry1728]

I worked through most of the day last Sunday and managed to get the barrel and lock to match up nicely. The decision is to distress the very outer edge of the lock and give it the appearance that the original lock was replaced after ca. 20 years of use.

The next big adventure will be the buttplate and the barrel underlugs. The trigger group is inletted and together along with the thimbles and sideplate.

I have this weekend as well, so we'll see how far I get.