Pete G
76 Cal.
Maybe it was designated (modern) as Honduras mahogany to differentiate from Phillipean, also known as Luan which is so abundant and such poor quality that it is used as dunnage on cargo ships.
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Building a Chambers Isaac Haines rifle kit
- Thread starter dave_person
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Hi Pete,
You may be right and most people today only know those two kinds of wood called mahogany.
dave
You may be right and most people today only know those two kinds of wood called mahogany.
dave
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Hi,
Patch box is in. I transfer the design to the metal using a product called "Tom Whites Transfer Magic" . I believe it may be some simple formula of lacquer, acetone, and alcohol. I paint it on the clean metal surface with a Q-tip and let it dry. While drying, I blow on it such that the humidity from my breath frosts the lacquer. My design is printed in ink on transparency and I darken the lines with an ink pen.
Then I turn it over on the coated metal and burnish it with a steel burnisher. The coating absorbs some of the ink and transfers it to the metal. If the image is too light, I simply darken the lines on the metal with my ink pen.
Then I cut the inlay out with my jeweler's saw and clean it up with files. On designs like this for which the engraving and outline are integral, I sketch important lines that will be engraved on the metal, which helps me do the final shaping.
The next step is inletting and then filing every thing flush and clean and making the screws. By using fairly thick brass, there is ample metal to contour the box to the stock and it does not dimple easily at screw holes or where it is tapped in place. I do not like to see PBs with dimpled metal, which often really shows up after it is polished. Next up are the lid spring, catch, and release mechanism.
This is a big patch box with a large lid. I typically like smaller, thinner boxes but I am making this one as close to the original gun as I can based on the photos. It is almost certain the PB cavity is very large or why make such a big lid. The PB really takes up a lot of the butt stock. Haines seems to have liked to engrave and this big PB sure gave him a canvas. I cannot imagine including this without engraving it.
dave
Patch box is in. I transfer the design to the metal using a product called "Tom Whites Transfer Magic" . I believe it may be some simple formula of lacquer, acetone, and alcohol. I paint it on the clean metal surface with a Q-tip and let it dry. While drying, I blow on it such that the humidity from my breath frosts the lacquer. My design is printed in ink on transparency and I darken the lines with an ink pen.
Then I turn it over on the coated metal and burnish it with a steel burnisher. The coating absorbs some of the ink and transfers it to the metal. If the image is too light, I simply darken the lines on the metal with my ink pen.
Then I cut the inlay out with my jeweler's saw and clean it up with files. On designs like this for which the engraving and outline are integral, I sketch important lines that will be engraved on the metal, which helps me do the final shaping.
The next step is inletting and then filing every thing flush and clean and making the screws. By using fairly thick brass, there is ample metal to contour the box to the stock and it does not dimple easily at screw holes or where it is tapped in place. I do not like to see PBs with dimpled metal, which often really shows up after it is polished. Next up are the lid spring, catch, and release mechanism.
This is a big patch box with a large lid. I typically like smaller, thinner boxes but I am making this one as close to the original gun as I can based on the photos. It is almost certain the PB cavity is very large or why make such a big lid. The PB really takes up a lot of the butt stock. Haines seems to have liked to engrave and this big PB sure gave him a canvas. I cannot imagine including this without engraving it.
dave
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Thanks for sharing the pictures and progress. I think I'm going to do a Chambers Early Lancaster Pa. rifle this winter.
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Hi,
The patch box spring and catch system is done. I must confess that I have not done more than a half dozen brass patch boxes so I do not blow through them quickly. I have to take my time and I make mistakes. For example, I had to make a second lid catch because I filed too much off the first and it did not hold the lid tightly closed. I am not a pro at these. You guys should see the fantastic Fainot patch box Rich Pierce is making on the ALR website. Anyway, I do my best.
The photo below shows the catch mechanism behind the butt plate. It is a simple spring and hook arrangement with a push rod under the butt plate return. There was a problem with the kit because the patch box mortice was cut so close to the butt plate that there was barely room for the spring catch. I broke through to the mortice as I inlet the spring catch. There was only about 1/8" thick of wood behind the catch and it punched out as I cut. I am going to glue in a thicker piece of maple to strengthen the back wall of the inlet. It will be invisible but it highlights some of the issues you can run into when building kits.
The next photo shows the lid open with its lid spring installed and the lid catch showing. The catch has a squared stud that fits through a squared hole in the lid, which prevents it from rotating. The top of that hole in the lid is round countersunk. The catch is inserted, soldered in place, and then peened on the outside to fill the countersink. You have to be very careful during peening not to dimple the lid. The excess stud is then filed flush with the lid and it looks round, not square. The lid spring is inlet under the hinge and it does not need to exert a lot of force, just enough to pop the lid open when the push rod is pressed. I file the hooks on the catches and position them such that the hooking action is very positive and you hear an audible "click". I worked over too many rifles with patch boxes on which the lids barely caught and you could bang the stocks and the lid opened.
The next photo shows the completed patch box with catch mechanism and the push button. Finally, I want to mention some tricks I use. All of the screws in the patch box are still a little over sized. I won't file them down until I am finishing the gun and installing the box permanently. That way I can clean up the slots and polish the heads removing all the wear marks from the times I screwed them in and unscrewed then during the building process. I will also harden and temper the heads to resist rust.
The other trick I use is to solder a little tab under the forward end of the patch box side plates. The tab fits under the patch box hinge holding the front parts of the inlays down firmly in place.
More to come and thanks for looking.
dave
The patch box spring and catch system is done. I must confess that I have not done more than a half dozen brass patch boxes so I do not blow through them quickly. I have to take my time and I make mistakes. For example, I had to make a second lid catch because I filed too much off the first and it did not hold the lid tightly closed. I am not a pro at these. You guys should see the fantastic Fainot patch box Rich Pierce is making on the ALR website. Anyway, I do my best.
The photo below shows the catch mechanism behind the butt plate. It is a simple spring and hook arrangement with a push rod under the butt plate return. There was a problem with the kit because the patch box mortice was cut so close to the butt plate that there was barely room for the spring catch. I broke through to the mortice as I inlet the spring catch. There was only about 1/8" thick of wood behind the catch and it punched out as I cut. I am going to glue in a thicker piece of maple to strengthen the back wall of the inlet. It will be invisible but it highlights some of the issues you can run into when building kits.
The next photo shows the lid open with its lid spring installed and the lid catch showing. The catch has a squared stud that fits through a squared hole in the lid, which prevents it from rotating. The top of that hole in the lid is round countersunk. The catch is inserted, soldered in place, and then peened on the outside to fill the countersink. You have to be very careful during peening not to dimple the lid. The excess stud is then filed flush with the lid and it looks round, not square. The lid spring is inlet under the hinge and it does not need to exert a lot of force, just enough to pop the lid open when the push rod is pressed. I file the hooks on the catches and position them such that the hooking action is very positive and you hear an audible "click". I worked over too many rifles with patch boxes on which the lids barely caught and you could bang the stocks and the lid opened.
The next photo shows the completed patch box with catch mechanism and the push button. Finally, I want to mention some tricks I use. All of the screws in the patch box are still a little over sized. I won't file them down until I am finishing the gun and installing the box permanently. That way I can clean up the slots and polish the heads removing all the wear marks from the times I screwed them in and unscrewed then during the building process. I will also harden and temper the heads to resist rust.
The other trick I use is to solder a little tab under the forward end of the patch box side plates. The tab fits under the patch box hinge holding the front parts of the inlays down firmly in place.
More to come and thanks for looking.
dave
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Hi,
All my chores are done and I am ready for the fun stuff. All of the parts are installed and now I move on to final shaping, carving, finishing, and engraving (the fun stuff). While I wish the barrel was 45-46" long, the rifle as is handles very nicely. This will be a very fine hunting rifle. All of the ramrod pipe and barrel pin holes are drilled and I filed the holes in the barrel tennons oval shaped to allow the stock to swell and contract relative to the barrel. I make the barrel pins from 3/32" spring steel wire that will eventually be hardened and tempered. That prevents the pins from bending and the ends mushrooming after repeated tapping in and out. I'll share an opinion. The kit comes with 1/16" spring wire for pins holding the trigger guard and ramrod thimbles. I used that wire. However, I much prefer using at least 5/64" wire because it is stronger but also because the drill for making the holes is also stronger and less apt to break in the hole. Indeed, I had a 1/16" drill break while drilling through a brass pipe installed in the wood. A common scenario when using sheet brass pipes is the drill gets bound between the two layers of metal forming the tab and breaks. Consequently, I prefer 5/64" for trigger guard and pipe pins and 3/32" for barrel pins. Below are some photos of where I am at. It will take me some days to final shape the stock, design the carving on the wood, and carve it. I'll document all of that.
dave
All my chores are done and I am ready for the fun stuff. All of the parts are installed and now I move on to final shaping, carving, finishing, and engraving (the fun stuff). While I wish the barrel was 45-46" long, the rifle as is handles very nicely. This will be a very fine hunting rifle. All of the ramrod pipe and barrel pin holes are drilled and I filed the holes in the barrel tennons oval shaped to allow the stock to swell and contract relative to the barrel. I make the barrel pins from 3/32" spring steel wire that will eventually be hardened and tempered. That prevents the pins from bending and the ends mushrooming after repeated tapping in and out. I'll share an opinion. The kit comes with 1/16" spring wire for pins holding the trigger guard and ramrod thimbles. I used that wire. However, I much prefer using at least 5/64" wire because it is stronger but also because the drill for making the holes is also stronger and less apt to break in the hole. Indeed, I had a 1/16" drill break while drilling through a brass pipe installed in the wood. A common scenario when using sheet brass pipes is the drill gets bound between the two layers of metal forming the tab and breaks. Consequently, I prefer 5/64" for trigger guard and pipe pins and 3/32" for barrel pins. Below are some photos of where I am at. It will take me some days to final shape the stock, design the carving on the wood, and carve it. I'll document all of that.
dave
Brokennock
Cannon
Thank you. I always look forward to these posts.
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Hi,
I will be posting more work soon but I want to offer a brief essay on carving before getting on with the gun. I post tutorials on this forum, on the ALR forum, and do seminars and demos at Dixon's Gun Maker's Fair. Over time, I've heard many comments by folks intimidated by carving and other decorative techniques. "I can't draw", "I am no artist", and "most guns were plain anyway they just did not survive". Not everyone is suited to doing decorative art but I think there are many who just don't know how to get started. Let me offer some advice. First, you do not have to reinvent the wheel. Copy the work on original guns as a start. Buy the CDs from the Kentucky Rifle Foundation that show original guns in great "zoomable" detail. Look at them carefully and then practice copying one that you like. Draw the design on a gun you are building but don't feel confident to carve. Regardless, draw one or more designs from originals behind the cheek piece, around the barrel tang, and the rear ramrod pipe. Erase the design and draw another. Do it over and over again until you actually feel good about drawing a design. Do it again with other designs from other guns until you build a library in your mind of designs you copied. Art students often spend hours copying the work of masters so they learn the techniques of design and eventually have a storehouse of design knowledge in their brains enabling them to create their own unique work but that stands on the shoulders of the older masters. Once you have experience drawing the designs on your stock, look again at the CDs to learn how the masters cut them. You may see evidence of gouges or "V" tools, etc. Then work on your skills with those tools on practice slabs until you can handle them with some confidence. Then carve a gun. Maybe try and copy and original or make slight changes. If you are going to make only one gun in your life, all this is mute. My advice would be build a Kibler kit if it suits you but you have no need to develop skills. However, if you want to become a good builder and work on many guns, the process I described will help you.
dave
I will be posting more work soon but I want to offer a brief essay on carving before getting on with the gun. I post tutorials on this forum, on the ALR forum, and do seminars and demos at Dixon's Gun Maker's Fair. Over time, I've heard many comments by folks intimidated by carving and other decorative techniques. "I can't draw", "I am no artist", and "most guns were plain anyway they just did not survive". Not everyone is suited to doing decorative art but I think there are many who just don't know how to get started. Let me offer some advice. First, you do not have to reinvent the wheel. Copy the work on original guns as a start. Buy the CDs from the Kentucky Rifle Foundation that show original guns in great "zoomable" detail. Look at them carefully and then practice copying one that you like. Draw the design on a gun you are building but don't feel confident to carve. Regardless, draw one or more designs from originals behind the cheek piece, around the barrel tang, and the rear ramrod pipe. Erase the design and draw another. Do it over and over again until you actually feel good about drawing a design. Do it again with other designs from other guns until you build a library in your mind of designs you copied. Art students often spend hours copying the work of masters so they learn the techniques of design and eventually have a storehouse of design knowledge in their brains enabling them to create their own unique work but that stands on the shoulders of the older masters. Once you have experience drawing the designs on your stock, look again at the CDs to learn how the masters cut them. You may see evidence of gouges or "V" tools, etc. Then work on your skills with those tools on practice slabs until you can handle them with some confidence. Then carve a gun. Maybe try and copy and original or make slight changes. If you are going to make only one gun in your life, all this is mute. My advice would be build a Kibler kit if it suits you but you have no need to develop skills. However, if you want to become a good builder and work on many guns, the process I described will help you.
dave
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I am truly in awe of your work.
Dave, is that patchbox spring catch part of the kit? Looks pretty handy. As much as you know I love filing, it might be worthwhile for me to buy a couple of those now that I’ve gone over to the brass box side of things for a bit.
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Hi Rich!!
It is a kit from Williamsburg Forge. It is very nice but the spring and catch are way too heavy. I thinned them both a lot and annealed, hardened and tempered them. I am also considering putting a metal disk the size of the round base behind it. The disk will have a hole for the screw and will act as a kind of bearing or bushing so the whole assembly can rotate with less friction when the plunger is pushed. Right now the release is very hard and the pressure needs to be reduced. There are so many sources of friction between metal and wood that a metal bushing should help a lot.
dave
It is a kit from Williamsburg Forge. It is very nice but the spring and catch are way too heavy. I thinned them both a lot and annealed, hardened and tempered them. I am also considering putting a metal disk the size of the round base behind it. The disk will have a hole for the screw and will act as a kind of bearing or bushing so the whole assembly can rotate with less friction when the plunger is pushed. Right now the release is very hard and the pressure needs to be reduced. There are so many sources of friction between metal and wood that a metal bushing should help a lot.
dave
Cruzatte
50 Cal.
Wow....I want to do that when I grow up. Inspiring. Just inspiring. Excuse me.....I need to do some more sanding on my FDC.Hi,
I will be posting more work soon but I want to offer a brief essay on carving before getting on with the gun. I post tutorials on this forum, on the ALR forum, and do seminars and demos at Dixon's Gun Maker's Fair. Over time, I've heard many comments by folks intimidated by carving and other decorative techniques. "I can't draw", "I am no artist", and "most guns were plain anyway they just did not survive". Not everyone is suited to doing decorative art but I think there are many who just don't know how to get started. Let me offer some advice. First, you do not have to reinvent the wheel. Copy the work on original guns as a start. Buy the CDs from the Kentucky Rifle Foundation that show original guns in great "zoomable" detail. Look at them carefully and then practice copying one that you like. Draw the design on a gun you are building but don't feel confident to carve. Regardless, draw one or more designs from originals behind the cheek piece, around the barrel tang, and the rear ramrod pipe. Erase the design and draw another. Do it over and over again until you actually feel good about drawing a design. Do it again with other designs from other guns until you build a library in your mind of designs you copied. Art students often spend hours copying the work of masters so they learn the techniques of design and eventually have a storehouse of design knowledge in their brains enabling them to create their own unique work but that stands on the shoulders of the older masters. Once you have experience drawing the designs on your stock, look again at the CDs to learn how the masters cut them. You may see evidence of gouges or "V" tools, etc. Then work on your skills with those tools on practice slabs until you can handle them with some confidence. Then carve a gun. Maybe try and copy and original or make slight changes. If you are going to make only one gun in your life, all this is mute. My advice would be build a Kibler kit if it suits you but you have no need to develop skills. However, if you want to become a good builder and work on many guns, the process I described will help you.
dave
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Hi,
Back at it but first the autumn spectacle is here.
I've witnessed many natural spectacles in my life and career as a mountain climber and wildlife research scientist. Alpenglow at sunrise, ice fields and glaciers, spawning salmon, caribou migrating right through the edges of Fairbanks, AK, humpback whales bubble feeding next to my skiff, and wolves running and howling around me as I count puppies in their den. I consider fall in Vermont equal to them all and it always goes straight to my heart.
Back to gun making. I started final shaping of the fore stock today. I have an old photo of the famous Haines rifle in Kaufman's old book on the Pennsylvania-Kentucky rifle that shows the fore stock. None of the more modern photos show that feature. It appears that the general profile was a rounded "V" a bit like Lehigh Valley guns. The pre-carved stock also has a "V" profile so I assume that is correct for the gun. I planed off excess wood on the fore stock with a low angle (25 degree) block plane and then filed it to shape. When that was done, I marked out the ramrod channel molding with my old marking gauge (a tool owned by my ancestor, E. E. Muschlitz; there is a Muschlitz Road in Nazareth, PA, which is connected to my family) and probably made in the 1880s.
Next, I used a checkering tool to cut the border line and then a dog-leg chisel to remove the background. I follow that up by smoothing the wood with a bottoming file and the job is done.
More to come.
dave
Back at it but first the autumn spectacle is here.
I've witnessed many natural spectacles in my life and career as a mountain climber and wildlife research scientist. Alpenglow at sunrise, ice fields and glaciers, spawning salmon, caribou migrating right through the edges of Fairbanks, AK, humpback whales bubble feeding next to my skiff, and wolves running and howling around me as I count puppies in their den. I consider fall in Vermont equal to them all and it always goes straight to my heart.
Back to gun making. I started final shaping of the fore stock today. I have an old photo of the famous Haines rifle in Kaufman's old book on the Pennsylvania-Kentucky rifle that shows the fore stock. None of the more modern photos show that feature. It appears that the general profile was a rounded "V" a bit like Lehigh Valley guns. The pre-carved stock also has a "V" profile so I assume that is correct for the gun. I planed off excess wood on the fore stock with a low angle (25 degree) block plane and then filed it to shape. When that was done, I marked out the ramrod channel molding with my old marking gauge (a tool owned by my ancestor, E. E. Muschlitz; there is a Muschlitz Road in Nazareth, PA, which is connected to my family) and probably made in the 1880s.
Next, I used a checkering tool to cut the border line and then a dog-leg chisel to remove the background. I follow that up by smoothing the wood with a bottoming file and the job is done.
More to come.
dave
Dave thanks so much.
SM
SM
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Hi,
Thanks for looking folks and the comments. I have a lot of stuff to post soon. I cut the lock moldings today. Many new makers cut moldings around their locks and side plates before they fully shaped the wrist, barrel tang, lock, and trigger areas. That is a big mistake and the end result is often like the guns pictured.
Kind of slab sided and the moldings not conforming to the stock contours at all. Often the flats are much too wide as on the third gun pictured above.
The trick is to fully shape the areas with rasps, scrapers, and files and let the lock and side plate panels form naturally as you round the wrist, top and bottom. The only place to cut in with a gouge or use a rat tailed rasp is around the nose of the panels and then be careful not to cut too tight a radius cove in the molding. Once the lock and wrist areas are shaped and smoothed almost to finished surface, then and only then, consider cutting moldings.
I don't fuss much with this task. I draw the edge of the molding on stock freehand and cut it. On this particular rifle, Haines cut fairly deep coves in the tails of the moldings and created a ridge that extends in to beaver tail. The front molding extends almost as a straight line down from the top of the lock plate and then forms a rounded arrow head shape. On the bottom, the molding has a slight swell forward of the beaver tail and then a gradual arc swelling again to meet the front molding. The lock panels widen at the front of the lock and at the pointed rear but remain fairly even around the rest of the lock. It is a nice and effective design. I changed the beaver tail design from the original making it more like some other Haines guns rather this particular rifle because both the eventual owner and I prefer that. The original tail is very short and closely fitted around the tail of the lock panel.
After drawing the design on the wood, I stab in the line using a tiny flat chisel. I walk the chisel completely around the molding edge and then back cut it using a small skew chisel. I level up the back ground with the skew and then use a small rifler file on which I ground the ends round. It smooths the background along the edge of the molding and the rounded end fits nicely into the curves of the design.
That completes the job for now until I final finish the gun before staining. Notice on the completed side that the bottom of the stock around the front of the trigger guard is not flat. It should never be flat. It is curved and that curve flows into the curved bottom of the fore stock.
More tomorrow.
dave
Thanks for looking folks and the comments. I have a lot of stuff to post soon. I cut the lock moldings today. Many new makers cut moldings around their locks and side plates before they fully shaped the wrist, barrel tang, lock, and trigger areas. That is a big mistake and the end result is often like the guns pictured.
Kind of slab sided and the moldings not conforming to the stock contours at all. Often the flats are much too wide as on the third gun pictured above.
The trick is to fully shape the areas with rasps, scrapers, and files and let the lock and side plate panels form naturally as you round the wrist, top and bottom. The only place to cut in with a gouge or use a rat tailed rasp is around the nose of the panels and then be careful not to cut too tight a radius cove in the molding. Once the lock and wrist areas are shaped and smoothed almost to finished surface, then and only then, consider cutting moldings.
I don't fuss much with this task. I draw the edge of the molding on stock freehand and cut it. On this particular rifle, Haines cut fairly deep coves in the tails of the moldings and created a ridge that extends in to beaver tail. The front molding extends almost as a straight line down from the top of the lock plate and then forms a rounded arrow head shape. On the bottom, the molding has a slight swell forward of the beaver tail and then a gradual arc swelling again to meet the front molding. The lock panels widen at the front of the lock and at the pointed rear but remain fairly even around the rest of the lock. It is a nice and effective design. I changed the beaver tail design from the original making it more like some other Haines guns rather this particular rifle because both the eventual owner and I prefer that. The original tail is very short and closely fitted around the tail of the lock panel.
After drawing the design on the wood, I stab in the line using a tiny flat chisel. I walk the chisel completely around the molding edge and then back cut it using a small skew chisel. I level up the back ground with the skew and then use a small rifler file on which I ground the ends round. It smooths the background along the edge of the molding and the rounded end fits nicely into the curves of the design.
That completes the job for now until I final finish the gun before staining. Notice on the completed side that the bottom of the stock around the front of the trigger guard is not flat. It should never be flat. It is curved and that curve flows into the curved bottom of the fore stock.
More tomorrow.
dave
Looking great! Thanks for posting the progress pics and all the instructions.
That beaver tail looks much, much better to my eye than the ones on the original.
Mike
That beaver tail looks much, much better to my eye than the ones on the original.
Mike
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drool - worthy!!
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Hi,
I will likely make the flat around the lock and side plate a little smaller along the bottom but I'll put that off for a while. Many guys make the flats way too big and it ruins the architecture of the gun. Also note that my flat follows the edge of the lock right up to the front of the pan. Leaving a big bulging flat there really destroys any flow. On 18th century guns with large round-faced locks there usually was almost no flat at all. The beveled molding came right up to the edge of the lock. Flat surrounds became wider during the late flint era because locks tended to be smaller. Anyway, the Haines rifle has nice crisp lean flats that look nice.
I cut the lower butt stock border line today. It appears that the original rifle has a simple line border. Sometime complicated cove moldings were cut as borders but on this gun it is just a line. Some folks have jigs, scratch stocks, or flexible guides to mark the stock for the border line. I just do it the way my Dad taught, who was taught this by his grandfather. I hold a pencil on the stock and use my middle finger as a guide along the bottom of the stock, and then just sketch the line. I can narrow the border gradually toward the trigger. To keep things symmetrical on both sides of the gun, I measure the width of the border at several points and mark those reference points on the other side. Then I just draw my line through them in the same way I did the first side.
. Next, I cut along the line with a long, coarse checkering tool. You always want the tool perpendicular to the wood surface, which means as you cut toward the trigger and the stock becomes more round, you have to keep rotating the cutter to keep square with the wood. With a little practice, it is pretty easy.
I follow up the initial cut with a 60 degree checkering cutter to deepen the line.
Then I use a 90 degree cutter to widen it. Finally, I clean up the line with a long 90 degree checkering file designed to file checkering borders.
I do the same thing on the other side and I am done. After final shaping and scraping the stock before staining, I may have to go back and even up the depth and width of the line but I now have a permanent guide line.
More to come.
dave
I will likely make the flat around the lock and side plate a little smaller along the bottom but I'll put that off for a while. Many guys make the flats way too big and it ruins the architecture of the gun. Also note that my flat follows the edge of the lock right up to the front of the pan. Leaving a big bulging flat there really destroys any flow. On 18th century guns with large round-faced locks there usually was almost no flat at all. The beveled molding came right up to the edge of the lock. Flat surrounds became wider during the late flint era because locks tended to be smaller. Anyway, the Haines rifle has nice crisp lean flats that look nice.
I cut the lower butt stock border line today. It appears that the original rifle has a simple line border. Sometime complicated cove moldings were cut as borders but on this gun it is just a line. Some folks have jigs, scratch stocks, or flexible guides to mark the stock for the border line. I just do it the way my Dad taught, who was taught this by his grandfather. I hold a pencil on the stock and use my middle finger as a guide along the bottom of the stock, and then just sketch the line. I can narrow the border gradually toward the trigger. To keep things symmetrical on both sides of the gun, I measure the width of the border at several points and mark those reference points on the other side. Then I just draw my line through them in the same way I did the first side.
. Next, I cut along the line with a long, coarse checkering tool. You always want the tool perpendicular to the wood surface, which means as you cut toward the trigger and the stock becomes more round, you have to keep rotating the cutter to keep square with the wood. With a little practice, it is pretty easy.
I follow up the initial cut with a 60 degree checkering cutter to deepen the line.
Then I use a 90 degree cutter to widen it. Finally, I clean up the line with a long 90 degree checkering file designed to file checkering borders.
I do the same thing on the other side and I am done. After final shaping and scraping the stock before staining, I may have to go back and even up the depth and width of the line but I now have a permanent guide line.
More to come.
dave
Ow that hurts it's so beautiful !
Dave I’m catching up here but benefited from your posting of the patchbox spring catch setup. I wasn’t happy with the setup I had on my Deringer trade rifle build. Not as secure or reliable as it should be so I made a spring like the one you showed, put a brass “washer” behind it and now it’s very secure yet releases reliably without excess pressure. I made the pushroad engage a little higher for leverage and the spring is a little thinner. Mine comes from toeplate but same principle. From now on I’ll use this setup for brass boxes where a pushrod is employed.
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