inletting 1803 octagon barrel

[midat]

Hi all,
Building an 1803 Harper's Ferry. Cut the blank out of black walnut, and am about to start inletting for the barrel, and notice that the construction drawing says to file off the angles of the octagon barrel where it fits into the stock.
I wonder if that's necessary? I can cut the inletting so its three sided for most of the length....and then switch to round circular cut for the last couple of inches. Any reason who I shouldn't? Its a beautifully made barrel...had to take a file, or a grinder, to it.
Thoughts?

 

[user 34300]

Do not muck with the barrel. Inlet the stock part octagon and part round.

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

Hi all,
Building an 1803 Harper's Ferry. Cut the blank out of black walnut, and am about to start inletting for the barrel, and notice that the construction drawing says to file off the angles of the octagon barrel where it fits into the stock.
I wonder if that's necessary? I can cut the inletting so its three sided for most of the length....and then switch to round circular cut for the last couple of inches. Any reason who I shouldn't? Its a beautifully made barrel...had to take a file, or a grinder, to it.
Thoughts?

Scota is right on! What a dumb idea to file the barrel!

 

[Pete G]

The original rifles had the corners rounded (to save weight perhaps?) Either way, it doesn't show so it is up to you. Authenticity or ease of build. Personally I vote for authenticity.

 

[Phil Coffins]

Did you mean five sided for most of the length as three sides would for a hexagon rather then an octagon barrel. There’s a reason the instructions say to file the bottom corners and I would.

 

[FlinterNick]

I built a Rifle Shoppe 1803 a few years ago, its a hard kit because of the underrib and thimbles.

The barrel I filed very lightly, nothing significant. At the wedding band I filed and shapped the area uniform. I mostly polished it with an auto burnishers at 400 grit to get a nice satin finish.

 

[FlinterNick]

The original rifles had the corners rounded (to save weight perhaps?) Either way, it doesn't show so it is up to you. Authenticity or ease of build. Personally I vote for authenticity.

I would file off the machined edges to a dull corner, not rounded. I’ve seen many originals, and thats how they were.

 

[Pete G]

I meant that the corners of the barrel under the stock were removed. I agree that the corners that show were not sharp. I believe sharp corners and flats are more the results of modern machining, with the possible exception of some English pieces.

 

[FlinterNick]

I meant that the corners of the barrel under the stock were removed. I agree that the corners that show were not sharp. I believe sharp corners and flats are more the results of modern machining, with the possible exception of some English pieces.

When I built my 1803 I had asked Jess Melot about the rounded under size of the barrel and he said some were made like that at the Springfield Factory For unknown reasons. They had experimented with this gun quite a bit from the short rifle version to the actual 1803 that was produced out of harpers ferry. The gun was pretty heavy no matter how short they made it, they had even tried making it with a hollow underrib., so the rounded underside may have been to save on the weight.

The lock was intentially made small to cut back on weight and give the gun more balance, this was a flaw in design as the lock was overall a poor design.

The later 1814 lock was slightly better with a bigger plate and stronger springs, however Springfield still gave it a thumbs down and recalled hundreds of them before they were used by the assemblers at Harpers Ferry.

Springifeld and Hapers Ferry had differing views on the style and quality of the 1803 rifle and its later variants.

Springfield wanted to do away with the underrib and stock the gun to the muzzle and they felt that the lock was of poorer quality and too small.

I’ve worked on a few 1803 locks and working on building an 1803 lock now For an older rifle.