inletting a round barrel

[bioprof]

I know that you can send a stock out to have it inletted by a professional like Fred Miller or Dave Rase, but how do you inlet a tapered round barrel by hand? I don't think I've seen a photo tutorial anywhere on the internet. I know it's a long shot, but any takers?

 

[Roy]

I just did one.. Will do another one here shortly, guess I can get some pics. Fairly straight forward and not any more difficult to inlet than an oct. barrel :thumbsup: I pretty much start with a router to start the initial channel, scribe where the sides of the barrel will go and dive in with chisels and scrapers. :v

 

[paulvallandigham]

Use a router to hog out or cut out as much of the waste wood you can, then use either a section of the barrel, or the barrel itself as a scraper to remove the rest of the wood. All that is needed is a sharp squared edge on the end of the barrel, and a lot of elbow grease. There are round scrapers sold by gunsmithing supply houses, like Brownells to do this kind of work. Even most modern, round, gun barrels have a slight taper to them, so this is a common problem for all stock makers.

One of the smarter approaches( defined as any better idea than I have thought up on my own! :blah: ) to doing this kind of work is to mark the sides of the stock along the barrel mortise with ledger lines, spaced every 1 inch or so. Along the side of the stock, or if the forestock is wide enough, mark the diameter of the barrel at each of these "Stations". This gives you an instant guide to use in checking the progress of your work as you scrape the taper to the barrel channel. :thumbsup:

 

[rich pierce]

Just funnin here- just deep drill a round hole from the muzzle end of the blank then slab half it off-- :rotf:

 

[BrownBear]

I can't tell you how many tapered round barrels I've inletted in the last 40 years. Call it a bunch, and you'd be close to right.

This is the best tool for the job. Period. End of discussion.

 

[Robert Wolfe]

I've used a gouge to get it close then a scraper.

 

[Twoholes]

Just scribe your lines along side of the barrel then use hand chisels and gouges. Start inside the lines, keep fitting and refitting and go slow. I call it my K.I.S.S. method.

 

[Va.Manuf.06]

Everyone is right, use a deep sweep 3/8 inch gauge and go to town. Brown Bear's suggested tool is good to finish up.

 

[Twoholes]

Yep, that's gonna be a rainy day project for me, making different sized scrapers. I know routers work well in the hands of the skilled craftsman, but they skeer me. :grin:

 

[Stophel]

Basically the same way I do an octagon barrel...but much more slowly. I HATE inletting round barrels with an unbridled passion. Much more difficult for me.

 

[Va.Manuf.06]

Chris it can be a problem on certain muskets/fowlers. Example: Early US muskets were round at the breach with no flat for the lock to rest against - the barrel was left round and inletting with the barrel slightly rotated is not a problem. BUT they soon began filing a flat for the lock plate to rest against. As you know, it gives a better more secure surface for the barrel to rest against so there was good sense in it. Then they started filing a matching short flat on the off side and there is where I run into problems. If the barrel is put in the channel with the barrel rotated even slightly a couple of times, too much wood is removed on the off side and.... well, you know the rest. :redface: I hate it when that happens. :idunno: