@dave_person if you ever publish a book, I'd buy a copy in a heartbeat. I'll happily pay extra to have you sign it.
Thanks Jim! Sometimes I just wonder. Can I do this? Am I in over my head? Keeps me up at night.
dave
Great tutorial for me.since I wasn't building my first one at my house, I had to make fo with tools brought. I didn't think of final carving when I packed for the class. I managed this line and other basic carves with a pair of compasses, a pocket knife, and the small files. I can see where my hand wandered.Hi,
So I am working on the gun and thinking, "I am on vacation", only having to do what I want, like carving. Kibler & Co. took care of the grunt work. Then I get to the patch box lid and the brass end cap. The kit supplied a piece of sheet brass! What!! I have to make it? Are you kidding Mister Kibler cookie man? I was beginning to pretend I was a Millennial here, ya know! Now you expect me to actually make something? "Sheeesh!" as Jean Shepard used to say,
Well I stirred myself from my fiercely defended lethargy and got some work done today. I started adding details to the stock. The fore stock needs little finishing other than sanding so I cut the fore stock moldings along the ramrod channel. With Kibler's machined stock, this was easy! Some folks use jigs to do this but I am much more low tech. I use an old marking gauge that was my great, great, grandfather's and mark the distance from the edge of the ramrod channel to the thimble pin holes. I want the edge of the molding to be lined up with those holes. Then I use the gauge to incise a deep line marking the edge of the molding.
I cut that line using an English checkering tool with long axis.
Then I deepen the cut with a 60 degree Gunline checkering tool.
Next, I peel away the background to form a raised edge to the molding using a scary sharp dog leg chisel.
I clean up the edge and level the ground using a bottoming file.
Then I scrape off the tool marks with a 3-edged chip carving knife.
dave
I have no intention of ever building a rifle, even from a kit,,,, but I too would buy that book in less than the blink of an eye.
Thank you for showing that way that you do the line molding on the stock, I did mine free hand and had to go over it numerous times before I was happy with it. Keep posting your ways of doing things of that nature, very helpful!
Those are excellent examples of how I might go about thinning the wrist on my next Colonial. I did not even think about dropping. the tang angle a bit downward but it seems to really give more graceful lines. I think I got the idea of the heavy molding around the tang from some pictures of some early German rifles, though I can’t remember of any specifically. And the Brown Bess has a somewhat similar feature of that tang molding I guess. I like that mogul because it gives material to embellish with some carving, and by a hand such as yours it really becomes a lovely highlight of that area.Hi PathfinderNC,
Here is a good example illustrating architecture at the wrist. It is my version of the Edward Marshall rifle and is as close to a "bench copy" of the original rifle as I could make.
This is a big, full throated gun but note that the barrel tang bends down just behind the breech. It doesn't extend very far back before arching downward. Then notice the top of the wrist is fairly straight angling down to the comb. That really knocks off the "mogul" and gives it a really graceful pleasing shape surrounding the lock. It is a feature usually found on British guns as well.
Here is another example.
Again notice the fairly straight top to the wrist angling down shortly behind the breech.
Now imagine what the wrist would look like if the barrel tangs on both of these rifles was a little straighter such that the ends stuck up 1/16-1/8" higher than they do. A mogul would form.
dave
Something I just thought about though- will bending the tang downward realign the tang bolt direction? If so you might need to adjust the through hole to the trigger plate, which also might be even more complicated because that hole is already aimed and threaded? I would be in way over my skill-set!
Dang
Beautiful Dave, you just stick with me, I'll get you through this, lolHi,
So I am working on the gun and thinking, "I am on vacation", only having to do what I want, like carving. Kibler & Co. took care of the grunt work. Then I get to the patch box lid and the brass end cap. The kit supplied a piece of sheet brass! What!! I have to make it? Are you kidding Mister Kibler cookie man? I was beginning to pretend I was a Millennial here, ya know! Now you expect me to actually make something? "Sheeesh!" as Jean Shepard used to say,
Well I stirred myself from my fiercely defended lethargy and got some work done today. I started adding details to the stock. The fore stock needs little finishing other than sanding so I cut the fore stock moldings along the ramrod channel. With Kibler's machined stock, this was easy! Some folks use jigs to do this but I am much more low tech. I use an old marking gauge that was my great, great, grandfather's and mark the distance from the edge of the ramrod channel to the thimble pin holes. I want the edge of the molding to be lined up with those holes. Then I use the gauge to incise a deep line marking the edge of the molding.
I cut that line using an English checkering tool with long axis.
Then I deepen the cut with a 60 degree Gunline checkering tool.
Next, I peel away the background to form a raised edge to the molding using a scary sharp dog leg chisel.
I clean up the edge and level the ground using a bottoming file.
Then I scrape off the tool marks with a 3-edged chip carving knife.
I used those tools to shape the terminus of the molding at the muzzle end.
Next I cut the lock and side plate panel moldings. But first, I scraped and sanded the contours of the lock area to clean up the shape and machine marks. For those of you intending to make a gun from a rough stock, the level of shaping and smoothing exhibited by a Kibler kit is the point of shaping at which you should even consider starting to cut any moldings. I sketch the design on the stock. In this case I decided the "apron and beaver tail" should be long to match the long, narrow shape of the lock and side plate. I also made the tail and apron large because the wrist of the gun is large. I've seen some photos of Kibler Colonial rifle kits with thin, tiny beaver tails that are so obscure they remind me of "Where's Waldo" given the thick wrist of the Kibler rifle.
I draw the design, and then use my stabbing in chisel to outline it.
Then I back cut the edge with a small flat skew palm chisel.
Now I want everyone to understand that my choice of tools is affected by my disability in my hands. I suffered severe frostbite several times during my mountain rescue days and have neurologic damage in my fingers. I rely on palm and micro chisels where others use full length tools just as well. My hands are extremely strong allowing me to use palm chisels effectively but they may not work on hard maple as well for others.
I clean up the cuts with a variety of tools including my chip carving knife and riffler files.
Here is where I am. I'll clean up the molding later as I finish the gun.
dave
