Kibler kit assembly and carving

[dave_person]

Hi Nick,
I think the carved aprons and lock moldings on the early Brown Bess was just a fashion. There are some firearms historians writing in the mid 20th century that decided it had to be to add strength to the stock. However, that was a red herring in my opinion and it must not have been very effective because the Brits got rid of the lock carvings by the very next pattern (1742). Perhaps the apron elevated the tang but what for? Not for aiming and that part is not the weak area needing strengthening, the lower wrist where the thumb plate and hole drilled through the stock is far more critical. I think it was just fashion and tradition. Some of those older firearms "historians" were obsessed that every feature had to have a practical purpose despite lots of evidence to the contrary. Decorating many useful objects to some extent was a feature during the 18th century.

dave

 

[dave_person]

Hi Dane,
I could do that. I have some tools useful for that process and can show how they are made. I'll do it Dane.

dave

 

[Brokennock]

Decorating many useful objects to some extent was a feature during the 18th century.

But this would add exorbitant costs, especially to a gun,,,,, at least according to some folks, and therefore most guns were plain with no carving or engraving.........





(Sarcasm, one of many services I offer)

 

[troy2000]

Hi Nick,
I think the carved aprons and lock moldings on the early Brown Bess was just a fashion. There are some firearms historians writing in the mid 20th century that decided it had to be to add strength to the stock. However, that was a red herring in my opinion and it must not have been very effective because the Brits got rid of the lock carvings by the very next pattern (1742). Perhaps the apron elevated the tang but what for? Not for aiming and that part is not the weak area needing strengthening, the lower wrist where the thumb plate and hole drilled through the stock is far more critical. I think it was just fashion and tradition. Some of those older firearms "historians" were obsessed that every feature had to have a practical purpose despite lots of evidence to the contrary. Decorating many useful objects to some extent was a feature during the 18th century.

dave

Similarly, the fishing schooners that once plied the Banks off Newfoundland and Cape Cod (think Captain's Courageous) were influenced by the latest fashions of the New York Yacht Club and similar venues. If a captain was going to dedicate his life and his life savings to a schooner, he wanted it to be stylish as well as fast...

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
A good example is how much a statement austere Shaker furniture made when first produced in the early 1800s. It was an intentional departure from the norms of decoration applied to furniture at that time and it was considered "radical" because of that.

dave

 

[dave_person]

Hi Guys,
I had to put Simon's gun aside for a while to work on a paper that my coauthors want to get submitted to a scientific journal right away. I had some data crunching to do. Anyway, I got back on the job yesterday and am beginning the carving. I took some time to design it. It will be a mix of Moravian, early Germanic, and folk art styles. There will also be a mix of brass, silver, and silver and brass wire inlay. I haven't decided on all the details yet but here is the beginning. The initial cheek carving design, which will include an engraved brass sun with brass wire inlay:

I stabbed in the outlines and relieved the background:

Then I shaped the cheek piece a bit more:

Before doing any more, I decided to pencil in the rest of the carving.

The clouds around the sun may be engraved silver inlays or silver wire. The design is just quickly penciled in and will change a bit as I make final decisions. The design under the cheek rest may be wire but could be a combination of relief and incised carving with wire accents. The Moravian star on the cheek piece will have an engraved solid silver center and silver wire outline and shading.

The barrel tang carving is classic German and Moravian. It may have silver dots at the end of each lobe.
The patch box will have a Moravian design at the base and a simple line border. It will be outlined on the stock with silver wire.

The lock side wrist carving is mostly from the Edward Marshall rifle with a twist. It will be a combination of relief and incised carving. The accents between the carving and the patch box are tentative and I think I'll try something else to bridge the space between the carving and the box lid.

This is fun!!!

dave

 

[Norman Brooks]

How do you relieve the background? And get so smooth? You really have an eye for detail...

 

[rich pierce]

Really great creative work that still fits well.

 

[appalichian hunter]

Going too be a looker for sure.

 

[PathfinderNC]

Glad to see your updates. I have been wondering how it's going. Your work reminds me of a painter's canvas

 

[dave_person]

Hi Guys,
I had to mow some of my field today so I did not work very long on Simon's rifle. I outlined and relieved the background for the carving in front of the cheek piece and the barrel tang.

Norman, to smooth the background I use 3 tools the most, a curved flat palm chisel, a 3/8" skew chisel, and a small skew micro chisel. After stabbing in the outline, I back cut into the carving with the palm chisel to remove the background along the edge. Then I slice off wood with the 3/8" skew chisel to clean up the back cuts and smooth the wood. I also use it to pare wood away further from the carving to even the surfaces with the background cut away at the edges of the carving. I use the micro chisel to clean the tight spots. On hard curly maple, it is imperative that you slice away the background with clean cuts from scary sharp tools. If you try to just scrape the wood to clean up the back ground you end up with a wash board. because of the hard and soft spots. The I use a bent flat bottomed riffler file to smooth everything further. I'll show the tools in another post. I'll continue to cut all the outlines and backgrounds for the carving and then start the process of final scraping and sanding the stock, which will include whiskering. I'll complete that process and then the last thing to do before staining is cut the details into the carving.

One thing I wish is that the stock was a little wider to the rear of the lock panels. Jim cuts the stock so close to final dimensions that it is hard to get much depth to the lock and side plate panel moldings. If you cut deeper, the sides of the wrist have to be thinned giving the cross section more of a vertical oval, which I don't want. I want a full and wide wrist. What I will probably do is outline the edges of the moldings with a small "V" chisel making an incised cut. That will highlight the edges and make them look more pronounced.

We've been having great sunsets. I wanted to share some:

dave

 

[Norman Brooks]

Thank you for the tool requirement. The only carving I have done the most of is incise carving on a Bucks county rifle. I like the sunset photos, nice rolling hills.

 

[pooch156]

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.

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

I, like you have extremely strong hands. The result of working construction for 46 years. Heavy equipment, jackhammers, hand digging trenches and the like. I remember seeing a neurologist as my balance was off. The cause was actually an ear infection. She tested my hand strength with a Dynamometer. I buried the needle. She was watching the meter and when I squeezed it and I heard her whisper; "Jesus!" So anyway I have read suggestions on this forum by individuals stating full size chisels should be used for better control. That probably works well for some. Not for me though. I can cradle a palm chisel in my right hand and stabilize the blade with my left hand thumb and forefinger.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
Got a lot more done but I've obviously slowed down a bit. Carving design and execution takes time and I spend a lot of time just looking at the gun. I finalized all my carving designs except for carving around the rear ramrod pipe. That is my task for a few days hence. I want to show the gun as it is but also the tools and methods I use to clean up the carving outlines and background. The first step is to smooth the wood using scrapers. I use carpet scraper blades from my local hardware store. They can be used for a long time, sharpened and used again. I find they are often better than actual cabinet maker's scrapers, and they are cheap.

I am scraping around the patch box.

This raises and important issue. Jim Kibler's CNC machining fits the patch box lid very precisely. The problem is when you stain and finish the rifle, that lid is going to be locked in place because of swelling in the wood. You need to scrape the dovetail on the lid and make sure the front dovetail is not locking your lid in place. The lid has to have some slop in the fit so humidity and finish don't jam it.

The photo above shows some carving before clean up.

My primary tools are skew chisels, full length and palm to shear and scrape the ground clean.

I also use tapered dog leg rifflers to smooth the surface.

Then I clean up and smooth the edges with an edge riffler.

One of the great advantages of a Kibler kit is you have a gun right out of the box that is mostly finished. The downside to that is there is not a lot of excess wood anywhere. If you want to modify the stock or carve it, you need to be aware that there is little room for error. You really cannot be naive and go at it without careful thought and planning. That is the trade off you accept with a Kibler kit compared with a raw stock blank or a kit by a maker such as Chambers.

So here is where I am. You can see that it will be an elegant rifle.

After finishing the stock and whiskering a couple of times, I will inlet the decorative details including silver wire and finish the carving. I will document all of that. So lets take a vote. During the whiskering process I stain the wood with a water based aniline dye to highlight the grain and rough areas. What color should I use, yellow, red, or orange? You decide.

dave

 

[zerosprk]

I would think that the yellow or maybe the orange would compliment the brass furniture well. If it was iron mounted, I'd go red all day long...

 

[Pete G]

Yellow

 

[dave_person]

Hi Pete,
Yellow it is! Bright, rich, lemon yellow. Of course it all gets scraped off but it will be loud and gaudy while it lasted. We'll call it a Canary Kibler!

dave

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
Got a lot more done but I wanted to post these images showing how I inlet small inlays. I'll post more later. I have a silver oval for the center of the Moravian star and a brass circle for the center of the sun. Small inlays can be difficult to hold in position for tracing on the wood. I have an easy solution that I learned from Dave Price a few years ago.

I tape the inlay in position with Scotch or packing tape.

Then I place a flexible metal ruler over the taped inlay and give it a good smack with a hammer.

That leaves a nice indent in the wood showing the border.

Which I stab in and cut away the mortice.

And in it goes. I file and sand it flush.

Next the sun.

Eventually a brass and silver nail plus epoxy will hold them in place. I want to remove them for engraving.

dave

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
Got a lot more finishing done. I outlined the carving for the rear ramrod pipe tang. It is very Moravian. I show using a circle template to keep both sides even. The template is positioned using a few registration marks on both sides of the stock and then traced.

I did a bit more final scraping and sanding on the stock.

Its yellow!

Behold the Canary Kibler! I kind of like it. Anyway, I stain the stocks yellow, red, or orange at this point because on such light colored wood like maple, the stain shows up all the scratches and rough spots. I eventually scrape and sand it all off and it serves as a cycle of whiskering. If you intend to stain a stock with water-based stain, like aqua fortis, you need to wet the stock beforehand, dry it, sand off the raised wood grain, and do it again until no grain rises. I do this before I cut details in the carving or do the final decoration. When the yellow stain is all gone, I am ready to do the final work before staining and putting finish on the stock.

dave

 

[PathfinderNC]

Excellent tutorial, Dave. I am learning many things from you here, thank you!