My first build inleting question

[Tanker]

Tank..........Too bad you can't borrow another gun to look at. Not to copy one to one , but just to get the feel of what to do. Electric hand drill w/larger bits can remove wood so barrel channel is quicker. Very important , draw a copious amount of lines to delineate boundaries along edges of barrel channel so you don't get sloppy when you get tired. Chisels larger than 3/8" not necessary , and 1/4 " might be perfect to use most of the time. The wood type/hardness , can dictate chisel size. Make or buy a medium wt. wood mallet to drive your chisels. Barrel channels don't have to be perfect. If evidence is required to convince you of this ,look at some originals. Old time pre 1840 gun shops lived and died on the same principles any business does today.....Time is money. Perfection was when the trigger was pulled the shot was accurate. Hope this helps... last time I completely inlet a barrel by hand was in the early 1970's ,but if you build enough guns every now and again at least part of a barrel inlet is necessary. ...........oldwood

I do have a few guns to reference. I do have most of the tools.. I have done wood working most of my life. Not a lot of high detailed finish work though. So I'm being overly cautious. Everyone sharing the knowledge is helping me a lot.
Thanks for the advice.

 

[Tanker]

I want to thank everyone for all the help. I suffered a brain injury about 10 years ago. Since then I am overly cautious on everything I do. Most things I have to see or do now a few times to fully understand. So if some of my questions come off strange or leave you scratching your head I do apologize. I find my self scratching my head a lot trying to figure out why I do/say the things I do. So again I appreciate all the help.

 

[rchas]

I think it is worth mentioning that many historical smiths did their barrel channels with a round gouge. The sides of the channel were flat and tight on the barrel, but they made no effort to inlet and tightly fit the three bottom barrel flats into the stock.

 

[LawrenceA]

I think it is worth mentioning that many historical smiths did their barrel channels with a round gouge. The sides of the channel were flat and tight on the barrel, but they made no effort to inlet and tightly fit the three bottom barrel flats into the stock.

Thank you.
I did not know that

 

[Tanker]

I think it is worth mentioning that many historical smiths did their barrel channels with a round gouge. The sides of the channel were flat and tight on the barrel, but they made no effort to inlet and tightly fit the three bottom barrel flats into the stock.

I read that not that long ago. The only thing the paid a little attention to was the last few inches of the stock for fitment of the nose cap.

 

[EC121]

If a round gouge or router plane is used, the barrel sits on the bottom flat or the bottom corners of the side flats. With the pins installed a little Gorilla glue spotted randomly down the channel will swell and fill the voids under the bottom flat to stop any movement.

 

[oldwood]

A simple way to bed a barrel a little or a lot , is to cut up a grocery store bag and tape one layer to the underside of the barrel ,mix up some cheap epoxie , dump the goo in and seat the barrel in the barrel channel. After the glue hardens , pull the barrel out and remove the plastic bag out of the barrel channel. Perfect fit. This method can be used to fix a split in a forearm as well. For further perfection the epoxie can be colored with some powdered brown dye from a wood worker's store or Brownells. Many different problems with gun wood can be solved w/ this method................oldwood

 

[SOLANCO]

If this is your first build I highly recommend hand tools for everything. I inlet a swamped barrel into a blank stock using only hand tools for my first build, and I am glad I did. It will take 10 times longer but you will learn 10 times as much, achieve better results, and gain an appreciation for what it took to build these guns two centuries ago.

There is a saying I read somewhere in one of the gun building books about "creeping up on perfection". That is a great mindset to keep, and hard to do with power tools.

"Creeping up on perfection". Love it!
Perfectly describes approaching any activity one cares deeply about. It could be mentoring my great grandson or a Japanese sword maker working in the 1600's.
When the Emigs built my rifle they got close enough to slap perfection on the back of the head.