Resuming work on my squirrel rifle

[bioprof]

I started working on my late Lancaster rifle again now that I finished the snaphaunce rifle that I was working on. I shaped the lock panels today. Did I get them thin enough?

 

[Mulebrain]

Look real good to me, but what the heck to I know :wink:

 

[mazo kid]

Yeah, I agree with Mule Brain; only thing I can see wrong is that you put the lock on the WRONG side! :rotf:

 

[bioprof]

It doesn't look like it, but I've actually made a quite a bit more progress. I installed the sights, shaped the forestock, and shaped the panels around the side plate. I plan on shortening up the cheek rest to make more room for carving and take a little bit of wood off of the top of the comb.

 

[Hawken Dan]

Very nice looking so far. Hope mine turns out that good. :thumbsup:

Daniel

 

[ord sgt]

Looks like there is some nice strippping in that stock.

 

[bioprof]

I got this stock from Stonewall Creek Outfitters. It was one of about 150 Southern Mountain stocks that he has been selling for $125. I was very pleased when I received it. It was better than some of the fancy grade stocks that I have gotten from other companies for close to double the price.

 

[bioprof]

I reshaped the comb this weekend - shortened it up fore and aft and removed some wood from the bottom of the comb so that it was pointing towards the middle of the wrist. Some of these precarves sure require a lot of redoing to get them right.

I also got the patchbox finial cut out from a blank patchbox kit. It is from a Fordney longrifle which I am using as a model.

 

[Zonie]

Better to have too much wood than too little. :grin:

I've always maintained that the precarved stocks supplied by most makers is just a roughed out starting point. They never were intended to just be sanded and stained (although more than a few have had no more work done to them than that by first time builders that didn't understand what they were holding.)

 

[bioprof]

Here's a picture of the inletted patchbox finial. Tomorrow I will finish inletting and fitting the lid, then on to inletting the sides of the patchbox.

My wife insists that the patchbox finial is a kitty rather than a horse head, so I guess I'll have to call the rifle Miss Kitty. :haha:

 

[catfish33]

Looking real good.

 

[bioprof]

I've been all over town trying to find brass nails, which I understand is what Fordney used to attach the side rails for the patchbox. So I finally decided just to make some by turning down some brass rod in my drill press. Here are the pins ready to attach the side rail:

 

[bioprof]

Here's a picture after attaching one of the side rails. I see that the nail head in the middle is visible, so I either countersunk it too much or the head wasn't beveled right. The other two nail heads are almost invisible. The fact that one of the nail heads is visible doesn't really bother me though, as you can see this in some of the pictures of original rifles in Kindig's book. It probably won't show as much when the brass starts to tarnish anyway.

 

[bioprof]

Finally finished installing the patchbox cover and siderails. It looks to me like it's begging to be engraved.

 

[qtrhrs7]

I'd say yelling! Very nice work...keep us posted.

 

[bioprof]

I cut out and installed a toe plate today. The beavertail end of the toe plate is a copy from an original Melchoir Fordney toe plate except that I made it a little longer to make it look better proportionally.

I now have it in-the-white and am ready to sand it down to prepare for carving.