Didn't have much time to do any work on my rifle last week until Friday. Spent 20 minutes polishing the buttplate. On Saturday, I looked at the fit of the bolster to the barrel and decided the shim was not a good idea. I spent 40 minutes disassembling the lock and working on the inletting to improve the fit in the mortise. I closed the gap to where there is only one spot toward the front of the pan that is maybe 0.001" and I decided that it would be acceptable. I also put several coats of tung oil diluted with gum turpentine (@70/30 mix) on the ramrod.
I decided to make a toe plate and was having a hard time finding some 16 GA steel until I called a local sheet metal fabricator. He had a piece of leftover 16 ga that measures @ 16 x24" and I traded him 2 boxes of .22LR and a can of Ballistol for it! There is enough steel here to make 50 toe plates!
If I have time tonight I will start cutting out the toe plate.
Note: spent 30 minutes tonight polishing the lock and getting a tighter fit between frizzen and pan. Started playing around with scraps of cherry wood and different stains. Bloomed a piece with AF, but didn't like how dark it turned out - mayne I flooded too much on the wood?
Total time on the build so far is 11 hours 30 minutes.
I decided to make a toe plate and was having a hard time finding some 16 GA steel until I called a local sheet metal fabricator. He had a piece of leftover 16 ga that measures @ 16 x24" and I traded him 2 boxes of .22LR and a can of Ballistol for it! There is enough steel here to make 50 toe plates!
If I have time tonight I will start cutting out the toe plate.
Note: spent 30 minutes tonight polishing the lock and getting a tighter fit between frizzen and pan. Started playing around with scraps of cherry wood and different stains. Bloomed a piece with AF, but didn't like how dark it turned out - mayne I flooded too much on the wood?
Total time on the build so far is 11 hours 30 minutes.
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