Triangular shaped??

[LehighBrad]

I'm almost ready to begin the shaping of my forearm and the wood under the barrel from the entry pipe to the nose cap. I once saw a rifle that had the wood area from the entry pipe to the nose cap shaped in a somewhat triangular shape. Even the nose cap looked as though it was just a piece of sheet brass shaped in a triangle shape with the ram rod groove formed in it to match the profile of the wood. Was this a common practice on say, a Lehigh style rifle? And does anyone know where a photo showing this type of stock shape is so I can perhaps study it better?? Thanks....Brad

[Acer Saccharum]

Brad, the shape of the forestock really depends on the 'school' of rifle. Lehigh rifles commonly had a triangular forestock cross section.
Tom

[Dave B]

There is a great shot of a Lehigh rifle in RCA I  #57 by Herman Rupp. It has the ramrod grove formed in it but it is not triangular in cross section. I have seen some Bucks Co. sooth rifles with a muzzle cap as you discribe but it  was more heart like in its shape. It was on a Shuler.  Here is what I have listed as a Kuntz muzzle caps

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Here's a picture of the forearm on my Kuntz rifle.  Starting at the forward end of the lock molding, the forearm is an oval, and as you arrive at the entry pipe, it is flatter and flatter, but still rounded along the bottom.  The upper forearm is virtually flat from the thickest section, which is about 1/8" thick about 1/4" down from the barrel channel, to the rod channel and pipes.  Many of the Lehigh rifles I've had the pleasure to study are like this, especially the upper forearm, but some have a very gentle roundness to them rather than flat like the Kuntz.  At the nose piece, there is a transition to a more rounded section, and the nose piece has a groove for the rod.  This is not my idea...it's how Jacob made his rifles.

The upper forearm on Lehigh rifles is often much broader than rifles from Lancaster, Berks, etc.  For example, there is almost no wood along the barrel of a JP Beck rifle by comparison.  Even so, Lehigh rifles are not clumsy or chunky here.