Stepped wrist(FINISHED)

[Dennis Glazener]

I have no idea if its correct or not but I think it looks right and to my eyes its a great looking rifle. I am not usually a big fan of stepped wrist rifles but I like this one.
Dennis

[Mark Elliott]

You probably did the best you can with the step.   You do have a hump in the top of the wrist in the back half.  By hump, I mean the wrist is not parallel top and bottom.   That is the main reason for doing a step wrist.   That, and avoiding a too thin butt stock on a gun with less drop.   You can take that down and extend your comb termination forward slightly.   There is also a bit of a fish belly at the rear of the toe.   I don't know if you intended that or not.   If not,  put a little more curve in the bottom line of the toe back of the transition to the step.   I think the belly may actually be an optical illusion because the toe is perfectly straight at that point.   The toe line should always have a slight curve in it.  It doesn't need to be much.

[cmac]

I can't really move the step back anymore due to the triggerguard. I already moved it back about 3/4". I would have liked it back further too.

[cmac]

Mark, thenks for the insight. I will see what I can do with it. I think half the problem(other than the guard) may have been the amount of drop in this rifle.

[Mark Elliott]

I looked at the photo some more, and that hump I saw is actually because you took off too much wood behind the tang.   The fix is the same.   You have to smooth out the line of the wrist my making it smaller toward the comb.    You can actually have the top line of the wrist taper slightly to the comb termination, which would let you extend the comber termination even more; but you have to work very carefully around the comb.   I wouldn't use anything more aggressive than a half round bastard file around that comb.

[Mark Elliott]

I am talking about very small amounts of wood removal (1/32" at most in some places) to change the lines.

[cmac]

Yes, I see what you mean. I still have to scrape down around the cheek piece and add the moldings. In the fine tuning phase. Thanks for the input

[Majorjoel]

Well cmac, I'm sorry that I'm a bit late to the party but it looks like you are well on your way to getting a very nice  rifle built. I know from studying originals with the stepped wrist features that there were a lot of different styles and types that fill our knowledge bank. Most of these styles go hand in hand with the few schools that used it. An interesting example of a Virginia made rifle is pictured and for sale over at Aspen Shade. It has a very pronounced what I call a bottle neck step to it and looks good on this style of rifle but would not fit so well with other styles or era's in my opinion.  http://aspenshadeltd.com/inventory_hon.html      There is another rifle that is pictured on the cover of Henry Kauffman's famous book "The Pennsylvania-Kentucky Rife", that also used this same form of step to the wrist. Kind of a poor picture with mostly a silhouette with the patchbox and barrel escussions  showing. I believe it is a rifle from the upper Susquehanna area.  I cannot say that I have come to like the look of this wrist feature from the beginning or if it is just something that has grown on me from seeing it used on some of the old rifles, but have to tell you that I do like what you have done in your current build. Now that I can see the pictures you have shown of it's entire buttstock area. Before seeing it all, I had thoughts that you may want to take more wood off the forward stock line and work the trigger guard grip rail back It may be because it is in left handed configuration or who knows why? I think it is going to work out nicely just as you've shown it! I look forward to seeing this piece completed!   Joel

[cmac]

Thanks. I'm hoping to have it finished up soon, although I 'm trying not rush it. I have a few other orders to complete...Southern mountain rifle, Verner Rifle, and possibly a smoothie after that. I say keep em coming maybe I can stay out of crawl spaces, avoid old plumbing, etc.   I sure enjoy building them!

[Don Getz]

Acer..........going back to those two guns of yours.    The bottom gun with no finish and a trigger guard installed.  I think
you screwed up, unless you create some crazy linkage to the trigger.   In looking at the lock, and where the sear bar will be,
you won't be able to get your little pinkie on the trigger.....explain...........Don

[Acer Saccharum]

Dear Don, what you see in that picture is the rear curl of the guard, not a trigger at all. This gun will have set triggers, and the front trig will be about 1" back from the front curl of the bow. Trigs are actually fitted, but not installed in this photo. It does neither rasp nor triggers any good to have communication.

[cmac]

Well other than perhaps some burnishing and a test firing, this one is done and will be on its way to the owner shortly. My focus on this build was the Christian Springs Rifles in RCA1. I wanted to do some carving but the customer didn't want it. The Rice barrel is a 44" B weight 40 caliber. The lock is a Chamber's gunmaker's lock. The butt plate and triggerguard came from Muzzleloader Builders Supply(guard reworked). The front sight with ivory inlay came from the owner. The rest of the parts I made. The stock finish was scraped, followed with a couple coats of aqua fortis, followed with about six coats of rifined linseed oil, then waxed. LOP is 14 1/2", drop is 3 5/8", and it has 1/4" cast off.

[Hivernant1962]

Very nice!

[Ed Wenger]

I really like the way the wrist area "flows".  You did a very good job with making the step "work" on this rifle.  Well done, and thanks for posting!


    Ed

[cmac]

Thanks guys! This is the first rifle I have done with a stepped wrist. Always liked the look of them. She is gona be a tack driver. I fired three rounds yesterday at 25 yds and it looked like one hole. About 3 " low but I will leave that to the owner as I don't know what load he plans to use