Well, I do have a couple of other projects for other people going right now, but I have begun actually building a gun for ME. Right now, I only have two of my own guns, and they were built years ago. Haven't built anything new for myself since then...well, I did build myself a rifle a year or so ago, but was cajoled into selling it...
I got the barrel inlet today. 16ga. And if I haven't said this before, I really HATE octagon to round barrels. Round barrels are SOOO much harder for me to inlet. A real pain. It takes twice as long for me to inlet a round barrel over a normal octagon one. But, I finally got it in.
I'm finally getting around to using a really nice figured cherry blank that I got from Dunlap at Friendship a couple (or maybe more) years ago. I haven't really worked cherry before, other than to just fiddle with it some. This is a pretty nice piece of wood. For hardness, it is about like good quality walnut. Definitely harder than most red maple, but not quite as hard as sugar maple. It cuts very cleanly, and cuts easier than sugar maple, but with more resistance than walnut. It feels very much like European walnut. One thing that it does that is irritating is that you definitely do not want to even THINK about cutting into the grain. It is very brittle cutting into or across the grain. I do like it though, and it looks FANTASTIC.
The gun is going to be an attempt at something spectacular. I'm going all out as best as I can. My carving design is profuse and somewhat complicated. The gun is going to be a "theoretical" gun. An early Bucks/Lehigh gun based largely on the "Longrifle evolution" gun, along with what I believe is the "protus" of the familiar Bucks/Lehigh gun designs: the guns of the Freund family in Fuerstenau near Frankfurt-am-Main in Germany. Nowhere else have I seen such clear design links between PA rifles and guns made in Germany. Not just generic German styling, but VERY specific details that are common to both Bucks/Lehigh and the Frankfurt area guns (to the point of being essentially identical and unmistakeable). Details which I have not yet seen on any other guns from anywhere else in Germany.
I'll try to keep up with my progress with photos, but it is hard for me to stop while building a gun to take pictures.
I have excited myself with this project. I can't wait 'till it's done!
