Thanks for the kind words. The lock is a standard left hand large Siler, I color case hardened it and then rubbed most of the color off. In keeping with the technique that Beck used, all the carving was set in or incised with a chased 60 degree vee tool. What I used was the small 60 "Veiner" by Dembart that Brownell's sells. It's a little short to be convenient but the edge is very thin which makes doing the tight turns possible. First time I've used that technique. I've seen photos of three Beck guns which had the loopy wire around a cheekpiece star as well as the wire on the top of the comb. One such rifle is the the library. Lord knows how many hours I spent looking a photos of about 15 Beck rifles to try to get the feel and detail right. The Beck rifles in the library are a really good start but if you're tempted to build the fancy one in the library be aware that the dimensions of that rifle are wildly different from any other Beck that I know of. That rifle must have a very long pull....
Working in mirror image to make it a lefty was quite a challenge both at the beginning and when it came to doing the carving. I flipped a few images on the computer to help with that.
I want to say a lot of good things about Rice's Beck pattern barrel. The dimensions on it are directly from an original and it has much less swamp than a B weight so while the breech is only 1" it weights about 10-12 oz more than standard B weight but results in perfect balance with the rather substantial Beck stock architecture. It's a lovely barrel to look along.
Following Jim's suggestion, here's a photo flipped to make it a right hander.
Tom
