New Verner

[cmac]

Just wrapped this one up. A friend started it and had the barrel and breech plug inletted into pre-shaped stock. The pictures aren't the greatest- looks like there are gaps where there aren't, but the color is true. It has a 44" 50 caliber A weight Colerain(swamped) barrel. L&R lock,and Davis double sets.  The tang shape and patch box release I don't believe to be true to the Verner style but it worked out. I had a bit of trouble sharpening up my V gouges for the incised carving, and the carvings are a bit more simple than some but that is how the owner wanted it. All and all I like it. Time to shoot!

[Kalhoon]

C Mac thats a fine looking rifle,always enjoy seeing your work.

[C Wallingford]

Looks good , Colin. I love the color. See you Saturday!

[alyce-james]

cmac; Sir, a fine looking rifle, turned out great. I like the color, really nice. Thanks for sharing, AJ.

[cmac]

Thanks fellers!

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

There is a lot to celebrate with this rifle.  Your overall architecture is good...your incised carving (not easy to do) is quite nice and really sets the rifle off.  It looks like a great rifle to shoot.
I would like to offer some creative criticism hoping that it will be helpful on your next build.  Your trigger guard has almost twice as much brass as it should.  These sand castings require a great deal of filing to reduce them to an authentic weight and grace.  One thing that would have made quite a big visual difference in the guard would have been to round the surfaces to almost a knife edge along the sides over the entire length of the guard.  Further to that, the guard should have been inlet so that only the top facets of the extensions remained above the surface of the stock.  These two things can still be done to this rifle, if you wanted to.  It would mean filling the holes in the guard's tabs with silver solder, inletting the extensions fore and aft, and redrilling the holes for the pins.
I really like your rifle, and as I said, you have lots to be proud of with this one. 

[Tink]

Great job !

[dogcreek]

That's a great-looking Verner! Congratulations on a job well done.

[cmac]

Thanks again guys. Taylor I agree on the guard. This was probably the largest casting I ever had to work with- might as well have taken a grinder to it. I spent hours filing on this thing, as well as shortening the overall length. You are right- it could have had much more removed!
 As to the incised carving....What do you guys sharpen with? I cannot get the inside edge of my V gouges sharpened. The only stones and diamond plates I have are square or round on the edge.

[E.vonAschwege]

   Very nice rifle Cmac, great color too - nothing to add that hasn't been said.  Getting a parting tool properly sharpened involves science, art, magic, and voodoo.  I believe there are forum topics devoted to this, and perhaps even a tutorial on the site, but here are a few tricks of mine.  I have a set of japanese water slip stones that have different shapes and sizes to fit inside gouges and even parting tools.  These are great for 90% of the inside edge cleanup, but are too soft to hold the acute angle at the peak of the V tool.  I also have pieces of hard maple that are shaped the fit inside the parting tool.  These I load with different polishing compounds before running the tool over them.  Finish off the outer edges with a hard strop with polishing compound and usually that does it for me. 
-Eric

[Acer Saccharum]

I like your carving. It didn't look like you were struggling with the tool. The shape of the gun is really good, too.

That said, these tools are the hardest things to sharpen. I start by truing up the inside Vee with a lap of brass filed to fit the vee, then charged with diamond compound.

I stone the outer surfaces of the wings very carefully, always watching that I don't take off too much metal. Sometimes I think I'm OK, but what I have is a big burr, which just chips off on the first cut. Very frustrating. But once you have it, protect that edge with your life.

I have taken up to 2 hours to get a tool sharp. What a pain these parting tools are.

The parallel lines along the forestock are a little wiggly. You can cut them really light with a parting tool, and then file them in with a long checkering file.

Nice gun.

Tom

[Mark Elliott]

I have a couple other suggestions.  The butt piece would look better if the actual butt was filed to a fine (not sharp) edge similar to how Taylor suggested you file your guard.  Also,  i would have slimmed down the top and bottom of the lock panels a little more.    It is still, overall,  a very nice job.

[cmac]

Thanks for the information and suggestions. Always learning!

[Firelock]

That is beautiful.

[acee]

Very nice, what did you use to get that color on the lock and barrel

[cmac]

The steel finish is nothing more than perma blue- cold bluing buffed out a bit with steel wool.

[frontstuffer]

Very nice looking rifle, what did you use to stain the stock with? and what finish did you use? love the color.

[cmac]

Thanks. The stock finish is aqua fortis and refined linseed oil. I put steel wool and lathe turning waste in the nitric/water mix which was about 50-50.