This is a thought for many post I have seen on here about chisels and carving. Yes there are many classes and many tools availible. No to down classes, just don't have time to travel pay fuel- hotels- class cost. In 1970 I built my first long rifle. Had no clue what to do other than buy barrel- lock triggers and cast pieces. Ole time rifle maker William F. Decker sold me the goods. Said what tools do you have- I said none so he gave me a 4 sided wood rasp, a 3 sided file- and a 1/4 inch flat chisel, loaned me Kauffmans book and said don't bug me. Parts were $100. not bad for a 44' Douglas and a Handmade Decker Flintlock. Wood was from Southgate's Farm he had won in a shoot, real tight stripes. When making $2.25 an hour this was a lot of money. I looked through the book and decided to build a Rupp carved rifle thinking I was the dude. At 19 years old I stayed up till 2 in the morning every night working on it. Hand inlet the barrel, ramrod hole ,made all the thimbles and nose cap, and a 4 piece patchbox. My engraving chisel was a 12 penny case hardened nail that I shaped on a stone and put a wood handle on it. Then I drew out the carving not knowing most carvers have 40 chisels carved the whole ckeekpiece and under it . Decker told me to shade the back ground with a pencil held flat so I did. I got some potasium permanganate from him to stain it, it turned it black, couldn't see the stripes so I took most of it off and had some deep red color varnish that isn't made anymore the did 3 fine coats and steel wooled it out , then it looked like a long rifle, to me. well I sold it to a man from Lancaster PA who i worked with for $130. man was I rich, after years of KRA and knowing many of the Greats I thought back over the years and couldn't even believe that it worked. @ years ago the Ole Fellow called me and said he had Cancer and thought I might want it back, I said oh yeah but never went to see it. @ weeks later he called and said come on over not much time left- so I went. He said if you give the $100. its yours. I said okay and he went to get it- when he came back I thought from across the room hey didn't look bad. When he handed it to me, I was blown away the had used it many time never cleaned it and it looked 200 years old. The funny thing is it looked like a Adam Angstad rifle. The carving for a flay chisel looked absolutely real. The brass was deep blackish green, and the finish looked like a real worn red violin finish extremely aged, my Son came in wha has seen many period pieces and said this is one of the oldest long rifles you have ever brought home. The when I told him I made it a 19 he said this is my favorite rifle that you have ever built. So I would encourage some of you to not try to make Masterpieces just build a rifle and leave some imperfections here and there because if you study many of the early pieces it is obvious that the early makers were just building guns, not trying to build masterpiece rifles, as survival was more important. Hope you are not bored - the Great Pinyone
