siler locks and forestock shaping

[fjohnson]

got a couple of questions.  are the siler locks that are provided in kits from various suppliers ready to go or do they have to be tuned.  and secondly on shaping the forestock.  what methods are used to make the profile the same on both sides

[flehto]

I had bad luck buying Siler flintlocks which were assembled from kits by various makers. Now only buy the assembled locks from Chambers and am completely satisfied.

Shaping is done by "eyeball", anyways for me......Fred

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Fred, as usual is correct.  But there are steps you can take to help make the forestock come out more or less the same on both sides.  First the rod groove must be cut in the centre of the forestock.  If it is off to one side, naturally, there will be less wood on one side to carve.  Draw pencil lines along the side of the forstock parallel to the top barrel channel edge, once the sides have been reduced to the thickness you are aiming for.  The first one I draw is about a third of the way down from the top.  If the forestock is to receive the "V" shape of the Lehigh style, one simply has to cut away the wood in a very slight convex to the rod groove...it is almost flat.  In this case, you want at least 1/8" of stock wood thickness from the barrel.  IN stocks like Lancaster style that have a rounder cross section, the wood is always thinner - as little as 1/16" thickness.  From the 1/3 line up to the barrel, the stock is rounded using rasps, planes, scrapers, and sanding boards to a knife edge.  Then from that line down to the rod groove, the stock is likewise shaped in the shape you have determined.  You have to know ahead of time what you want before you can create what you want.  That requires study on your part.  There are no sharp corners in the shaping, and there is no slab-sidedness either nor in the lower forestock, between the lock and the entry pipe.  And as Fred so aptly put it, it is done by eyeball.

[PPatch]

Regards the Silar lock; as far as the internals go you can use Jim's lock "right out of the box," or, go to the trouble of lightly tuning it which in my shop chiefly involves polishing the inside the lock plate and all bearing surfaces, anything that is metal to metal should be slick as snot (and greased). You want to use a light touch with either stones or fine paper wrapped about something like popsicle sticks (600, 800, 1200 & 3000 followed by a green oxide final polishing). You do not want to alter the internal geometry at all, and I would leave the tumbler shaft as is except for a very light going over with a 800 grit paper, you do not want to create any slop between the shaft and its hole. Polish the heads of the screws, generally done utilizing a drill press and paper backed with a stiffener.

The outside, of course, needs light filing and finishing so you remove the gray bead blasted surface, and the small pits lurking beneigh it. I generally begin with a Gorbet brand #2 file and the use medium and fine carborundum papers - to take it down to a polish use regular but finer paper. Go light with the file(s), let them do their job, Keep the surface clean and try and not create more work by scoring the locks surfaces, clean the files often. Finish the outside according to the look and degree you want for the gun at hand, it is rare to go beyond 400 grit paper, 320 is generally as far as I go.

Regards forestock shaping: Taylor said it best.

dave

[fjohnson]

thanks gentlemen for your replies.  the rifles i have built in the past ive always eyed them, so i will continue the way i have..   thanks again  its always nice to hear of how other people do the stocks.   

[Eric Krewson]

I use a contour gauge to check to see if I am even side to side.

[Old Ford2]

Peter Alexander explained it well to me thirty five ( 35 ) years ago.
He said when contouring a long rifle stock, that there are no curved lines on one of these stocks, except a whole bunch of straight lines making a curve.
That took a while, before it sunk in ( about twenty five (25) years.)
To match the right side to the left side, you can use several card board cut outs marked left & right from the lock to the end cap each card board marked so many inches from the lock to the first key, then to the second key, then to the end cap, then joining these curves to each succeeding position on the stock.
It takes longer to write it than to do it.
Have fun!
Fred

[David Rase]

I run my fingers up and down both sides of the stock simultaneously feeling for any irregularities.  I also use my eyes.  The eye don't lie.
David

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Eric, I too have a contour tool, and use it from time to time as well.  Helps confirm symmetry.