Lock Panel Borders

[JLayne]

Hello all,

Have any of you ever gotten over aggressive with the rasping/shaping and ended up cutting lock panel borders too narrow? I'm a newbie and was roughing out the panel borders around a Colonial Virginia lock, trying to get them down to around 1/8 inch. Well, I got a little too aggressive with the rasping and ended up with maybe only 1/16 (possibly less, it nearly touches the bottom rear of the plate) near the back of the lock plate at the bottom. In any event, I was wondering if any of you have made the same mistake, and if so, what you did to fix it (short of scrapping the stock)?

Thanks in advance.

Jay

[Mike Brooks]

Need pics. It wasn't uncommon for early guns to have 1/16" lock panels. "Generally" we leave our lock panels to large these days.

[alex e.]

What Mike said,a picture is worth a thousand words for things like this. It's probably not as bad as you think.

[JLayne]

I just uploaded some pics. As you can see, I am a novice at that too (at least on this site).

Thanks again.
Jay

[smart dog]

Hi Jay,
I think you are fine.   Here are some pictures of an original English gun with a large round faced lock. 





When I cut moldings for these locks, I bring the edge almost right up to the edge of the lock and then in the final shaping, a couple of swipes with sandpaper backed by a flat wood block creates the barely visible flats.  I urge you to shape your fore stock before going any further on the lock panels.  Also, it looks like the wood is still high around the lock, so when you file, scrape, or sand that down flush with the edges of the lock, your flats will reappear.

dave

[JLayne]

Thanks, Dave.

As luck would have it, I was trying to use the cabinet rasp to establish the borders of the lock panel and shape the wrist based on my recollection of watching your class at this year's Dixon's event. I just worried I might have gone too far.  I will move on to the foreshock before returning to this area as you suggest.

Jay

[BOB HILL]

You are fine. As Dave stated,when you do your final work around the lock with a sanding block or scraper, the flat will reappear. Most new builders make just the opposite mistake.
Bob