Interesting discussion and I do appreciate the pictures of originals that have been shared, but the conclusions are confusing to me! 
If one wants to build something unique and chooses whatever features appeal to them, and intends to come up with something unlike what's been seen before, why bother asking for information on originals?
If you are interested in something coherent, Wade, you may note that the timeframe of originals in general dictates what the tail of the lock looks like, and also, in general, the extremeness of the curvature of the buttplate, the narrowness of the buttstock, the width of the lock panels, the form of the barrel, the caliber, and a host of other features.
You have read me all wrong. Yes I come _here_ looking for general guidelines but they've been like pulling teeth. Everyone says look at originals. So i "look" at all the originals i can find and have seen a few in hand... and of course they're all quite different (within the school eh?) and they're hardly an exhaustive collection because of the huge number that did not survive.
I have no other way to define or determine an school WRT TN/SM because no one will attempt to frame it (here).
Granted i'm still looking at "gross" features whereas the experts are going to be focused on particular fine minutia.
Where is that line drawn?
Because as a man, i never intended to "xerox" copy another man and i can't imagine that i would have as an apprentice either. But at the same time of course an expert would immediately recognize all my short-comings in "copying" a particular rifle by a particular builder.
I have no interest in making something "new" or different for different sake. I say no one ever saw all that were made. If one or two features of my rifle don't match up with a certain person where 9 of the other 8 do...what's the big deal? Some say there aren't any hard and fast rules.
Is that
one must copy as completely as he can the ONE RULE that i cant comprehend?
I'm simply no going to be hog-tied to that. Not until i find the "one" rifle that I like over all others. I've seen some very close by contemporary makers, but they're not carbon copied from any builder, but "inspired by".
I still contend that a man who came up in area (and shot his daddy's gun that was built there, and then moved across the state and bought a rifle from another maker there...which was destroyed in a fire or something and then he hauls off and makes his own rifle MIGHT be one way where the collector all these years later finds an odd rifle (well inside the school-but different) or
incongruous work
where he incorporates some of the style of his daddy's gun and also of the gun he purchased into the gun he actually makes to replace that second one.
Tell me where i'm out of school please: 42" swamped C-weight (Tip Curtis profile), maple, no carving, English lock (by Tip Curtis). steel pipes, steel crescent buttplate by John Anderson, stock profile initially cut to John Anderson's profile-also matches up to TOTW plans profile. I'm building a lollipop tang presently by welding on extension and shaping. Double set trigger. TN-style guard by Tip Curtis. flat steel toe plate by WP.
The wood will be shaped pretty much like the TOTW plans. squared cheekpiece, squared toe, otherwise as thin and svelte as bbl and lock allow. 14" pull, 4" drop. 1/8" cast. the lock panel will flollow the shape of the lock plate, fore and aft.
Tip and John designed their castings to represent TN-style. I don't get to spend a bunch of time with them, so we don't have a lot of this discussion. Tip blew huffy when i repeated what i'd read somewhere about different schools in TN. He obviously does not agree with that.
Again, when i spoke of "lock panel thickness" methinks I was NOT using that term properly. I was looking at the border whereas "lock panel thickness" may refer to the dimension from side to side across the lock and bbl. I'm not sure. I'm here to learn, not "redefine" anything.
Tom, no one can tell me what is "the norm for a particular school". They say look at originals. Originals are all different-and most of them i can look at don't come with date/location information.
Sorry i'm so thick-headed, but maybe the above sheds some light.
