Early York Complete

[frogwalking]

I finally completed the Chamber's Early York kit purchased in April.  It is their regular stock, and is not bad in the figure category as I didn't expect much to show.   This one has a direct drilled, exterior coned flash hole, and is also the one with the cheekpiece inlay off center.  It has been a series of my mistakes and fixes from early on.  It is the first gun I have ever attempted to carve.  I do not have the stabbing tools, so the outlines were made with a very fine V gouge.  Some of the work is not too good, but I do not think it detracts from the gun.  The Rice barrel seems to be plenty accurate if first shots are any indication.  In any case, here it is. 





I also engraved the cheekpiece inlay, also a first.  It is not too good, but also does not detract.

[bob in the woods]

I like it.  I don't claim to know much about the " York" school, but the one thing I would comment on, [ hope you don't mind ..]   is that the wooden  patch box lid looks a bit large . Perhaps it's the photo. Anyway, you could slim it down to the eye by perhaps adding an incised line etc to the edge .  You finished just in time to get sighted in for deer season .

[duca]

Wow! Looks Great man! Enjoy,and shoot STRAIGHT.

[wattlebuster]

I think ya did a darn good job. Carving looks fine to me and I really like the dark stain

[frogwalking]

No Bob, I don't mind.  The patchbox lid is a too thick.  I could not figgure out how to hold it to rasp it down, so I just held it in my hand and worked on it that way.  If  you look closely, you will see that it does have an incised line all around the outside edge.  My photography is not good, as it does not show up well. However, it can just be seen around the rounded end. 

[Keb]

I'm not much of a rifle guy. If I was, I'd be proud to carry that one. Nice job.

[Thawk]

That's very nice.   How did you do the molding on the stock and the patch box?

[bob in the woods]

I always hesitate to make a suggestion, because photographs can be deceiving.  It is very nice work 
To hold down a small piece , for rasping, etc,    I will often glue it to another piece of wood that I can hold in my vise.  I use newspaper between the two pieces when glueing, which makes it easy to separate them when done.

[frogwalking]

What kind of glue do you use?

[bob in the woods]

A bit of ordinary carpenter's wood glue works well enough to hold the piece you are working on. The paper makes it easy to get them apart .Newspaper or construction paper or even a tablet backing [ cardboard] works great.

[smallpatch]

Bob is right, patchbox is WAY too wide.  Like he also said, glue it to another piece, or run a screw through another piece into the back of the patchbox.  Works real good.  Also, thin out your lock panels next time.  You'll be amazed how just taking a little more wood of in various places can really improve the overall look of a rifle. 

It's  a nice start, but the way you learn, is from making mistakes, and some one showing them to you.  All that said, it's still a pleasant looking piece.  These finer points will come with time.

[Pete G.]

Looks good for a first attempt, but there are a few things that can be improved upon.....on the NEXT build. That's the great thing about this stuff; there is always the next build.

[Tom Currie]

Your workmanship looks good. Your cheek carving looks York inspired but the star on the cheekpiece sort of doesn't . Ok if your just doing things you like but if you're trying to be York accurate it sort of isn't. Nice first build. Refining those panels would help also as others have mentioned.

[smylee grouch]

Others have already pointed out the lock panels, wood box lid, and star. Those were the things I would change if I could. You mentioned fixin g your mistakes, you are a good riflesmith if you can fix mistakes as it makes you think and it looks like you did  a good job of fixing as ( except for those already mentioned items) there is alot of good in your first carved build. As was said your workmanship looks good so whats next?

[frogwalking]

Thanks for the good suggestions.  The precarve was a little too thick between the lock panel and the sideplate panel, so that I had to cut about 1/4 inch off each side.  I was concerned to maintain the very nice shape of the panels, and completely forgot that cutting them to allow the lock to fit tight against the barrel, resulted in the panel itself being wider.  (I hope that made sense.)  The patchbox is only 3/16 wider in the front corners than the machine cut sliding dovetail.  I thought that was as narrow (width wise) as I should make it to maintain a pleasing curve.  I knew it was too thick, but dropped it twice on my concrete shop floor while trying to thin  it down.  A few more drops and it would have been too short.  Now I know how to hold it.

The star on the cheekpiece is a flower.  One cannot really tell that without being able to see the engraving.  I have photos of Shroyer rifles, one with a star and another a flower, although not just like this one.  I just like it. 

This is not my first gun by any means, but is my first attempt at carving.  I made a coil spring back action lock in the mid-60s, not to be clever, but I needed a lock and had no money.  I still tend to make stocks that look and feel like 4 X 4s.  Starting with a Chamber's kit is the best way I know to thin down the guns.  Guns made from their kits simply look and feel better than most other kit guns I have used,and seen.

[frogwalking]

I guess when I think I am done, I need to assemble everything and just look it over critically for a while and ask myself what needs more work.  I often get to the point that I am tired of working on it and ready for it to be finished.  Which of these one does is  probably the difference between good and ok.