I am finishing a rifle that I made with an ebony nose cap, and I like the end result. I got a block of ebony from wood crafters and cut a barrel grove to fit the swamped barrel I am using, relief cut the inside of the cap similar to a cast nose cap the most folks use to do Lancaster rifles. I inlet the block of ebony like I would do with a cast nose cap leaving a tight fitting slip joint between the nose cap material and the stock. The next step was to use Brownell's bedding compound in the slip joint area to bond the ebony to the gun stock. From that point on, I just shaped the ebony along with the stock blank to the profile I wanted in the nose cap area. I liked the finished product. However, I can tell you that the ebony I used seemed brittle when compared to the wood I used for the stock blank. I cut the barrel grove in the ebony with care not to chip any of the edges when doing the final fit of the cap to the barrel.
Roger
