Thanks Jim.
Jerry, I use a sharp cold chisel and a four pound hammer to raise the barrel steel once the basic rectangle is cut for the dovetail. I strike on the corners and middle alternating, so that I'm not trying to raise the whole thing at once. Then I clean it up with a safe-sided triangular file. Once the sight is in, I dress off the angle flats, since metal flows out the sides as well.
This type of dovetail has several advantages over the simple cut one. First, you can make the dovetail much shallower since you have metal above the barrel's plane to add friction to the sight. Second, it is easy to tighten a loose sight simply by tapping barrel metal down onto the sight, and lastly, it's easy to add a witness mark once the rifle is sighted in. Whoever worked on Mr. Kuntz's rifle wasn't especially confident, judging by all the witness marks on this rifle.
And here's another one of mine...
One thing I don't know about the original, is if there is any system to hold the leaf in place other than friction and gravity. On mine, I added a piece of clock spring in a longitudinal dovetail along the bottom of the sight base. This makes the leaf snap up and down. I got the idea for that from a four leaf English express sight, and the information on how to make it from a great gunsmithing book.
