Nice, how many years in the making....
Best I can tell, from old photos, I started this gun about 12 years ago.
So it just about is an antique! That is not a forced patina on the iron, it's all natural.
When I started making this, it was an experimental gun. I made the tumbler, bridle, and sear for the lock. I originally had black stripes painted on the stock with red varnish on top. I was having trouble with my varnish and I stripped it all off. And then I let it all just sit for years. I just picked it all back up again recently, and did what tweaking I could to the stock shaping. I had lost the original lower rod pipe (and boy, did I look for it), so I had to make another one to fit.. which wasn't fun (I detest the cursed things anyway, and dearly wish I hadn't used one to begin with). Since it was ancient anyway, I thought I'd try to make it look like an old gun, with darkened varnish/oil where it's not handled, and dings and dents on the stock (most of which you can't see in these washed out photos). I may have overdone the sharpness of the diamond shaped wrist, but I liked it.
There are things I don't like about it. If I were to start all over on it today (and I don't think I would), there are things I would definitely have done different. Particularly the lock. This lock plate is VERY narrow, and it makes the gun look fat around it, and it's not, it's about as slim as it could be. A wider lockplate would make it look much better. And my eyesight has become frustrating in recent years, so it's harder for me to see what I'm doing. I'd also make it a rifle.
This is .54 smoothbored, back when I succumbed to the fad of wanting to shoot patched balls out of a smoothbore....