Hi,
You did a nice job and made an attractive rifle. You asked for insightful comments and I'll suggest some constructive ones.
1. The lock moldings have too tight a radius. They look to have been cut into the stock before the wrist and lock areas were brought to almost final shape. You did a nice job keeping the flats thin around the lock. That helps a lot.
2. It may be just the angle of the photos but the comb seems to have a hump in it about mid way. That may be because the comb is fairly straight from the butt plate and then the curve starts to arc downward about mid way creating the illusion of a hump. I think the arc should begin much closer to the butt plate.
3. Your carving needs sculpting. You outlined the shapes and cleaned up the background very well. However, the carving is very flat, and in a monochrome wood like black walnut, that 2 dimensional quality does not stand out very well or create visual interest. See how the 3-D shaping creates interest even without any stain or finish on the rifle below.
Also some of the curves are rough and need to be smoothed. A good edge filing riffler would help a lot to clean up the curves.
4. Your patch box is superbly designed, made, and inlet. The thin silver wire does not add much to it. It gets lost in the brown walnut. I would use thicker wire, perhaps 0.010" to 0.014" wire for the border. Same for the wire inlay under the cheek piece. Also a simple device that would add a lot to the wire are silver dots in the middle of each curve like a nick and dot border. That alone would jazz up the wire inlay a lot and make more of a visual statement that is also historically consistent.
5. The rear ramrod pipe tang looks too wide to me and the ramrod groove needs moldings.
These are just my opinions and you made a nice gun. I hope to see more from you.
dave
