How's this wrist area architecture look?

[HighUintas]

Something seems off to me about my wrist architecture in the context of the rest of the stock surrounding it, but I'm not sure what. The belly of the lower stock is a little fat, but my RR hole drifted down a tad and so I may shave 1/16" more off the bottom at most.
This is not a particular style or exact copy... I'm going for something that may have been made to go west (a bit more heft) but still has some golden age qualities. Maybe like a slightly beefier Philip Creamer rifle.

For measurements, wrist height in front of nose of comb is about 1.75, thinnest height around rear of lock panel is 1.55, the top barrel flat to lower forestock belly in front of lock panel is 1.8.

Trying to figure it out before I start bending the trigger plate and inletting it.

Thoughts on the wrist and surrounding area?

[Daniel Coats]

To my eye the rear of the lock is tipped down a bit too much.

[HighUintas]

Yes you are correct that it is. That was a slight goof that I guess I'm ok with.

[flinchrocket]

The height at the breach will depend mostly on the barrel dimensions. For a 1” barrel and 3/8 rod hole you would want about 1 3/4” at this stage of the build.

[Bob Gerard]

It might be the style but to me the wrist appears odd as it gets fatter towards the comb rather than equal thickness or even thinner as it tapers back. Also the top of the wrist has no curve but the bottom has that bend or curve, which  looks awkward to me. Like the barrel tang area is sloping down too soon. But I could be all wet on this.

[flinchrocket]

Philip Creamer- little high in front of the comb and a bit of a hump behind the end of the barrel.

[HighUintas]

Philip Creamer- little high in front of the comb and a bit of a hump behind the end of the barrel.

To clarify your statement, you're saying I'm a little high in front of the comb and I have a little bump right behind the barrel, right?

And yes, Bob and others, I was attempting to leave it a little thicker near the comb rather than parallel the whole way, as I sort of like that look. Another of creamer's rifles, that is in a museum in Oklahoma, has this type of wrist. I think the upper line of the wrist may need some curve to it though. It is straight from comb to where it curves to the breech.

Maybe I need to make it parallel to make it more pleasing to the eye?

[flinchrocket]

You might want to try your trigger plate because the wood could need to come off the bottom. Yes, you have a small hump behind the barrel. In looking at this Creamer rifle your lock plate doesn’t appear to be off that much.

[EC121]

   For my 2 cent opinion the lock plate isn't tipped down too much.  The tilt lets you avoid the hump at the top of the wrist at the breech, and the lock plate follows the flow of the wrist.  You do have to be careful that the front of the plate is low enough to allow you to drill a front lock bolt hole in the web.  If needed, a fake front lock bolt comes in handy to cover the boo-boo.    You can file some of the hump out of the wrist by thinning the tang at the hump.

[smart dog]

Hi HU,
I think you are right on track and I would not touch anything or try to refine anything until you start rounding the sides and shaping the wrist and lock areas.  I find that I almost always get into to trouble when I fuss too much over stocks still squared up.  Your impressions of what the gun will look like when the stock is still square will be distorted until you start to round things.  Moreover, I get wood off the gun and do a lot of shaping before I inlet triggers and locks.

dave

[Lucky R A]

         Absolutely, what Dave said,  I started to write much the same earlier this morning and then hesitated.    Until you round things out, you can not let your eyes tell you what is really going on.   The only thing I would add is to take a file to the top of the tang and make the hump in the tang end at the juncture with the breech of the barrel.  This adds much to the flow of the wrist area.
Ron

[rich pierce]

Great advice there. I figure the sawed profile is a starting point not the final profile. I often modify quite a bit as the stock takes shape. Insofar as lock position you’re fine. The originals often did not follow our “rules”.

[Bob Roller]

I am not a gun maker but have made maybe 12 and 3 of them were in 2008. NONE were in the class of the Grant rifle and were closer to Gimlet Hollow if a comparison is needed.Unless  you are copying or CAN copy a relic right down the mistakes and accidents like Tom Dawson did with his Hawken copies keep on with what you are doing.
Bob Roller

[HighUintas]

Thanks for all the advice and replies. I think I will smooth out the hump ish feature right behind the breech, and then stare at it for a while before removing more wood. Maybe I'll take a crack at making the butt plate or trigger guard while I stare at it

[HighUintas]

In the event that I need to glue some wood back on top and bottom of the wrist, is it better to do that now or when I get to nearly finished and ready to stain?

[flinchrocket]

Don’t get nervous, you still have 1 1/2” don’t you?
I don’t know what your plans are but the finished height of the wrist should be around 1 3/8 - 1 7/16 .

[HighUintas]

Yes I think 1.55 at th thinnest. I was actually wanting to leave it a tad taller than that it's finished state the wrist as strong as possible. I stared at it a bit last night and realized I had taken too much wood off the top midway up the wrist. I forgot to take a picture of it, but I drew a new profile line on the top side lowering the nose of the comb about 1/8 inch or 3/16 and also lowered the wrist immediately in front of the comb by the same amount and had that point of the wrist curve up to meet the cut surface Midway up. That's not exactly what I was going for, but it is a whole lot better looking than what I currently have. I think to make that curve look the best that I can I need to put some wood back on top.

My trigger plate fits my lower profile just fine. With the location of my ramrod hole, I currently only have 0.100 wood beneath the ramrod hole, so the bottom line is set for the most part but I may be able to take off almost 16th.

[M. E. Pering]

I don't think I would worry about it at this stage of construction.  I can see a fine stock coming out of that plank.  It sounds like you still have plenty of wood to work with (1.55").  Once you get things more rounded, I think you will actually end up taking more wood off than is still there.