Recently I built a Pedersoli Indian Trade Musket kit literally at the kitchen table.
When ordering the kit I had no option for the wood and I was surprised what a nice piece of walnut Pedersoli had sent to me. The stock came with a nice amount of curl. I Didn't expect that from walnut.
The overall fit of the parts was very good. The stock needed the expected amount of rasping and sanding as usual for those kits.
Building the kit I fixed an issue with the ramrod pipes and modified and inleted the side plate (posted about this here a couple of days ago)
I smoothed the edges of the trigger guard and reshaped the front end of the stock slightly.
The barrel has been browned with Dangler's Barrel Brown, the trigger guard has been treated with Birchwood Casey's Plum Brown and the brass parts with their Brass Black.
To have a dark finish with clearly visible curl I decided to apply aqua fortis and after heating it and the first coat of oil the reuslts looked promising. Just had to rub the stock with a fine scotch brite pad and I acieved the desired contrast. After that about 4 more coats of oil and it was done.
Hope you enjoy the pictures.
Christian
The kit out of the box, the wood moistured to reveal the figure:
The smoothed trigger guard:
The inletted side plate and the lock side of the stock:
Staining of the stock with aqua fortis:
Browning the metal parts:
The finished gun:
