Thanks for the comments fellas!
I'll have this pistol and the original with me at Dixon's. Wow, only 2 weeks away! I tried to give it a slight patina, like it had been use for just a few years, but not much wear and tear. Aquafortis sludge works.
The stock is Cherry, "stained" with easy-off oven cleaner. I sprayed it on, let it sit for 10 minutes, then rinsed with water and neutralized with vinegar. 10 minutes was to long, when I rinsed it off the stock was much darker than it is now. Thorough rubbing with vinegar lightened things a lot (the stock is a little lighter than in the photos).
Thanks for the honest comments Bill, much appreciated! In retrospect there are a couple things I would have done differently. Don't we all feel that way about our finished projects (and apply it to the next)?
The buttcap was track's wax cast piece. That one was still too small, so I annealed it and peened it to death. STILL not as large as the original, but it worked. The wax cast stuff from track is stiff, I had to anneal it after every few good hits with the hammer.
To make the lock more continental in appearance I made a new top jaw screw, took some materia off of the back of the cock, and made the cock more slender throughout (less of a crest in the gooseneck). I took all the edges off of the pan and frizzen, then filed a slight gutter around the pan. The rim of the pan on the Chambers small QA is really thin and doesn't allow for much customization. I had a local welder tig the pan so I could adjust things without having a paper thin rim. The lockplate is still somewhat English in appearance, but you can't do too much with that. One thing a lot of continental guns have is a molding where the pan meets the plate. That could be done with a tig as well.
Thanks again for the comments, looking forward to Dixon's!
-Eric
