Finishing Question

[Stuartg]

Here are a couple pics in the natural light:

[PPatch]

NICE! As we in the south say "ya done good."

dave

[Stuartg]

Thank ya Dave! I'm takin her shooting this weekend.

[KLMoors]

That came out great.  Your tang screw looks too big the way it is sitting up above the tang. I would either increase the size of the countersink, or chuck the screw in the drillpress and "turn" the screw a little smaller with a file. (I use the file on the underside shoulder of the screw)

Your architecture looks great for a first gun!

[Stuartg]

I actually countersunk the tang bolt completely last night. There was a few loose ends I had to finish...sights, ramrod, finishing the barrel (which included countersinking the tang bolt).

Thanks for the complements. I look to improve the lock panels a bit on my next build. Not sure if I over think too much, but they are tricky for me.

I've got all my parts for a lefty Isaac Haines from Dunlap - good looking piece of wood to boot!

[kaintuck]

you KNOW your driving amakiller up the wall with these rifles!!!!

marc

[Stuartg]

Well, he IS partly liable for creating the monster!

[whetrock]

...
By the way, just before posting this I ran some tests with some old scraps of cheap black paper that I had from back when, and compared it to a test with some of the Wetordry ™ stuff in 220 and 400 grits. I tested both kinds of paper, first dry and then wet, on a scraps of curly red maple. It was just as I remembered. Black smudges and grit in the wood with the cheap stuff. No residue and no grit with the Wetordry ™ stuff.
Whet

Well, it looks like I may have posted that last comment about the Wetordry product too quickly. Been helping my daughter with a plaque for mounting some antlers from a deer she shot a few years ago. Today she sanded the end grain of a piece of pine--sanded it dry--with a piece of the Wetordry 220 grit, and had a lot of grey dust build up in the pores. Now I had not noticed any problem with this in sanding maple, but be warned anyway.

I guess what I'm saying is this: Test on a piece of scrap before you commit. And test on BOTH side grain and end grain. (Keep in mind that the curl in maple creates an "end grain" type effect as the grain structure winds in and out of the cut surface.)

Whetrock