Okay, TVM kit arrived yesterday.
My first complaint--there's no warning label that your first day with a kit you'll spend so much time at the workbench that your neck and back will hurt like crazy. Now I understand why rifle building takes a long time--you can't handle but so many hours straight through hunched over with your eyes squinted.
My first victory--those horribly misshapen hunks of brass that are supposed to be your buttplate and trigger guard can be pretty awesome once you spend several hours of filing and emery-ing them. It feels good to see how nice they can shape up.
First roadblock. I know all about barrel tennons because I watched Mike Belivieu's videos and read Peter Alexander's books. But the TVM kit comes with two little holes drilled for each tennon and you're supposed to solder them in. My basic problem is that I'm no solderer. Fitted them with no problem, but solder won't stick to the barrel or the tennon on a bet. (Here is where you learned, experienced, or simply bloviational experts can chime in.) Any suggestions will be respectfully taken under advisement.
I thought of just ignoring the little drilled holes, cutting some dovetails and ordering a couple tennons from Track of the Wolf, but that's sort of the most draconian approach.
Anyway, in other news, the stock is shaped beautifully; I will make a few changes just for asthetics. I'm going to be brave and try some simple carving and maybe inletting of a hunter star or even a disk in the wrist. The Siler lock is all rusty and tight as all get out, but I'll burn that bridge when I come to it as Jeb Stuart used to say.
Barrel is straight, 13/16" and 36" long. I'm surprised at how well balanced the gun is already even before construction, and I"m gonna take a lot of wood off the front of it. Also, gonna stripe the ramrod, just for the cool factor.
