Inletting barrels by hand

[Bob Roller]

I should point out that I don't think it is fun to hand inlet barrels.   I hate it.   The thing is, I hate even more shipping a stock and barrel off to someone else and paying them to do it.     If I could take a stock and barrel to someone local and have them do it for me, I would.

I have made around 10 guns including 3 pistols.I inlet them by hand but
now I can't. The one I have in process was done by a milling machine with'a modified Speedbor
bit 1 inch wide.I am not counting the fullstock walnut 58 caliber rifle because it was someone
else's project and the long range 451 was a Don Brown pre carve as was the 38 caliber bullet
gun. My energy level hasn't been right since early 2016 and now the idea of hand inletting a
barrel has NO appeal.

Bob Roller

[WadePatton]

This Ash and A-weight bbl inlet is wearing me out.  From nice cutting wood to stringy mush that cuts like coconut husks-over and over.

Some things will change after I run out of this short pile of blanks. 

[jerrywh]

 Every young muzzle loading gun maker ought to do it with hand tools at least once. Don't forget to do the lock and the set triggers also, maybe even the castings. Then they will be a gun maker. They will know how to heat treat steel and they will never complain about the prices of parts again. I learned a lot by doing this. I still have 2 guns I built this way. In European Gunmakers Guild of old, every gunmaker had to do that before he was qualified to be a master. He was not allowed to sell the gun until it passed the inspection of the board or gunmakers. They were not required to make the barrel or the castings. In fact they were not allowed to do the castings or the barrel That was a special trade and a different guild. Violation of that rule could end in imprisonment. They used every tool available at the time including a lathe.  Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Long John]

Salt,

First off, best wishes for a speedy, complete recovery.

I am a hobby builder.  I started building many years ago because I could not afford to buy the rifle I really wanted.  After many years and many tries I finally had the skills I needed to build the rifle I had always wanted, and I did. 



But along the way I discovered that I enjoyed the process of building a gun as much as I enjoyed using it.  So I continued building.  I inlet my barrels by hand.  I'm working on #17 right now.  Letting in my barrels by hand doesn't make me "better" than any one else.  I just don't care to pay some one else to have the fun for me.  I choose to keep that fun for myself.  I learn something with every inlet I do.  Each makes me a little better gun-maker than I was when I started the inlet.

Its my choice.  Its also yours.  If I was building guns to put food on the table and make payments on the house I would have no alternative but to choose differently.  We each make the choices we choose.

Best Regards,

JMC
John Cholin

[rich pierce]

John, I'm glad you're rocking and rolling. #17!  Good for you!  As a very intermittent builder I find that hand inletting a barrel helps me get to know that piece of wood and re-orient myself to chisel work before I get to the good stuff.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

That is a really valid point Rich!  I only build one or two rifles a year - even fewer now.  But that first process of laying out the blank and sinking chisels into wood, sets the tone, fires the engines, and imparts the confidence to see the job through.
After over one hundred guns, I still enjoy the process.  But I have three personal projects 'en queue' that were inlet by Mark Wieder, Mark Wheland, and Chris Laubach...go figure.

[jerrywh]

Long John.
  That's how most of us stated out.  Then we get hooked.

[Three balls]

Long John, I still love that rifle!

[mikeyfirelock]

I've built about 15 or 20 rifles over the last 40 years ( I make no claim to being good at it: I just like doing it and shooting them) and have done it both ways.   I do not like using a router.
 It's noisy, and hard to handle even with guides.  The last one I built, a .32 half stock, I used a bit and brace to  remove a good bit of the channel,  then chisels  and a home made plane to do the rest.  That said,  several things are relevant.  I'm retired,  I enjoy doing things by hand, and I get personal satisfaction in using old hand tools. To each his own.

[oldtravler61]

It's just part of the process. An like other's have said you get to know the wood better. Then you can set back an say " What the heck am I doing" lol. Oldtravler

[Long John]

Rich,

So well said!  Hand inletting begins a conversation between the builder and the stock blank.  It gives the builder time to figure out what that blank wants, how does it want to be cut and shaped, where is it kind of chippy, where is it inclined to split along the grain.  Letting the barrel in gives me the time and opportunity to get to KNOW this tree.  It gives me time to renew the communication between tool, hand and mind.  All these things are the pleasures I seek when I build.  There is a two-square-inch spot on the butt of this gun where the wood demanded to be cut from six different directions.



The letting in of the barrel attuned me to the nature of this blank and prepared me for that spot.

Its what makes this craft so wonderful!

Best Regards,

JMC
John Cholin

[Mike Brooks]

Buddha say "Be at one with your stock grasshopper". Getting a little deep for me.....

Go ahead and build yourself a couple hundred guns and come back and tell me the benefits of hand inletting a barrel.   I'm going under the knife on the 15th of June for my 350 gun shoulder rebuild...... 

[rich pierce]

You're a modern Jacob Dickert, Mike!  Hope the shoulder really improves.

[smallpatch]

I'm with Mike on this one..... I can, and I have inlet my own barrels.  I'm retired, and I have the time..... I just don't want to.
Dave Rase does! Yay Dave!

[Mike Brooks]

I did the first 16 or so by hand so I do know how to do it.
 Getting surgery on both shoulders by the way. Doc says I plum wore my joints out......which brings me back to mashing all that wood out of the barrel channel by hand. If it's something you like to do then I think you should go for it, I can understand how/why it's a satisfying accomplishment.
 But, as Pappy O'Daniel used to say " I ain't one at a timin' here, I'm mass communicatin'" .....or something to that effect.