Finally had a few more hours to work on the rifle in the past few days.
I've got most of the lock parts filed and sanded to about 150 or 220 grit, and then it was time to tackle something I was afraid to do. Initial results are promising.
The lock plate and part of the cock on the original #43 rifle have an indented moulding around most of each part (my words don't describe it, pictures will...). Curtis documented his process for doing this in his #43 build-along. I took a slightly different approach and thought I would post my process and results (prior to final filing and polishing) for information and critique.
Attempting to recreate this sort of bevel along the edge of the lock plate:
I used a flat graver made from a Lindsay graver sharpening template, and a medium coarse curved triangular riffler file to do the work. My engraving skills are not great, and this will show in the pictures. So be it. I'll practice more!
Here's the tools I used:
I found that it was critical to sharpen the graver often.
I first used a black sharpie to define the outer edge of the bevel. Realize that the lock plate is cast with a bevel towards the face, and I also filed a bevel on the rear portion for inletting. So the line I needed to follow was the apex between these two bevels. Here is an example of the sharpie line:
I then took the graver and tried to cut the face of the bevel, maintaining the angle of the bevel and staying outside of my sharpie marks. It worked, but was a bit sloppy and I think I've worked out a better technique. Here's a picture after a few passes with the graver:
You can see that I was not terribly precise in my cutting depth, but it did establish an indented line. To me, that was the key. If I established a good indented line, then the next passes with the graver would have bounds (or a fence, if you will, against which to work). It also established a line that would help to guide a file later on.
Here is the new bevel on the bottom of the lock plate, after initial filing with my curved three corner file. Because the lock plate is slightly banana shaped at the bottom, a straight file would not work.
Next, I did the top side of the front of the lock. Now, I'm not sure if I should have done that part or not after looking at some photos I have. Possibly oops, but it's done now, so chalk it up to lack of attention to detail.
In any event, I tried a slightly different technique on this part. The results were promising, although they will look a bit rough because I have not had the time to file them as I did the other parts.
Instead of attempting to cut a deeper bevel all at once, I thought I would try simply cutting straight down to establish the indent, or "fence" as I called it above. Picture to explain:
I did that first to establish about the right depth, and then cut the remaining bevel back to smooth it out. It seemed that this method might be the way to go. Unfortunately, I don't have a good picture of the end result (terrible focus on the one I have. Will post later).
My engraving skills are not great, so I concentrated first and foremost on establishing a straight line for the indent, figuring that files could clean up a lot of errors. I'm sure that someone with better skills could remove 90% of the metal with a graver and then clean it up with a file. I probably removed 70-80% of the metal with the graver, and then filed the rest, and still have cleanup to do on it.
The biggest thing I learned here was: be brave, try it!
Cheers,
Norm
