barrel channels in antique rifle

[keweenaw]

I think the reason so many builders are so concerned about full length octagon inletting of barrels relates to the fact that when a barrel is inlet on a duplicator, as in all the kits, it's as easy to get an octagon as anything else.  So the thought immediately sets in the brain that the channel has to be octagon the whole length.  Also very, very few beginning builders have had the opportunity to see the stock of a pre 1820 rifle without the barrel in it.  The barrels aren't floating in the type of inletting we've been talking about.  They bear completely on the side flats and hit almost the whole length on the corners of the bottom flats.  The forestocks are, for all intents and purposes, just as tightly held to the barrel as in a full length octagon inlet.  It should make no difference whatsoever in shooting unless one has a tight spot on a full length octagon inlet that binds the barrel.

Tom

[Rick Sheets]

Wouldn't an overly-round barrel channel force a thicker web to keep the ramrod channel from breaking through? Or is the very thin web a modern ideal also?
Rick

[Stophel]

I can cut an octagon channel more easily than a round one (by hand), and my inlets are octagon the full length, but I dont worry about absolute contact.

The space between the rod and barrel are only critical at the muzzle and the breech, where the barrel is the widest.

[keweenaw]

When you're putting in a U shaped channel you aren't really making it round in the bottom.  The plane or gouges you use are narrower than the width of the channel.  As I said in an earlier posting, it's not hard to do it such that in the center of the flats the wood is off the metal by less than .010".  I suspect  that in some hand inlet octagon channels there are places where the wood is off the metal that much.

Tom

[Curtis]

Jack Brooks has a traditional philosophy on the barrel channel, even had a tutorial on his website on how he does it, with references to some originals.  Follow the link and scroll down the page to "In-letting a Swamped Barrel "
http://www.jsbrookslongrifles.com/theclassroom.htm

[Collector]

Excepting the top edge of the forearm, along the barrel channel, which has a visible relationship to the barrel, the whole of the forearm, structurally, is held in place by the barrel and not visa-versa.  So, if the barrel to forearm fit looks 'right' it is right.  Right? 

[dave gross]

Don....I find the history of your relations involved in wagon striping back in the good old days interesting to say the least.  There was some beautiful work done by the old masters of the craft.  I have done a good many restored fire trucks with gold leaf.....hard to duplicate the scrolls and acanthus leaf designs that are still outstanding today and a standard to emulate.

Dave Gross
Way down east in Maine

[Stophel]

In the next few days, I'll try to get some good detail photos of the inletting and surfaces of some of the guns of my meager collection. 

I have some photos here on my album already, but they were taken with an inferior camera, and I need to make up some new ones.

Start on page 5
www.photobucket.com/albums/v326/Fatdutchman/?start=48