General discussion > Gunmaking tools and techniques- metal shaping

Building an Ohio Style Halfstock - broken photos fixed!

<< < (25/25)

Curtis:
Thanks guys!  Norm, PM sent.

Curtis

Curtis:
Hopefully I will wrap this thing up soon!  I put a traditional rust brown on the barrel, using a solution of approximately 20% ferric chloride, 50% water, 25% denatured alcohol, and 5% cider vinegar.  I didn't measure anything exact, just eyeballed the amounts in a jar.

I experimented with using a hot brown using chlorine bleach - it seems to give the smoothest, smallest grain rusting of most any browning methods I have tried, when carded between applications.  I was worried about the silver inlays so I tried it first on a test test sample using the barrel section I cut off.  The heating caused some minor movement of the silver, and allowed boiling bleach to get under the silver, etc so I abandoned the test after about 3 applications.  Here is what the sample looked like, I'm thinking two or three more applications and it would have been ready.



I had previously used the hot bleaching method when restoring a set of shotgun barrels, pictured below.



Here is what I ended up with using the tradition brown in my sweat box.  It took about 3-4 days of rusting and carding, followed by washing with Dawn and water, then a good waxing.







Still working on applying the stock finish, I probably have another few days to go on that yet.

Curtis

Curtis:
My apologies -  it has been a long time between posts, however it has taken a great deal of time to get the finish on this rifle to near my liking - I think I am almost there.  I applied 5 or 6 coats of LMF sealer, and about 7 or 8 thin hand rubbed coats of tung oil.  Most of the applications had a few drops of LMF maple stain mixed in.   I have been working on other projects while waiting for oil to dry between applications.

I am still not particularly thrilled with the results but sometimes you just have to call it!  After applying the finish the lock, trigger plate, barrel and trigger guard would no longer fit and I spent an entire day scraping, sanding, cutting and fitting to get the components back in place.  The patchbox lid would no longer close, was off center and needed extensive re-fitting.  I have never had such a degree of wood swelling after applying finish, the wood must have really soaked up the stuff.  Even the buttplate did some moving and it was securely screwed in place the whole time finish was being applied.

After getting the barrel and components back together, I captured the barrel key using a brass nail.  I drilled a slightly undersized hole, cut the nail to length, drove it home with a punch and then filed it flush.  I normally secure a barrel key after the barrel has the finish applied and the stock as well, as I normally have to perform some last minute fitting of the key when these steps are done - which I find is easier to do while the key is still removable.  Track sells a small screw for capturing a barrel key but I have never tried using one.







I took a couple horrible of pics of the stock hanging in the shop to give an idea of how it looks...  I will take a full set of completed photos outdoors when the weather allows.  We are expected to have lots of rain the next couple of days here in mid Missouri.  It is likely I will put the finished photos in a separate post since there are so many pages in this thread.






***Photos of the completed gun can be found here: http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=48647.0***

Thanks for looking,
Curtis

Curtis:
I went through the post and fixed the photos so they would show up again!  Makes more sense with pics!  ;)


Curtis

RJD-VT:
Thanks Curtis, This was one of my favorite builds. I was able to see your pics by clicking in the empty square boxes but that was a pain.
 :) much better now.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page