Thanks for your encouragement guys! It's good to know some of you are still looking in on this thread.
When I made the decision to use German silver for some of the hardware, I thought it might be a nice touch to do a silver band near the breech. I ended up with two.
I have not done any metal to metal inlay before, so this was to be another first for me. One of our members, Rolf, posted a tutorial on how he did it -
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=9090.0 I pretty much used the same method with a few minor variations.
Stress warning FYI:
Pucker factor on a scale of 1 to 10:
8. Marked up the barrel and hacksawed some cuts (5 flats), then cleaned up with a flat graver and a file...
![](https://preview.ibb.co/iN2CFc/P2060838.jpg)
![](https://preview.ibb.co/cQn18x/P2060839.jpg)
![](https://preview.ibb.co/krmHgH/P2060840.jpg)
Then the sides of the channels were undercut with a flat graver. In order to avoid metal tear-out, stop a bit shy of the corners.
![](https://preview.ibb.co/fvZngH/P2060842.jpg)
Raising some barbs with a graver:
![](https://preview.ibb.co/keDoMH/P2060843.jpg)
I purchased some .999 fine silver, 18GA (.040") from Rio Grande, and cut strips to fit the channels. I marked the center of the barrel and the strip of silver to keep things even, then used a piece of .050 GS scrap as a flat punch to start tapping it in and around the barrel:
![](https://preview.ibb.co/cOyG8x/P2060845.jpg)
![](https://preview.ibb.co/eLLw8x/P2060846.jpg)
When the silver was in solid enough to stay on it's own, I switched to a steel punch that I ground the small and the large end slightly round and peened the silver for a good fit. I then switched to a flat punch to hammer it home. Be careful not to punch the silver below the steel, and not to ding up your barrel.
![](https://preview.ibb.co/ein9Tx/P2060847.jpg)
![](https://preview.ibb.co/mXm3ox/P2060848.jpg)
When it was all hammered solidly in place and the channels are filled edge to edge, I carefully filed (and draw filed) off the excess silver and any raised steel caused by the undercutting:
![](https://preview.ibb.co/jzsUBH/P2060849.jpg)
![](https://preview.ibb.co/mWtrQc/P2060851.jpg)
Not perfect, but not overly embarrassing either!
![Smiley :)](https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/Smileys/default/smiley.gif)
Thanks for looking,
Curtis