A few years back I wanted to experiment at stocking a longrifle as if I were an 18th century farm boy with a gunsmith neighbor to help me. The fantasy was that after field work and chores, I would visit the gunsmith, receive some direction, head home to work on my own, and return as needed.
In this modern world I had a bench under a single window in the garage, would come home from the job about 6 pm, quick bite of dinner and work until the light was gone – beginning in April, so the days got longer as the rifle progressed. All simple hand tools that would be found on a farm, including a push drill. I tried some rough shaping and filing by a kerosene lantern, but this only put flickering light on one side of the work, so most operations were best done with good daylight. This project is a copy of an original rifle, so the architecture and carving are close to the old piece.
On the first visit old Johann traced a pattern onto a plank of maple, and showed me how to cut out and rough shape the gunstock with a hand saw. This worked pretty well, though I had to be careful not to angle the blade and get out of square, then plane it back to square. This took several evenings.
The barrel was breeched and proofed as normal with the touchhole drilled. Next was filing a slight draft on the bottom half of the two side flats of the barrel so it would come out of the stock without damage. He laid the barrel on the stock at an angle and traced along each side, then showed me how to start inletting the barrel with a round gouge and mallet. I worked on this for a while, then set the barrel down into the groove, marked the sides with a chisel sliding along the side flats to make a scribed line, marked it with a pencil, and continued inletting the barrel and tang into the stock with a small straight chisel and hammer. We used soot from a candle to show where to remove more wood. When I got close, I could stand the chisel up and use it as a scraper. This took my free time over a week.
When I went back, he showed me how to cut dovetails with a hacksaw and file, and file up lugs. We worked side by side, installed these and pinned the barrel. The next visit we turned the stock upside down and laid out the ramrod groove, gouged and straightened it and he drilled the ramrod hole, checking where the drill was going every few inches.
At home, I used the hand saw to trim the wood to 1/8” along the barrel and ¼” both sides at the lock area. It was easy to lay a pencil along the barrel and draw these lines. Again I had to watch the angle on the saw – I got a little thin ahead of the lock on one side.
When I went back, he had a finished lock with engraving, drilled, hardened and polished. He showed me how to layout the lock with the pan centered on the touchhole, the front lock bolt hole below the barrel and the rear of the lock in the middle of the wrist. We drilled a few holes for the sear and some parts, and inlet the lock with carving tools and chisels until it was tight against the barrel. We drilled small holes from the lock to the sideplate side, then drilled back for the two bolts. I cut a rectangle of brass with a hacksaw, drilled the plate for the lock bolts, then filed it to a fancy shape around the bolts, tapped and installed them.
Johann showed me how to hammer out a trigger, then we pinned it through the stock ahead of the sear. We took an old brass trigger plate from a musket, inlet it, drilled from both sides, then tapped and installed the tang bolt. We cut out a silver oval, soldered it to a lug and inlet it on the wrist, held from below with a screw through the back of the trigger plate. We made two ramrod pipes and installed them with pins. With the trigger located, he showed me how to measure the buttstock for length. He had me draw another center line on the top and bottom of the stock from the breech to ¼” to the lock side at the butt.
He showed me how to clean up sand castings, and I went home and carefully filed the buttplate and trigger guard with rasp and file, trying to keep the lines like old parts he sent with me. That took several evenings. Then I laid the buttplate in place, traced inside and cut away the wood with saw and chisel, using soot from a candle. I scraped with the chisel until this fit, and marked the layout of the trigger guard. Johann helped me install the buttplate, and we inlet each end of the trigger guard and pinned and screwed it down.
He drew on the stock where to remove wood, the cheekpiece and other details, and I went home and did this, following a broken stock he sent with me. On the forend he drew lines top and bottom and had me shape these into flats, and then round them over. The area where I thought I cut too deep turned out OK, as this is supposed to be thin. When I went back, he showed me where to do a little more shaping, and we soon had the stock shaped with plane and rasp. He hammered over a nosecap, and showed me how to make the ramrod entry pipe and raise the rear part to match the step in the wood. We inlet and pinned those parts.
Then I returned home and smooth filed all the mounts and scraped the wood clean and smooth with a pocket knife, sharpening as needed and following the grain. This took some time with good light to get it right. When I went back, Johann was happy and we made a wood patchbox cover and spring, drilled out the box and cleaned it up.
Then he drew the cheekpiece and other carving designs on the rifle stock. I could draw the moulding lines by sliding my fingers along the barrel or ramrod channel to draw lines parallel, and I moved slightly to make the lower buttstock moulding narrower as it goes forward. Johann demonstrated some cuts with his carving tools, but showed me how to do this carefully with a pocket knife, walking the blade around curves to keep a smooth line and not slip or cut myself. Cut straight down, then angle the knife to widen the line in certain areas. He showed me how to remove the shallow background in some areas, but just cut the design in other areas. I went home and worked on this for a good week, being as careful as I could. I decided to freehand cut the molding lines by pushing the sharp corner of a broken file along the lines, and this worked pretty good except for an area on one side where I hit a funny spot in the wood. I tried to make it look better, but it is rough. Usually the file would follow the line I drew, and pretty straight, and I could lay it down part way to cut a straight line. This worked real good on the cheekpiece mouldings. I also used the front edge of the broken file to remove some background in the carving, then scraped it.
I filed the barrel smooth with a light touch on a file, and did the same with the brass mounts. When I was done, I went back and we made and installed the sights on the barrel, lifting the corners a little on the rear sight like he showed me. We also split a ramrod from hickory and shaped and smoothed it, tapering from thick at the muzzle to thin inside the hole, with a pinned iron tip to take a worm or scraper. Johann was happy, so we painted a stain on the stock and ramrod, held them over heat and they turned a dark reddish brown. He said it was aquafortis with some tanbark mixed in to make the curl show. We rubbed the stock really hard with burlap which left the curls dark but the other areas lighter. Then on the next visit we rubbed a coat of reddish oil into the wood, and let it dry. He sent me home with a little oil, and when each coat was good and dry, I would rub a thin coat into the wood until most of the pores were filled up and the wood was smooth. Each time I rubbed the finish off the brass and silver before it dried. The rifle was finished after several weeks, but I could still add a thin coat of oil later if it looked dry.
That was two years ago, I learned a lot, and Johann was happy with me listening and usually doing what he showed me. This is what the rifle looks like now. It has worn in some areas, and the acid stain in the wood colors the metal in some areas. But that is how it should be, and in more time the barrel will be mostly brown and not shiny.
