Daryl You can scrape across the grain and get a much finer surface. Many of the originals I have handled have a surface much like this rifle has. Most of the rifles that I build are built to the customers wishes. Some want a as new rifle with a smooth finish as many want that used and lived in look. This rifle falls into the used and lived in look. My pictures are not the best and this rifle has that antique look and feel when you handle it in person. I am working on a Hawken that will have that new and fine finish, I hope to have it finished in September.
There are several things people need to consider.
First. Anyone in America could hack out a gun and be a "gunsmith" and this shows in some guns. Do you REALLY think that Andreas Albrecht could not run a scraper any better than this? OR would accept this from his apprentice? Here is a question. Page 77 of Moravian Gunmaking II. Why is the forestock apparently smooth and the buttstock so rippled? Could it be the buttstock was subject to water? In a flood perhaps?
Then the owner modifications....
Poorly finished guns, do we REALLY think it was made this way? Or did someone of limited skill in the past do this because they were bored or did not like the finish? Was it damaged in some way and the owner "fixed it" with a dull knife?
Next and this is critical. There were slop artists then as now. I can't do work of this "quality". JP Beck did a better job of finishing patchbox cavities than this.
IMO you have to INTENTIONALLY misuse a scraper to make it look this way.
BTW "used' does not have to look like this either. But then many reenactor types see a gun as a prop and they have a faulty knowledge of what the guns actually looked like at the time and what actual "wear" actually looks like. This is seen in almost everything they use at their reenactments. And they often forget that some of these rifles were in use for decades, then converted to percussion used for decades again and at the end were given to kids to hunt with or even play with. So some of the "work" people cite might have been a 10 year old with a pocket knife. I knew a man in my youth who was given a shotgun to heavy too carry when he was a child and he wore down the buttstock by letting it drag on the ground.
People need to remember that these guns were essentially valueless by 1890-1900 and many went to the scrap drives of WW-I and probably even WW-II. The same man that dragged the shotgun told me that when he returned from WW-I he only had the stock of one of his "good guns" left. These were Kentuckies.
In the 1950s in the west pawn shops had old Winchesters were "displayed" jammed in barrels or trash cans. Garbage men would find them in trash cans when picking up garbage. SA Colts were dirt cheap as well. Nobody cared if the kid attacks the stock with a knife or dragged a flat on the buttstock.
The ML world is a world mostly of fantasy it seems. So people will accept almost anything if they think it looks cool. Appartently they think our forefathers were to crude and stupid to do quality work. This includes sloppily made barrels and other hardware. For a couple of reason. First most ML "shooters" won't PAY WHAT IT'S WORTH do do it right. So they get barrels that are tapped 11/16 to 3/4" for a 5/8" breech..... Locks with tumbler holes bored at an angle to the plate rather than 90 degrees and other things.....
Dan
