Hi Folks,
Thanks for the comments and I passed the support on to Josh. He appreciates the encouragement very much. We got quite a bit more done. Josh is able to get over here every Saturday or Sunday so we can make steady progress. It is slow though because it takes him more time to get tasks done but that really doesn't matter. I had him clean up the pipes with fine files and they are ready for final polish later.
He did a lot more shaping of the stock using a pattern maker's rasp and coarse file and we roughed out the cheek piece.
Next we made a trigger plate from steel and I had Josh file the trigger slot and clean up the edges of the plate. Then I drilled the tang bolt and used the hole to position the trigger plate. I had Josh inlet it. He did the complete inlet by himself. He did a good job but you can see a few gaps and one place near the tail where he cut outside the outline of the plate. No problem, a wood chip and super glue to the rescue.
After inletting the trigger plate and positioning the trigger, I had Josh bring the forestock down to almost finished dimension. I have him use a method of planing, rasping, and filing flat faces like the flats on an octagon barrel. He then increases the number of flats on each side until the cross section of the stock is round and even. It seems to work well for him. After paring down the fore stock, it was time to make and install a muzzle cap. I shape the wood where the cap will go first and then use it as a form for bending the brass sheet to make the cap. To begin, I marked where the rear edge of the cap will meet the wood with masking tape. Then I had Josh use a very fine Japanese saw to shallowly cut along the edge of the tape. These saws have no kerf and cut on the pull stroke creating very clean and precise cuts. I rarely ever have to go back and clean up the edge of the wood for a perfect fit to the cap. After sawing the edge, I had Josh back cut the line with a chisel to create a trench he could feel. Then he used a coarse file to take down wood from around the muzzle stopping at the back cut. He used the method of little flats to create an evenly rounded surface. Using a chisel, he cleaned up the back edge.
I cut and annealed some sheet brass, which he bent around the muzzle using the shaped wood as a form. We finished the bending process by attaching 2 hose clamps and tightening them down. The result was perfect.
After bending the sheet. I had Josh trace the inside profile of the cap on a thicker piece of brass that will form the front. I cut and filed the front to that scribed profile and soldered it inside the front of the cap. To speed things up a bit, I cut and filed the profile of the barrel muzzle into the front of the cap and Josh and I final fitted it to the stock.
Finally, he pared more wood down on the fore stock so it was near flush with the muzzle cap and we cut the ramrod channel moldings. I marked lines on the stock and using an old marking gauge, scribed a line in the wood. I use a coarse checkering tool to deepen that line and then a dog leg chisel to relieve back ground wood along that line creating a raised shoulder. It takes about 20 minutes per side to do. Since Josh could now feel and use that shoulder as a guide or fence, I had him clean up the background with the dog leg chisel, bottoming file, and straight Japanese rasp with safed edges. He did a good job. There are a few spots I will clean up but it will look crisp and straight when we are finished.
Well that was it for a couple long days of work. We worked pretty late yesterday and when the sun was brewing up a nice sunset
we figured it was time to drive Josh back to where he meets his wife to go home in Rutland.
dave
