Thank you all for the kind words. Jim Kibler's kit is beautiful just as it comes from his shop without the need for any further embellishment. But it also provides a wonderful canvas, if you will, upon which to execute any level of carving, engraving, and inlay work that one might desire. I am, to a large extent, operating in the blind in my attempts at decoration due mostly to my lack of detailed knowledge about the American Longrifle and suffering from a complete dearth of being able to examine original guns out here on the West (i.e. Left) Coast. Of course, on the other side of that, I think most if not all of the original long rifle makers did what I am doing.....They carved and engraved to suit their own taste emulating a design feature here or there that may have caught their eye as they looked at the work of other contemporary gunsmiths. So at times, when I am not particularly pleased with my own design decisions or executions, I am somewhat comforted by the thought that a lot of the 18th century makers we admire from the past probably felt the same way about their early work and were dedicated enough to their craft to continue to strive to improve.
Flatsguide.....to that last point, the symmetry of the flower center on the trigger guard was a complete accident...
.......but I'd rather be lucky than good anytime !
Not English.....I told a friend of mine recently that, at a time in my life when my eyesight has started to falter with age, I have decided to take up the hobby of engraving !! As a consequence I need all the help I can get to see what I am doing. As you noted, I do use Dykem on most parts and then very, very lightly scribe whatever design I intend to engrave. I don't have the self discipline to make detailed drawings on paper as some excellent engravers do, so the scribed design does two things for me. First it allows me to roughly see what the design will look like on the part. Second, it gives me a very clear contrast to follow when I start to cut. The technique does have the drawback of leaving very faint scribe marks on the surface if you change the design. If very lightly done to begin with though, they usually do not take much effort to polish out.
