In 2002 I built myself a 4 gage blunderbuss, as many of you know. Since then, three major and related things have happened. Number 1, I have learned a tremendous amount from this board and many of the generous members who have offered helpful critique and advice. Number 2, I have been commissioned to build two more of these crazy things over the past few years. And Number 3, as I put the final finish on the wood for Andrei's blunderbuss (I should have the photos of the finished gun in a few days), I thought again about my original blunderbuss and some of its very glaring mistakes. Some I can't do anything about, but one major one I can....Back in March, on my recent posts about Blunderbuss #4, I mentioned that I had shown my original one to John Ennis back in 2003 and asked him for an honest critique. The very first thing he said was, "Well....it's OK but you left enough wood on the stock to build two of these."
I have been very careful to not leave too much wood on any build since John was kind enough to be honest with me back then. So as I was finishing the gun for Andrei, it occurred to me that when I send this one off to him, I will have in my possession the worst one I have ever built. So before I had too much time to think about it, I took the gun apart and started in with a spoke shave to correct, at least in so far as I am able, that glaring mistake about leaving too much wood on the stock. (I guess the good thing about leaving too much wood is that it can be removed.)
Here is how it appeared before I started in today......
I started in on the lock side. The following photos compare the lock side with the unaltered opposite side. I will complete the rework of the lock side completely before I start in on the opposite side....and then I'll re-cut all the carving.
