My latest build, a Southern Mountain "Squirrel" Rifle, is posted on Art's Blog this morning. Here is the link to the pictures and accompanying text:
http://contemporarymakers.blogspot.com. I'll try to post a few additional pictures here, as well.
The gun weighs approximately 6 1/2 pounds (bathroom scale). It was built around a 36 caliber, Colerain A weight, 42 inch swamped octagon barrel using a blank of American black walnut from Wayne Dunlap and a modified, Chambers Late Ketland lock. Except for a commercially cast buttplate, the triggerguard and rest of the furniture were either scratch-built or, to save a little time, made from readily available parts that were reworked to make them suitable (e.g. the set trigger assembly is from Davis, but the triggers were replaced with ones that were hand-forged to more closely approximate the look of the originals).
The barrel and most of the furniture were cold rust browned then top-coated with cold blue to impart a bluish cast. The lock and triggers were cold blued and rubbed back to a charcoal blue/silver-charcoal grey. The sideplate and ventpick inlay were left in the white. The stock was not stained. However, reddish-orange brick dust was used as a pore filler and toner during the early finishing coats where it was sprinkled onto the wet finish then rubbed vigorously into the open grain. Shop-made varnish oil (equal parts of spar varnish, "boiled" linseed oil and turpentine) was used for the finish. Renaissance wax tinted with burnt umber and a dab of red artist's oil was used as a topcoat for both metal and wood.
Questions or comments are welcomed.
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