Greg, looks good man. It does look from the pictures like there may be a bit of a flat spot like Tom was saying. I know a bunch of Tennessee rifles were basically flat across underneath the panels, a lot of that is often due to use of a smaller size lock and sometimes having wider panels to boot. Hard to get the"flat area" to look right without going all out, the way yours looks you could easily feather that spot out into the forend and make everything happy.
Dan, a mountain gun with no rust on it would be like a cake with no frosting on it. I don't eat cake myself but surely anybody can appreciate the comparison.
Unless they heat blued the steel then oiled and heated to smoke off or burn off the oil.
A friend of mine was looking at a semi-auto pistol at the local gun store a year or so ago. One of those with all the edges rounded. The guy behind to counter was talking about it being "snag free". My friend was not interested. He said something to the effect that he had spent too much time polishing parts to keep the edges sharp to buy something like that.
I can't make a nice part then screw it up. I just can't. I KNOW why people do it but I won't.
Then....Most people who do this don't take the time to STUDY worn guns either and thus the antiquing is not right for a used gun. They look abused not used.
To be right the gun must be made and finished as *new* THEN the selected wear added. Most miss the crucial "new finish" step and then make the whole gun uniformly "beat".
Look a this Hawken.
THIS is a used gun, now much worse off for pitting I am sure than it was when it went out of service 140 or more years ago. Probably saw more miles in use than any of the rifles we make.
There is no uniform damage to the metal finish. It has some pitting but not much, look at the lock plate, TG and the metal of the forend. Wear yes but its not etched/pitted/rusted everywhere.
The lack of understanding of how a gun would actually wear if used is where the guns become antiqued rather than used.
So rather than rust the gun NOW as its being built, Greg needs to *finish it* to new *then* abrade the surface selectively. Where will it get the most wear? Look at the Hawken photos and think about it. But its a horse gun and the wear will be different than a long rifle carried afoot.
There will be places with all or nearly all the finish and some with none... You cannot make a TG look worn just by rusting it or especially by etching the whole thing with acid or Chlorox.
Said too much again.
Dan
