Thanks Craig,
I'll pass the encouragement on to Josh. Thinking about the toe plate from my first gun, let me entertain you all with a little story. I was very close to my Dad. We made things in his shop since I was 8 or 9 years old. Pop could make anything and had extensive knowledge of basic wood and metal work. When he retired in 1977, he took up wood carving with a passion. He was very skilled with the tools and techniques but he was never an artist. He was a craftsman. His carving was the typical work of old retired guys, the "cowboy boot", the "grumpy face in the walking stick", carousel horses (although dad did do a great carousel pig with wings), and wildlife. Since I worked with canids, including foxes, coyotes, and wolves, Dad carved lots of them. I loved them but they all kind of looked like chubby labs with erect ears. No matter, they were great. I got into making muzzleloaders because a friend took Dad and I out to shoot his TC Hawken. This was 1976. We had great fun but both of us looked at the rifle and concluded that we could build a better gun. So I went to the library looking up books about old guns and decided flintlocks long rifles were for me. My guiding book was Kaufmann's "Pennsylvania-Kentucky Rifle", which I bought and devoured. With Pop's support I ordered parts from a newly discovered Dixie Gun Works, which included a Siler flintlock kit, rough stock blank, Douglas barrel, a few parts and McCory's little book on Kentucky rifle building. We went from there making all the other parts like ramrod pipes, patch box, sights, barrel lugs, muzzle cap, side plate, cheek star, barrel pin escutcheon plates, and toe plate all from scratch. I learned a lot about locks from building that kit. It was also the perfect vehicle for Dad to remember his technical training in metal work and teach me all of those pre-World War 2 secrets. Well, we built the gun together and it came out well but with many of the pitfalls of those who have not handled originals. Regardless, when it came to designing carving and inlays, the only really inspiration from my Dad was the rounded arrow head, which you see in the toe plate on Josh's rifle. If I ever asked Dad for ideas, that was the only thing he would suggest. It was safe, symmetrical, easy to make, and bland. I was bored by it and wanted more but that ability came later. Pop sent me on the road in many ways and using that toe plate on Josh's rifle is very appropriate. Dad would approve.
dave
