Author Topic: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???  (Read 2553 times)

Offline Justin Urbantas

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Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« on: September 13, 2022, 08:54:16 PM »
Has anyone done a tutorial on inletting a swamped barrel? I'm thinking I might tackle one, and could use all the help I could get. I've done 3 octagon to round barrels.

Offline wapiti22

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #1 on: September 13, 2022, 09:24:43 PM »
I’m interested as well.

Getting ready to start my first

Offline RAT

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #2 on: September 13, 2022, 11:15:22 PM »
I'm not up for doing a tutorial, and I haven't done a hundred of them. I've done 7 tapered & flared barrels into the solid plank. If you count the 2 stock blanks I ruined on my first one, it makes 9.

First-Breech your barrel. Get it right, then match mark the barrel and plug on the bottom with a cold chisel. I shape my tang with the plug screwed into the barrel. Then I draw file and/or polish the 2 sides down to at least 150 grit (if I'm polishing it).

Mark your barrel. I draw lines with a marker (Sharpie ultra fine) every 6", measured from the rear end of the barrel. I measure the actual distance across the flats at each mark with digital calipers. I sketch the barrel on a legal pad with these measurements at each 6" mark. I then divide each measurement in half and write this on the sketch. I DON'T try to draw a full size machine drawing of the rifle that some do. That's too much work. And I went to trade school for mechanical drafting.

Prep your stock for inletting the barrel by cutting a shelf of wood from the top. I DON'T try to cut the stock out completely to a pattern. I learned that the hard way. I cut one out first then, by the time I got the barrel fully inlet, I went so far into the stock I didn't have enough thickness to drill a ramrod hole. As long as I have enough wood in the right place to accommodate the butt stock profile, I try to get the shelf as close to the top of the blank as possible. I used a hand saw to cut the stocks until I finally got a band saw in 2017.

I then smooth and level the shelf. I also make sure it's square to the sides. If the stock isn't square, you need to square it before cutting the shelf. I use a combination of wood planes, sureform rasp, and cabinet makers rasp.

Once you have a good shelf, determine your barrel center line and draw that on top of the shelf. Double check it... then triple check it. It needs to be straight. Determine where you want your breech (rear face of the barrel) to be and mark it on top and down the sides of the stock. This line will be about 3/4" back from the vertical cut of the shelf. I then mark more lines across the top of the shelf, and down both sides of the stock. These lines correspond to the 6" lines on the barrel as measured from the breech. I draw on the stock with an ink pen, not a pencil. Pencil lines smudge and fade too easily.

I open and set the caliper to each 1/2 barrel width measurement in turn... at each 6" mark. One at a time I set the open caliper along the drawn center line on top of the shelf and make a mark at the other jaw. I do this on both sides of the center line. Then I double check all my marks. One way to do this is to re-measure the barrel with the calipers, lock the jaws, slide the calipers from the barrel. and place it on the stock at each mark to see if they match. Connect these marks with a line drawn with a straight edge and you have an accurate representation of the barrel profile.

I mark a line 1/16" below the top of the shelf on both sides of the stock. At each 6" mark, I measure down from this line with the 1/2 barrel measurement and mark it. Connect these marks with a line and you have a representation of the barrel profile depth into the stock.

Now... here's the part you really wanted to know... how to remove the wood. I can't go any further... how you remove the wood is up to you. On my first one... actually my first 3... remember those 2 ruined stocks?... I drilled out waste wood with a forstner bit, then removed the rest with wood chisels. Very tedious. Now I use a router with an edge guide attached to remove the waste wood. After that it's back to wood chisels.

Why so much preface with the lines? I found that part to be critical. If you know your lines are drawn correctly, you can work the chisel right up to the line with confidence. The key? Trust your lines. If you can do that you won't be afraid to remove more wood quickly with the chisel. Once the barrel is getting close to going into the wood, I switch to octagon scrapers.
Bob

Offline bnewberry

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #3 on: September 14, 2022, 01:04:50 AM »
Find Bill Raby on Rumble. He has a great video explaining a very methodical and practical way to do it.

Offline JLayne

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #4 on: September 14, 2022, 01:22:55 AM »
Ditto on the Bill Raby videos. I think his Building a Tennessee Rifle series is on the tutorial section of this forum. He lays out and inlets a swamped barrel using chisels and gouges on that series. Worth watching.

Jay

Offline flinchrocket

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #5 on: September 14, 2022, 01:56:51 AM »


This book has a wealth of knowledge of all things related to building a flintlock.

Offline mikeyfirelock

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #6 on: September 14, 2022, 02:33:21 AM »


Hope pic comes thru.   This is a scraper I made to finish the inletting on the current project ( Colerain A wt, swamped barrel ) whic( was inletted with gouges and chisels.
Works quite well. It is dimensioned to the smallest area of 5he swamp…..will work just fine for the larger areas, just use care (and restraint !)
Mike Mullins

Offline mikeyfirelock

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #7 on: September 14, 2022, 02:37:56 AM »
Addendum:   Make the handle long enough to use BOTH hands, and make the bevel wide enough for a SHARP edge
Mike Mullins

Offline Justin Urbantas

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #8 on: September 14, 2022, 02:58:08 AM »
Thanks for the thorough description, Bob.
I'll also  try to find Bill's videos about the barrel inletting.

Offline mikeyfirelock

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #9 on: September 14, 2022, 03:21:39 AM »
I will add another thought ( then I’ll be quiet).  I did much the same thing in so far as marking the side of the stock every 6 inches, except I pencilled the profile of the barrel on the side of the stock ( taper to swamp, and taper from smallest point out to muzzle.).
That way I could check my depth of inlet with my calipers depth guage and compare it to my marks on the side of the stock to maintain the correct depth of the barrel channel.
 at any point.
Mike Mullins

Offline elkhorne

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #10 on: September 14, 2022, 06:02:30 AM »
All,
Jim Turpin in his video on building a Jim Chambers rifle, shows how to make the scraper tool similar to the one shown here by mikeyfirlock out of an old file. Also as several have said, Bill Raby shows very detailed work on his Tennessee Rifle build  and Maryland Rifle build series on how to methodically in
Eat a swamped barrel. Bill’s are the most detailed videos that I think have ever been done. Good luck!
elkhorne

Offline Bill Raby

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #11 on: September 14, 2022, 06:21:27 AM »
Lots of inletting shown here.

https://rumble.com/user/BillRaby


Offline oldtravler61

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #12 on: September 14, 2022, 06:34:31 PM »
  Some sure do make it seem complicated but it's not. Somewhat time consuming but not difficult. But then again I haven't built two or three hundred guns either...

Offline D. Taylor Sapergia

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #13 on: September 16, 2022, 02:32:29 AM »
Justin:  I have put up tutorials on inletting swamped barrels a couple of times over the years here, but I can't find using the Search function,  any where the pictures remain intact.  So tomorrow, I'll put up the method I use which I gleaned from reading the writings of John Bivens back in the last century.  I've used it many times successfully and I know you can as well.
D. Taylor Sapergia
www.sapergia.blogspot.com

Art is not an object.  It is the excitement inspired by the object.

Offline oldtravler61

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #14 on: September 16, 2022, 04:20:40 AM »
  Justin their is a very good video on U-Tube by Josh Wrightsman doing it all with hand tools. Pretty close to how I was shown. Quite sure that  Taylor's process will be very good also.
  One thing I have seen, is that on a lot of the old guns. The builders were only particular on the breech area and the muzzle. The rest was rounded out.
  I'm very interested in seeing Taylor's process...   Oldtravler

Offline Cory Joe Stewart

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #15 on: September 16, 2022, 04:21:06 PM »
If you have inlet and Octagon to round barrel you have the skills to inlet a swamped barrel. 

What I do is I lay out where I want the barrel.  I think measure the narrowest point of the barrel and draw that line on either side of my center line.  Thin I take the largest u shaped gouge (veiner) that will fit and remove material to that line and to that same depth.  After that is done I color the barrel and start setting it in using straight chisels.  By the time I am done the first 8 inches or so from the breech and about the same from the muzzle will fit the octagon shape pretty well, there rest pretty must stays rounded out.  I have done this method several times now. 

I don't get it tight to the breech until the barrel is in for the most part.  But I keep it tight as I go. 

I can only work some afternoons, weekends and holidays and I can inlet a barrel in about two afternoons.  About 6 hours

Cory Joe

Offline Darrin McDonal

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #16 on: September 16, 2022, 06:52:57 PM »
Mark silver has an excellent DVD on this through American Pioneer video it is excellent.  We use rails and a saw as well as the round bottom plane for the barrel channel here at home and at work.
Darrin
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Colonial Williamsburg
Owner of Frontier Flintlocks

Offline Kevin Houlihan

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #17 on: September 16, 2022, 10:25:20 PM »
Josh Wrightsman’s video on YouTube is excellent. Lookup Old Iron Cabin which is the name of his channel.
Good luck
Kevin

Offline D. Taylor Sapergia

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #18 on: September 16, 2022, 10:29:01 PM »
This method was presented by John Bivens in Rifle Magazine back in the last quarter of the 20th C.  It has worked well for me and will for you too.
Saw out your blank including half of the barrel channel area.  Be sure to include the radiused area at the breech...it is not a 90 degree cut!  Mark a centre line at least down the barrel channel (I go completely around the stock and maintain that line during the entire build.)
Inlet your barrel's breech end without a plug to butt up against the end of the barrel channel - very little wood needs to be removed to accomplish this.  Now clamp the barrel to the wood at the breech and muzzle, and add a clamp in the middle too.





You will need two steel rails for the next part.  I used two lengths of 3/8" key stock (cold rolled mild steel) long enough to do a 48" barrel.  Drill holes as close to the outer edge as you dare to allow dry wall screws to pass, 3" or 4" apart for the whole length of the rails.  Be sure to drill the first hole in each rail 3 1/2" - 4" from the end of the rail so that the screw that goes through that one into the stock does not leave a scar that will involved the lock molding.  At the mid point of the rails drill additional holes between each of the holes so that there are holes 1 1/2" - 2" apart for the muzzle end of the barrel.  Grind a radius on the breech end of the rails to allow for that part of the wood that has been sawed to that shape.  While you're at it, make a centre punch out a piece of drill rod or a nail, that will also just pass through the holes.  There is no need to countersink these holes.

Lay the two rails alongside the barrel on the stock with the butt ends adjacent the breech end of the barrel, and clamp the rails to the sides of the barrel with as many small C clamps as required.  Using the centre punch you just made, punch each of the holes.  Using a drill bit that is a tad smaller than the major diameter of a drywall screw, in a hand held drill, drill a pilot hole in each of the holes deep enough to take the entire length of the screws.  You can use any type of screw here that suits you, but the dry wall or gyprock screws are small diameter, have great strength and bite and are cheap and ubiquitous.  Screw the rails down to the wood.











Now lift the barrel off the stock from between the rails.  What remains is a perfect facsimile of the barrel.  Now it is time to make another tool.
You need a back saw that will slide along the inside of the rails to cut straight down to the depth of the side flat of the barrel.  I used a section of a rip saw to which I attached a handle so that the saw cuts on the PULL.  And I removed the set from one side of the blade so that the saw only cuts straight down and doesn't undercut.  I scribed a mark on the saw indicating the half barrel flat mark so that I didn't cut too deeply. The half way mark is taken at the swamp of the barrel or the minimum dimension.  Start at the breech with the safe-side of the blade against the rail and draw the blade down the stock.  In short order you will have a cut that is perpendicular to the top of the stock and full depth of the side flat.  Reverse the process now and start at the muzzle with the safe side of the saw against the other rail and repeat the process.  The rails have now come to the end of their usefulness, and can be removed.

With a felt pen, make a series of lines across the barrel at regular intervals, ie:  every 4" and transfer these marks to the wood using a pencil.  Now measure the diameter of the barrel at each mark, and divide by two to indicate how deeply you need to make your barrel channel at each mark.  I include in the measurement, the thickness of a steel scale that I lay across the channel and which is the stop for the Vernier calipers I use to measure the depth as I proceed to remove wood.

From now on, it's simply a matter of taking out wood to accommodate the barrel.  I start with a large flat chisel and take out the slivers of wood that butt against the side flat.  Be careful with the chisel not to cut past the vertical cuts as this will weaken your forestock. Then I use a gouge and a mallet, starting at the breech and watching the grain direction as I take out big slices of the channel wood.  Stop often and measure to ensure you are not going in too deeply.
When you are within a few thou of the bottom of the channel, switch to a bunch of flat chisels to cut the bottom flat, keeping in mind the width of the bottom flat as it narrows toward the swamp and flares again at the muzzle.  The angled flat is also cut with flat chisels though I find skew chisels often work well here too.
At some point, when you are very very close to getting your barrel to full depth, you will want to resort to scrapers.  I use a wad of towel and inletting black to help me find the high spots, and use it as sparingly as I can.  Too, you may have to scrape the side flats (cut only with a saw) to get the barrel to drop down into the channel.  I take my barrel down so that it is about 1/32" below the wood at the breech.

















At this stage, I take the stock to the bandsaw and slab off the wood down to the screw holes.  Be sure to stop at the rear-most hole so that you don't remove wood where the lock panel is to go.

















An option is to use a very sharp large flat chisel to clean up the saw cuts while the steel rails are still screwed down to the wood, but care must be taken not to undercut the side flats.  Also, other tools, such as special planes can help to take away all that wood.  But I personally use chisels.  The whole process of inletting a swamped barrel takes me around 5 hours I think.  I use the servises of David Rase, Mark Wheland, and Mark Weder mostly now, but for tapered barrels and half stocks and pistols, this system is stellar.
« Last Edit: September 17, 2022, 01:48:19 AM by D. Taylor Sapergia »
D. Taylor Sapergia
www.sapergia.blogspot.com

Art is not an object.  It is the excitement inspired by the object.

Offline Justin Urbantas

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #19 on: September 17, 2022, 03:23:46 AM »
Thanks for showing me that, Taylor. I think I have a few pieces of steel in the garage that might be perfect for the rails.  Dave sure does a great job on barrels, I just wish shipping  stocks and barrels back and forth wasn't so expensive. This is for a 44" barrel for my Davy Crockett rifle project. I thought I would do the whole thing start to finish. I have a really nice piece of maple here, that I got at Windsor Plywood.

Offline flinchrocket

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #20 on: September 17, 2022, 04:51:41 AM »
The only thing I do different is measure the diameter of the barrel every 2” and divide by2 ,drill a 3/16 or 1/4 “ hole on the centerline. Removing the wood to the bottom of these holes will put you on the bottom of the barrel channel.

Offline Justin Urbantas

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #21 on: September 17, 2022, 06:47:31 AM »
Oh that's a great idea. I could use a drill stop to get it perfect.

Offline Waksupi

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Re: Swamp barrel inletting tutorial???
« Reply #22 on: October 05, 2022, 05:17:26 PM »
Find a copy of "Gunsmithing Tips and Projects". John Bivins shows the process that works well for me. I see that D.Taylor posted this below.
 I've not looked at my copy in awhile, but didn't "Gunsmith of Grenville County" have instructions?
Ric Carter
Somers, Montana