Period correct surface finish

[Woodland]

Having never handled an original rifle, what would the metal finishes have been on a new rifle build in the golden age?  I’m not talking about browning vs bluing, but the final “tool” finish.  With sandpaper being unrealistic, would a fine file finish be the final product?  I’m trying to finish my Virginia rifle pseudo era correct.  I finished the wood with scraping and burnishing.  While smoothing the metal parts today it occurred to me that I have no idea how they would have refined file finishes further.  If anyone has some insight I would be grateful for the education! 

Jon

P.s. I did make an attempt to search the archives with no luck.

[rich pierce]

I’ve not seen much documentation, but burnishing, scraping, and polishing with pumice or rotten stone or other abrasives are all reasonable options.

[Tim Crosby]

  On "sand paper":

 http://www.flintriflesmith.com/WritingandResearch/Research/sandpaper.htm

   Tim C.

[Carney Pace]

Don King showed me some shark skin that he used on period correct finishes.
Don had handled alot of original rifles and did   restoration work.

[Dphariss]

I don’t get to handle many originals out here in the “intermountain West” I did get to closely examine, but was not allowed to touch the JP Beck smooth rifle in Cody. What impressed me the most was the patch box cavity. It was very nicely smoothed. No rough spots no chisel marks. Scraped smooth with square corners. Who ever did this was very good at what he did. This is a late Beck with a lock mortise for the later FL with the little “tit” at the end of the lockplate. But right now it has a pretty crude lock installed but it did not appear to require any wood removal. I suppose like many the lock was removed to keep the kids from shooting it and lost. It came to the Museum from the Winchester collection if I recall correctly. I was not even allowed to take photos.  But the Museum sent me some such as they are. Its along barreled, 46” IIRC, 1/2 octagonal 52 cal smooth rifle.
It really needs the  lock replaced with something like the original.

[JTR]

Having had the opportunity to look at, and take apart quite a few of these great old guns, I would think the barrel finish would have been done with something like a fine flat wet stone, run lengthwise down the barrel.
It seems though, on earlier rifles, this was only done on the visible flats, and the three bottom flats finished with a grinding wheel leaving much more course grinding marks perpendicular with the bore. As a side note, the barrel inlet in the stock was never finished to anywhere near the degree as the exterior of the stock. No sanding, scraping or any oil finish.

I'll try to get a few pictures this afternoon.
John   
I should add that I'm talking flint period, and that by the percussion period a lot had changed.

[sbowman]

I believe stones and/or sand mixed with thick grease/fat was used for final finish by the early gunsmiths. depending on the barrel, instead of draw filing, sometimes i will use 1/2 by 1 by six inch aluminum oxide stones to finish my barrels. I  start with  100/120  grit. and finish with 200/220 or a fine india stone.

historically after the blacksmiths were done, vertically rotating waterpowered grind stones were used to profile which caused the perpendicular scratches as JTR states. the gunsmith could have had a small handpowered stone or a simple flat stone as JTR points out.
as far as color, if any were added it, I believe most were left in the white, rust blueing would be the most used imo.

Steve

[Frozen Run]

It is very helpful to study originals to also see the degree of finish commonly seen for different parts of the gun. The outside of trigger guards were commonly cleaned up a good bit while the inside of the bow was considerably less refined. The KRA flash drives are great for this as you can really zoom in to a high degree of detail in those pictures.

   

[JTR]

So here are a couple pictures from my George Weiker Bucks county rifle.
The first shows the bottom of the barrel and the inlet in the stock. This is pretty typical, some better, so worse.
The second picture is the upper side of the barrel, and is pretty typical as well.
By the percussion period this type workmanship was pretty well gone.

Just my opinion of course, John
 

[Frozen Run]

The other interesting thing about this topic is that people often bring up sandpaper, for good reason, but seldom do I see people talk about how refined the tools were back then. I don't believe, and someone please correct me where I'm wrong, that they achieved anywhere near the same level of refinement in tools as a Swiss Vallorbe or Bahco file or the metallurgy of even a basic modern card scraper? So you have relatively crude tools used by people trained up to be machines that are working at a frightening pace, the rabbit hole for me is trying to emulate that look in the comforts of a shop.

 

[Cory Joe Stewart]

To Frozen Run's point, Mark Silver's dvd on stock shaping is all about achieving a finished surface with cutting tools.  He also talks alot about how many of us need to rethink what a finished surface actually is to 18th century standards. 
If you have not seen it, his DVD is worth checking out. 

Cory Joe