Hi,
Thank you all. The "Team" will be back in business this coming summer. We will be pumping out Besses, carbines, officer fusils and more.
Dave B, there is a lug on the barrel supporting the sling swivel and its mortise is close to the mortise for the pipe. This spacing was copied from an original gun at Fort Ticonderoga. The swivel must be close enough to the pipe so when the gun is held muzzle up to return the ramrod, the sling and swivel rest on the pipe and do not block the ramrod channel. Some lugs are a little further from the pipe and others as close. But the key is that the swivel rests on the pipe.
Robert, American black walnut (
Juglans niger) is often cold, purplish brown, and very different from English walnut (
Juglans regia). Let me clarify that English walnut is the same species as French, European, Italian, Circassian, Turkish, Armenian, etc walnuts. In fact, when English grown walnut became scarce during the American Rev War, the British government imported massive amounts of the wood from Italy. That should make Pedersoli Bess owners happy. Anyway, I learned directly from Kit Ravenshear how to make black walnut look like
Juglans regia . The key ingredient is to get rid of the cold purple brown with a pure bright yellow dye. I sometimes use a dilute black dye when whiskering the stocks before staining because it shows up the rough spots but it also imbeds in the open grain of walnut. When the black is completely scraped and sanded away, the imbedded pigment gives the stock an old mellow appearance. But the key is the yellow color. It warms the color tremendously and alone makes the wood look closer to English walnut. I use water soluble aniline dyes. Here is an example using just the yellow dye on black walnut.
After that, I have to decide what more the wood needs to meet my objectives. Remember, English walnut has a lot of variation too so I have to decide what I want. Often I want more red or orange. That is where the red alkanet root stain comes in. Further, I also may tint the finish to give me the color I want. I work at this with each stock and unfortunately, there is no rote formula. You have to work each stock but knowing how to manipulate the color particularly with yellow is a huge start.
Here is an example where I used yellow on black walnut but I wanted a more orangey color so I tinted the finish.
Now here is a gun in which I wanted to reproduce the usual lighter color of muskets made at Dublin Castle.
Here is a Tower assembled musket that often were darker in color.
All of the guns pictured were stocked in black walnut.
dave
