Another "treacle rifle" - FTR No.1MKIII*

[Patrick Chadwick]

The wood looks to me like it's been scraped,

Yes, but by a bodger.
Properly scraped wood does not look like that. I have described how to do it and shown the results in the series on the Argentino Rolling Block. If you scrape with a flexible scraper - and it's a good idea to have several, with different degrees of curvature - you can flex it in your fingers to follow the curves and adjust the angle to have less scrape/more boning action. The final surface is smooth and hard, as the surface fibers have been ironed flat, and you can polish straight onto it. Which is what was done on fine furniture in the 18th century, but has been forgotten in the days of sandpaper and electric sanders. What I have here is not just scratches, but downright gouges, and if the fibers have been torn by gouging, then the steam iron method has little effect.

I think I will concentrate on shooting first, and only worry about the woodwork when the rifle is performing well. Even now, it is more pleasant to handle than before the varnish was removed.