Building the BP trade rifle from a TOTW kit

[Claven2]

Yes, rasps and files also work well, that is what I use around the lock flats. And as you say, I do not recommend you whip out the belt sander if this is your first stock and you haven't got a steady hand and a fair bit of practise first. It can go south in a great big hurry - trust me

[gew8805]

............... as you say, I do not recommend you whip out the belt sander if this is your first stock and you haven't got a steady hand and a fair bit of practise first. It can go south in a great big hurry - trust me

Ooooh yes.

You are doing an excellent job with the tutorial, thanks for posting all of this.

[Claven2]

Made some progress on the buttstock in the cheekpiece area. the cheekpiece on the blank comes HUGE and rough. Also, for my grip, the comb was too far forward, so I had to correct that too.

Here you can see I've scribed out the lines I wanted. There is really no rule on shape of cheekpiece. It seems on original long rifles that there were as many designs as there were rifles, so go with something that fits your hold and appears to you aesthetically. I like mine short, relatively high on the stock and with a little understated carving detail.



Here you can see the comb has been set back, re-thinned, and the cheekpiece has been filed to shape and blended into the stock at it's base. I've also scribed out where I'm going to carve a rounded detail.



And here the carving is complete (for now).



You'll note I left the cheek piece convex above the carving detail. On most originals it was actually concave. I may yet change it to neutral or concave, I'm yet to decide, but convex makes for a more useful cheekpiece IMHO.



I also filed the underside of the forestock to a rounder grip and better blended up to the nosecap.

[Claven2]

Slept on it overnight and decided to change it to a neutral flat (not concave or convex) and I thinned out the comb a bit more. It looks more traditional in the Lehman style now.



Here you can see the contour of the ramp is flat:



The easiest way to remove wood in a targeted way like this (without filing for HOURS), IMHO, is to use a small spokeshave. I like the ones I get at Lee Valley. They make everything from a $20 spokeshave to a $200 one. Believe it or not, I actually prefer the really simple tenon-type hand-forged and honed tradional style shaves like this one (I have these in several sizes):


Though I will sometimes use a nice one like this Veritas. I find these higher-end ones less intuitive to use and they take a while to get adjusted just right.

[Claven2]

In other news, I got most of the stock sanded to 240 grit before my hand and forearm got too sore - lol. Still have to do the detail areas, then I'll have to raise the grain with water and sand again...

[jmoore]

Lehman style

Leman of Lancaster Pennsylvania?


I sometime wish it was left handed, but it's the family "hair-loom". (The deer skin wasn't courtesy of this rifle, but the squirrel and coyote tails are!)

ETA: sorry, that's the only photo I have of this side of the rifle. Not much detail. But it's a very minmal stock compared to it's massive 42" barrel. Quite usable, though!
The lock is Leman, don't know about the rest.

[Claven2]

Yeah, the rifle I'm building is roughly a copy of an early Leman (from Lancaster Pennsylvania). Most Leman's were percussion but some very early ones were flinters. Also Leman never made a lefty rifle, but that's detail stuff.... lol.

Your rifle probably started life as a full-stocked gun and was likely shortened into a Hawken-style at a later date, probably 1870's.

Off the TOTW website, here is an image they posted of an exact replica of an original Leman they used as a pattern when casting their replica parts:



Mine has a few differences. It's left handed in .54, which the originals were not. Mine is all steel while the originals had a mix of brass and steel. Mine has real curly maple, originals had painted-on faux-curl. Mine is flint, the original they patterned was a percussion. I also went with double-set triggers, no originals were set trigger models.

[Claven2]

Next we remove all the iron hardware and pause to snap a few photos that I forgot to take when inletting jobs were finished - lol. You can still see a little inletting black here and there, but it will either come off when I finish the stock or will be hidden under iron furniture.







Next we pain the stock with water using a normal chip brush or sponge. Don;t go crazy, just wet the surface. It'll stand in the corner for a day or two to dry out and the stock will feel really rough again, probably close to 80 grit (!) since all the grains pushed down from sanding operations will stand back up. I'll then have to lightly re-sand with 240 grain to take this risers off.

[jmoore]

If I might intrude a little more. here's a couple of buttstock photos that show more detail. The front of the cheekpad just gradually fairs in at the front and the rear swoops back to the top of the buttmetal.

Absolutely useless for me, so I mirrored the image to fit our left handedness, because you're doing something I've contemplated for a long time. Now that the old one is up and shooting, it probably won't happen, but am enjoying your thread!


The wood surely doesn't look this light in natural conditions! Must be the flash. The overall photo is closer in coloration.

Oh, and fresh RLO all over it, just because...

[Claven2]

Nice photos As you can see, there is wide variation and artistic license in the cheek pieces. One thing most Leman's do share though, is a rolled detail at the point of the cheekpiece of varying size. I tried to duplicate the spirit of that