Made a handguard for my M1891

[Jim]

I acquired this M91 disguised (mislabeled) as a 91/30. The seller had it laying on the counter in front of the racked 91/30s. The store owner commented that it didn't fit in the rack with "all the other 91/30s." Duh... I helped him out by taking it off his hands.
It has the Finn [SA] stamp on it. But, it came minus the handguard.

I finally got off my duff and did something about it. I just used some western redwood I had laying around to make one as a test piece. I scorched the wood in places with a heat gun to simulate the Finn stock wood and stained it with, of all things, some bottled brown shoe 'scuff coat'. I then finished it with linseed oil and wax mixture I whomped up myself.

Concerning the brass end pieces, I had an original large end and with it as a pattern, made the narrow end myself. One thing that had me going was trying to figure out how I would rivet it w/out busting everything. I have no idea how it was originally done but since I am more concerned that it lookright than actually be a direct copy, I hit on using soldering wire. I stuck a piece of soldering wire up through my vice jaws, melted it done to a ball and hammered it flat. I cut off the wire leaving a stem. I glued the end pieces in and drilled the holes. Put the flattened wire through from outside and soldered in the inside using a drum sander to smooth the inside.

I imagine the original wood was birch. I'm thinking of trying to make another from hickory. Anyway, here is the finished product.
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