Just somethin I been working on ~ Yes, I am still alive!!

[sean69]

Inlet the butt plate on the ballard - The plate came from CPA rifles, https://www.cparifles.com/products/ballard-rifle-buttplate?variant=40572512713 not cheap at all, but is a very nice plate.

Could not resist sanding the stock a bit & seeing what sort of color we are dealing with

Apparently, lots of it, not 100% married to it though.

try some dye on the other side

Still not happy, kinda torn. thoughts?

 

[kamlooky]

Nice grain.
Just need to figure out what will draw it out more?

Question for you.

I noticed some dark drops on the last project.
Post #105.
What was the purpose of this?

 

[sean69]

Nice grain.
Just need to figure out what will draw it out more?

Slathered some tung on it this morning, darkened up nicely ~ I think I'm going that way with a poly clear coat ....

Question for you.

I noticed some dark drops on the last project.
Post #105.
What was the purpose of this?

you mean on the 94 butt stock? those are little bits of grain that stood up and held a droplet of dye ~ the drops get wiped off & the grain has to be sanded back down, repeat dampening it & sanding (600-1000 grit) until the grain stops standing up ... sometimes that can take a while

 

[BigUglyMan]

Thanks for the tips Sean. Been looking for an excuse to go to Lee Valley. Haven't been there in years, but I guess it's about time to visit again. I originally tried to avoid it because it cost me so much $$$ every time I was in there

Rosie calls it "the Snap-On of gardening equipment".

 

[stickhunter]

Could not resist sanding the stock a bit & seeing what sort of color we are dealing with

Apparently, lots of it, not 100% married to it though.

try some dye on the other side

Still not happy, kinda torn. thoughts?

This is an awesome thread. A number of years ago, when I first started collecting Marlin lever action rifles, I had a couple of old 1889 actions that had makeshift 2x4 buttstocks. I decided to source new wood and purchased some semi-inletted blanks from Macon. Nothing fancy, just some good quality American walnut and cherry. Life (aka children) came into the picture, and those blanks are still in my box of projects to be completed. That being said, I read up a lot on how to finish the inletting and apply a finish --- I'm very much looking forward to getting back to that process. In the meantime, this thread is scratching my itch very nicely. Thanks Sean!

On the above, my preference is for the first - the natural finish. I've refinished a couple of Marlin stocks that had a similar colouring (albeit not as nice), and was quite fond of the various shades of brown, honey, and almost green. That'd be my choice by both finishes are very nice... as is the quality of the work.

 

[sean69]

This is an awesome thread. A number of years ago, when I first started collecting Marlin lever action rifles, I had a couple of old 1889 actions that had makeshift 2x4 buttstocks. I decided to source new wood and purchased some semi-inletted blanks from Macon. Nothing fancy, just some good quality American walnut and cherry. Life (aka children) came into the picture, and those blanks are still in my box of projects to be completed. That being said, I read up a lot on how to finish the inletting and apply a finish --- I'm very much looking forward to getting back to that process. In the meantime, this thread is scratching my itch very nicely. Thanks Sean!

On the above, my preference is for the first - the natural finish. I've refinished a couple of Marlin stocks that had a similar colouring (albeit not as nice), and was quite fond of the various shades of brown, honey, and almost green. That'd be my choice by both finishes are very nice... as is the quality of the work.

thanks! glad you are enjoying it! Cherry can be really nice, though it seems it gets used for firewood more often than guns! Let me know if you have any questions when you start your projects - I will help if I can.

I am leaning towards just an oil finish ... that piece actually has lots of green and blue (yes blue!) in it - would be a shame to hide that.

 

[frabill]

Tru oil right now - everything else takes way too long. I tried some of the lee valley poly tungs - too plastic looking.... I will do oil finishes if some one wants that, but it's usually better for me to do the first/second treatments then leave it up to the customer to oil-wait-3-months-oil-wait-3-months-oil....etc. there was one up here somewhere that was done with a dark brown aniline, tung & Clapham's wax ... wow it came out nice

here it is...

the only thing with the wax is you have to polish it up once in a while...

Wow that looks awesome. Thanks for answering my question!

 

[sean69]

Not a super productive day yesterday, but got a good chunk done on the Ballard. The owner requested the fore end be secured with a key, rather than these strange little pins that were in there....

So that required a bit of barrel work.....


Plug the old pin holes, layout the new dovetail location and use a hacksaw to remove some material...

Switch to files and cut a nice even square channel (we are about 3/32" deep here - shallower than the pin holes)

Use a triangular file with a safe edge to clear out the undercuts

Making a lug - this one will need a notch along it's length to hold the key...

Test .. file .. test .. file .. test.... till it fits nice and snug. maybe a little persuasion with a mattet

Making the key from some brass with the help of a propane torch & hammer...

Test .. file .. test .. file .. till it fits nice and snug. leaving the lug proud of the barrel here is intentional, I want something to put some pressure on the wiping rod so it doesn't just 'fall out' if it's too tight, there's still loks of material to file/fit away.

CAREFULLY measure, mark and carve the notches for the key in the fore end. (test .. fit .. etc-etc-etc)

and it all comes together .... this went really smoothly, very tight lockup and no play. You can drift it in and out with a mallet without having to reef on it...

Sometime around finishing the fore end I'll make a couple of escutcheons and file the key head to a more reasonable shape.

 

[sean69]

Been a little while, things like real work got in the way!!

Some more work on the Ballard yesterday:

This is a new process for me & works extremely well - using a contour gauge to check for symmetry. Pretty straightforward and doesn't take long (well not too long)
Mark off the butt at 1" increments, take a reading with the gauge, compare it to the other side & mark off the high spots. Do the same on the other side & repeat for each graduation.
I've done this on 2 stocks so far ~ even though things aren't usually too far out it can show you spots you can't feel or see!

Did I mention that I somehow got some epoxy into the threads of the stock bolt while bedding & had to chop the first butt off?
Luckily, this is a much nicer piece of wood...... also - I have no idea how butt stocks get broken. It took SERIOUS determination to chop off the old one!

Miniscule progress on the Jaeger - but I did get the initial ram rod channel routed. Next is to drill the rest of it. Maybe today we can get that done, and cut the **final** shape of the stock...

 

[double gun]

Did I mention that I somehow got some epoxy into the threads of the stock bolt while bedding & had to chop the first butt off?

Ouch.

 

[marshall]

Re4 your stain, I find the last on a bit to orange, I mainly use toug oil , like cica 1859 or what ever, pure no plastic in it, newer stuff Tru oil if I am in a hurry.
I am glad I read your last post after you had bought that put plate for the ballard, I have one sitting around waiting for a rifle to go with it.

 

[sean69]

Re4 your stain, I find the last on a bit to orange, I mainly use toug oil , like cica 1859 or what ever, pure no plastic in it, newer stuff Tru oil if I am in a hurry.
I am glad I read your last post after you had bought that put plate for the ballard, I have one sitting around waiting for a rifle to go with it.

I'm strongly considering a shellac ~ so strong in fact I have a few test strips curing in the basement. couple coats of pure tung oil, pore filler then shellac... polished wax over that.

 

[sean69]

More work on the weekend.............

Made some escutcheons out of brass.... lots of filing

Test fit

inletting the plate veeeery carefully, can't slip at this point or the fore end is junk....

inlet done

test fit & files a little.... not supposed to file or sand brass inlet into wood or you can get little particles of brass embedded in the wood or falling into the pores. if you have to file from wood to brass never brass to wood, clean your file on every stroke and vacuum the piece often! here you can see some particles in the pores, but in this case is fine because we still have to sand the fore end down through 320/400/600 grits...

Complete~ish, still need to fix up the key a little.

left side, key is trimmed flush and notch added... when we finally/permanently attach the escutcheons I'll make some small brass pins and hammer them in place. (that and some epoxy)

So the wood is finished, except for oiling/finishing.... got a real nice tight fit on this guy all around

green tape is jut holding the escutcheon in place so I don't lose it.

Now if I can keep it from getting dinged up in the lockup while waiting on the metal work...

Still to do:
- make lugs & wiping rod thimbles
- make a wiping rod and tip(s)
- oil & finish the stock
- polish & blue the butt plate.

 

[double gun]

You should send the action and butt plate to Oskar Kob and get some colour case hardening - maybe rust blue the barrel....

 

[sean69]

You should send the action and butt plate to Oskar Kob and get some colour case hardening - maybe rust blue the barrel....

I think that is exactly the customer's plan.

 

[sean69]

Tried some 'express bluing' last night for the Ballard's butt plate.

Not bad at all, could still use a little work, but not bad! it's curing up in some motor oil right now.

The brown color is just the lighting ~ it's BLACK, can still see some of the 400 grit marks, so I think I will test it's durability after it comes out of the oil then try it again after polishing up to 600. [/B]

 

[sean69]

Looking pretty good on the Ballard, the motor oil really deepened the color (the brownish cast is actually the lighting ~ it's black)

I think we are gonna call this a success...

 

[sean69]

FINALLY back to work!!!

Finally got into the machine shop to make some thimbles for the Ballard:

Soldered the lugs on - too thin to weld or make a mechanical attachment.

I did try to make the lugs for the thimbles on the mill, but it turned out way faster to make em by hand.

 

[sean69]

Ballard is almost there! just not getting the time to work on these things these days!

The more I looked at it - the more I hated the fore end, didn't look right & the brass was just wrong.... So I made another one.

Oval escutcheons this time, steel too... no more brass.

Will blue these up along with the thimbles & barrel.

Made a new steel key as well.

So almost there, just some finishing on the wood, some bluing and do something about that wiping rod - it needs a tip & I'm thinking NOT a poplar dowel from Canadian Tire.

 

[double gun]

I'm glad you went oval over rectangular - but a fresh forearm was lots of extra work for you.
Nice job