Colonial on its way...

[Psycho Mike]

if you haven't started on the wood finish yet and if you are near Edmonton. i have some ferric nitrate crystals that you could do your stock with. way nicer than stain. i could give you enough to do your stock. freebee.

a word of advice. the only way you will get that curl to pop is to aqua fortis. ferric nitrate. its not that hard to do. i made that mistake and had to scrape off the whole finish and redo it.

you can pm me and i will give you my phone number if you are interested.
ou

Thanks, I appreciate the offer, but the dye is actually doing a pretty good job of it and I'm getting the start of some good chatoyance as well. Trying to stay a bit lighter and not darken with time.

I'll keep you posted as I continue to work on my oil finish. Not sure if I'll do a wipe coat or two of varathane, or just go straight to the Renaissance wax.

 

[old ugly]

dave_person on this forum is the man when it comes to building guns. watch the gun builder section, huge amount of info there. when i ran into issues he jumped in and helped me. very talented craftsman. watch for him.

 

[Psycho Mike]

dave_person on this forum is the man when it comes to building guns. watch the gun builder section, huge amount of info there. when i ran into issues he jumped in and helped me. very talented craftsman. watch for him.

Yeah, he's a great resource with a great attitude when it comes to helping others.

I had originally been looking to go quite blond, like the Lyman Plains I use for my avatar...had a few others chime in with less than helpful advice (i.e. along the lines of "do it my way 'cause it's the only way"). I ended up falling in love with another color instead, though Dave's posts inspired me to do my first molding lines, carving and inletting...all of which have been great learning experiences and, overall, have turned out great.

 

[Psycho Mike]

Fourth coat of oil went on the stock tonight....the "lightly cut" version. I think I've just about slaked the thirst of most of the wood, just a few areas left where the cut of the stock cuts across the curl exposing the stripes and the wood that tends to take on more oil. I'm going to see if one more coat will finish it off in terms of the areas still drinking pretty good, and then I'll switch to the straight oil.

Then comes the waiting game as I let it sit for the Tung oil to cure. :/

Oh well, at least I can finish the barrel and get to work casting some round balls to feed this thing in the interim. Not sure if I'll put the long neglected inexpensive rock polisher to use with some graphite lube yet (to get rid of the last of the sprue....it's a custom brass barrel mold), but I have that option too

 

[old ugly]

 

[Psycho Mike]

Another coat on this weekend. I'm down to very few areas that are still drinking thirstily, but the chatoyance of the wood is really starting to come up now (it's gonna be 'purdy).

Also cast my first roundballs with the new set-up. I'm suitably impressed with the results (275gr, +/- 1 gr for .569")

 

[Psycho Mike]

Working on the "straight" oil now. The stock is starting to get the oil finish chatoyance coming through and the orangy-red is starting to glow / dance. Can't wait to get the oil on to the point of being able to let it cure.

 

[Psycho Mike]

Another coat applied....it's getting closer

 

[Fu Manchu]

Looking forward to seeing a photo of the finished rifle

 

[Psycho Mike]

Looking forward to seeing a photo of the finished rifle

I'll try to get some decent outside shots of the stock next week when I am off. I think the patch box is about done for Tung oil and the stock is getting close...I've only got a few spots left to build up / even out....Then I can work on the barrel while I let the oil cure.