Long story, but this flintlock came to me through a friend. It belongs to a friend of his who got it from grand dad. It seems that, decades ago, grand dad built this from a kit, covered everything in shellac after some kind of light stain. When I say everything, I mean lock internals and frozen, as well. It was brought to me with a request, can you strip it, refinish it, and make it go bang?
Well, I think I can.
Photos show the quintessential “Japan” gun with only lock I’ve ever seen on the, this Tower lock. I’ve not seen one on anything other that crude muskets or sea service style pistols, with locks varying in finish and stamping. Took hours of stripping a brushing to get the shellac off, as well as the stain. What I’m left with is this blotchy weird wood. Along the bottom, what I thought was a crack, appears to be the boundary between the wood grain shades. My question is, how would I blend this stock to remove the blotches? Dark stain on the light areas? Dark stain overall? I’d rather not stain and sand 5 times trying to experiment, as the wood around the lock plate and lock bolt area has already been taken too low when the kit was built. I’m not going to tackle that, no point trying to make a silk purse from a sows ear. I’d like it to look normal, and the owner wants to shoot grand dads gun.
The good news…. With frizzen free of shellac, it seem to throw a decent spark right into the pan. BTW, I’m just a tinkerer, a guy with a basement shop, a lot of interest, and enough equipment to be dangerous. Not a master woodworker, refinished, gunbuilder, machinist, I putter with this stuff, usually without compensation. This time, however, since the owner is set up for and skilled at fly tying, I’m going into fishing season rigged with a good selection of custom tied flies.
Well, I think I can.
Photos show the quintessential “Japan” gun with only lock I’ve ever seen on the, this Tower lock. I’ve not seen one on anything other that crude muskets or sea service style pistols, with locks varying in finish and stamping. Took hours of stripping a brushing to get the shellac off, as well as the stain. What I’m left with is this blotchy weird wood. Along the bottom, what I thought was a crack, appears to be the boundary between the wood grain shades. My question is, how would I blend this stock to remove the blotches? Dark stain on the light areas? Dark stain overall? I’d rather not stain and sand 5 times trying to experiment, as the wood around the lock plate and lock bolt area has already been taken too low when the kit was built. I’m not going to tackle that, no point trying to make a silk purse from a sows ear. I’d like it to look normal, and the owner wants to shoot grand dads gun.
The good news…. With frizzen free of shellac, it seem to throw a decent spark right into the pan. BTW, I’m just a tinkerer, a guy with a basement shop, a lot of interest, and enough equipment to be dangerous. Not a master woodworker, refinished, gunbuilder, machinist, I putter with this stuff, usually without compensation. This time, however, since the owner is set up for and skilled at fly tying, I’m going into fishing season rigged with a good selection of custom tied flies.
