• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades
  • Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.

    We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.

    Use this link to sign up please; https://membership.nra.org/recruiters/join/XR045103

Am I overthinking this?

shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
L & R
Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
K

Kilted Cowboy

Pilgrim
Joined
Oct 19, 2018
Messages
100
Reaction score
37
Location
Plain-O Texas
While reading the Gun maker of Grenville County, the author states that you should not leave your barrel out of the I assume unfinished stock overnight as it may warp.
My question is how do you do that when it looks like the barrel browning-blue process can take some time. Also when finishing the stock do you leave the barrel in or take it out.
Last question, do you finish the barrel first and finish the stock last?
Is finishing the stock first to seal it before bluing the barrel preferable to seal it to avoid this warpage possibility?
Ordering the Kibler Colonial .54 This Monday. My first. Excited and apprehensive.
 
Kilted Cowboy said:
While reading the Gun maker of Grenville County, the author states that you should not leave your barrel out of the I assume unfinished stock overnight as it may warp.
My question is how do you do that when it looks like the barrel browning-blue process can take some time. Also when finishing the stock do you leave the barrel in or take it out.
Last question, do you finish the barrel first and finish the stock last?
Is finishing the stock first to seal it before bluing the barrel preferable to seal it to avoid this warpage possibility?
Ordering the Kibler Colonial .54 This Monday. My first. Excited and apprehensive.
Click to expand...
Stop over-thinking. Yes - the thin forestock can warp over time if not supported, but I've not had any problems. The problems I did have was with stocks that were warped even before I started building (internal stresses in the wood show themselves after cutting/profiling). And even then, a little steam and convincing took care of the issue. Focus on building your rifle and deal with what does happen...
 
You're overthinking this.
I finish metal at the same time as wood. By now, most of the stresses should be out of the wood.
Don't leave it out for weeks at a time, so you're asking for trouble then. I've seen wood do some crazy things, but even if it warps a little, it will go back in place. Just be gentle.
 
I do finish the wood before browning. Your barrel is out of the wood for a week or more, and I just take a step so that the wood is a little more protected then.
Handeling a stock with out a barrel in it sure prevents incontinence.
 
I like to finish the metal after the wood, but it really doesn't matter. The wood finish I used on this last gun took a really long time--3 months because it was really humid this summer, so that gave me time to work on the engraving while the varnish was curing between coats.

The reason wood moves is because of internal pressure changes within the wood itself. That can happen either because you are removing wood (such as shaping the fore stock out of the square) or due to humidity / moisture changes within the wood. Of course, once those edges swooping in to the barrel and RR get profiled those edges get pretty thin and fragile, so the reason to keep it in the stock then is more one of protection than one of impending wood movement. The really critical times to keep the barrel in there are times when a whole bunch of wood is removed, like right after barrel inletting, or forestock shaping.

Yeah, you're over thinking it
 
I'm stocking up a gun out of a plank I bought from Dunlap over 15 years ago. It's in the white at the moment. I drove the barrel pins out of it today and they are bent due to shrinkage of the stock. Very low humidity is the cause and happens regularly this time of year. I have been bringing the gun in the house at night during the whole building process but it still shrinks this time of year. Don't have this problem in the summer, but guns I build in the summer shrink in the winter, Butt plates stand proud, patch boxes stand proud, very upsetting.
 
With curly maple or any grain that is not aimed straight ahead you are going to get movement across it. Maple moves as much as 1/4" per 12" flat grain. or 1/8" for quarter-sawn. That's why people generally elongate their pin holes, because the wavy nature of it provides for some elongation of the stock due to wood movement across the grain. For straight grain (up and down) the seasonal wood movement is pretty much diminimus, but almost no stock has grain that is wholly parallel to the barrel from end to end.
 
Tape a broom handle in the barrel channel when the barrel is out. It will not only help hold it straight , but will help protect the stock if knocked over or dropped..
 
It takes me at least 8 months to put a gun together, by that time the stock has acclimated to the ambient MC of my area and is not in danger of warping if I remove the barrel for a few days to brown it.
 
There will still be seasonal movement in the stock / wood due to changes in humidity in most places. Finishes can certainly slow down the vapor exchange (they say shellac is the best for this) but it will still happen. That's why cabinet makers often use things like slots & tabs to attach things like wide solid table tops to bases, so as to allow for seasonal wood movement.

Ever notice how your inlays like a lock, barrel, tang, or side plate gets much tighter in the winter than in the summer? That's seasonal wood movement across the span of the inlet. If I had a choice in the matter, I would try to do my inlets for the permanent stuff in late August, when the wood will be at its' fattest. Once it's in there when the wood shrinks down on it the fibers will crush down on it to make it even tighter and better looking.
 
Last edited:
I built a gun last August. Right now the wood has shrunk so much the front finial of the patch box is above the surface of the wood and the lid doesn't close properly anymore. The buttplate is now larger than the surrounding wood. I must inlet too tight.;)
 

Similar threads

A
Ordered my Kibler Woodsrunner this morning
Replies
4
Views
453
yellowhammer
Y
Eras Gone
Another Cherry Colonial
Replies
10
Views
804
Mina
Mina
C
The "Order of Assembly" Question
Replies
11
Views
569
Kansas Kid
Kansas Kid
J
  • Locked
SOLD Kibler SMR 45 Cal SPF
Replies
9
Views
2K
jgraham1
J
flatcreek
Questions about browning
2
Replies
24
Views
1K
LTeeBee62
L

Latest posts

Back
Top