An Experiment on Cherry Stocked Fowler

[GobblerKnob]

I wanted to finish this fowler in a manner that would enhance the already beautiful colors of the wood I used for the stock. I read about the use of lye and was intrigued. I couldn't find any so I used some Easy-Off oven cleaner. I was very pleased with the results.
The barrel is a smoothbore in .62 caliber. I blued it using hardwood charcoal. The lock is a Davis English Round-faced.
I hoped to have it done in time to work up a load for our upcoming spring gobbler season. Rick

 

[50cal.cliff]

Beautiful peice you got there. Like that gray on the barrel too. :thumbsup:

 

[rabjr]

Very nice GobblerKnob :thumbsup:

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Looks fantastic, and excellent workmanship to boot. :hatsoff:

 

[d.thomson]

If you dont mind me askin how do you hardwood charcoal blue, thanks and regards Fisher King, Ps sorry I got caught up in the hardwood blueing. The gun looks great and nice colours in the stock :bow: :hatsoff:

 

[GobblerKnob]

I am certainly no expert at it, but it's not as difficult as I first imagines it would be.

You must use hardwood charcoal. I used a water tank cut in half lengthwise for the trough. I poured in enough so that about 4" or so lay in the bottom. I lit that and let it burn back until the coals were glowing.

Then, I immersed the barrel in the coals. I poured another bag on top and let it burn down for several hours. There was a slight mishap involving an avalanche of snow from my shop roof, but that's a story for another time.

The critical thing is to make certain that no oxygen gets to the barrel or scale will form. You must also make sure it doesn't get too hot or you may find some red splotches formed. If you soldered your lugs and/or front sight on but did not use high temp silver solder, you'll be digging through the ashes for them when it's done.

I let this cool on its own. It came out of the coals a bluish grey color. When it was cool enough to handle by hand, I rubbed it down with a wool rag and some linseed oil. It turned the deep blue you see in the photos. That's the reader's digest version. Rick

 

[Roy]

I really like that color :thumbsup:

 

[Zonie]

When I went looking for lye, I ended up finding it in the Plumbing section of the hardware store.
They put it there because it is most commonly used to eat the grease and hair out of plugged up drains.

I have used the lye water on all of the Curly Maple guns I've built. It not only brings out the natural tannin in the wood, increasing the contrast between the dark and light stripes, but it also removes any oil that might have been left on the wood from handling it.
Having no oils on the wood IMO helps the alcohol based or water based stains penetrate the wood.

A word of warning to anyone using lye water.
It dissolves not only oil and hair, but anything that was or is alive including your skin, hair and eyes.
Any part of you that even a tiny drop gets on will instantly feel like it's on fire and will start to dissolve. I always keep a open bottle of vinegar handy and use rubber gloves when working with this stuff.
If you get any lye water on you, splash the area with vinegar. This will instantly neutralize it.

zonie

 

[Roy]

The lye made me more nervous than acid :haha: good warning :v

 

[MSW]

that's a really nice looking piece of work- now i'm motivated to go downstairs and tinker with my little project. what finish was on the barrel when you blued it? (the photo of the tang makes it look like draw filing, but it's often hard to tell after a picture has been run through the electronic ether a few times.) anyway- it looks great!

msw

 

[Blizzard of '93]

That is real nice work, thanks for posting the foto of your blank in the 2 vises, I've wondered how I was going to hold a piece of cherry I've got here. never thought to use 2 vises.

 

[fatboy]

Thats a beautiful pc you got there like it how do the round face Davis locks work ?

 

[GobblerKnob]

Yes, the barrel and tang have been draw filed. I agree. The electronic process does tend to distort things somewhat. I really like this lock. After a little internal polishing and some filing, it fires very quickly. If only it would stop raining and warm up here. I want to burn some powder! Rick