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1stnamebassist said:
Nice! The cheek piece would be a bit much for me, but if it’s comfortable for you then leave it! Your butt stock looks really nice as well! What did you use for that color?
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Thank you for the compliment! The cheek peice actually is a comfortable fit, I was contemplating on shaving it back for a cleaner /sleeker and crisper appearance, but as is, its a comfortable hold. I used beechwood Casey perma blue. Sanded to 400 grit, washed, decreased with beechwood Casey degreaser, used gloves to prevent oil contamination, and rubbed on with a pure cotton large cotton ball. Allowed dwell for one minute and rinsed in cold water. I did this will all the metal work, for the better part, the greater majority of the parts are equal in appearance, this is aside from the tang. For whatever reason, the tang came out pretty much black. But it looks nice, so I am not going to rub it back. The barrel came out a nice reddish chocolate brown with copper undertones. I scuffed the barrel during site installation so I stripped it this morning. Now it looks honestly really nice, a dull grey, reminds me of the wonderful cowboy guns, Navy/Army after years of use. I was going to apply ultrablack, also by berchwood Casey, to re-blue, though as afore mentioned, the finish actually looks right, so I may end up keeping as is, and blue another day.


Best

Ryan
 
The complete build... granted I have to set the two pens into the ramrod pipe, and add sights. I like the clarity of the tru-oil, though not the gloss. Any suggestions to cut the gloss back? I used 0000 wool, but its a bit much, maybe some cutting compound, or wax paste? I should have used grain filler as was suggested, though I did not anticipate the grain to sell so much. I am going to leave the barrel grey for now, though will either do a blue or brown barrel, no rush, as I like the current appearance. Again much thanks and appreciation for all of the support and encouragement! You are a great group of people. I know that the greater majority of you could have made it look stunning, but this was my third kit, and I am still building expirence.

Best

Ryan
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1stnamebassist said:
I just finished up my left hand kit. My first long gun build. I have very little experience working with wood, but quite a bit of metal working experience. I watched the Bob Woodfill video several times and downloaded some pics of original Hawkens to reference. You will be removing a lot of wood! I bought some inexpensive rasps and some rubber sanding blocks and sandpaper from Amazon. I bought some Homer Dangler red/brown stain and Laurel Mountain browning solution. I worked on it a couple minutes here, a couple hours there and I was happy with the results for my first rifle build! Good luck with your kit, it was fun and a bit of a challenge, and well worth it!
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Nice job! I would like to know where you got your kit?
 
Grenadier1758 said:
A white scotch-brite pad will take the gloss off the Tru-Oil finish and become a nice matt finish.
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Alright, I will try this first.. after some reading, pumice and oil slurry is another way to go. I will try the scotch Brite first, as this seems most easy without the slury 😆

Best

Ryan
 
The pumice powder, brick dust in a slurry will work, but it's quite messy compared to the white Scotch-Brite pad.

The Laurel Mountain and Wahkon Bay Browning solutions are cold brown. No torch required.

I like to make a fixture to hold the barrel and other parts in my van. The temperature gets over 130 degrees F and gives the metal a dark brown color. Get rubber gloves to handle the metal parts after degreasing and follow the instructions to the letter. The solution may have to be applied several times for the color to be applied evenly to the metal.
 
Ryanlpuckett said:
I am awaiting the arrival of an Investarm, Hawken Gemmer Kit. What i have read, suggests that this was one of the more accurate production kits available. The robust Iron furniture is probably what sold me, knowing the amount of work required to re-work the stock, well the iron is what sold me lol. I do wish that it had a patch box, but oh well. Anywho, I would like to make it as accurate as possible, and am looking for source material to work the stock to as accurate as to original as possible. Does anyone know of templates, drawings or any other resources for these rifles? With work one can get close, with dedication and a set of files and a shoulder replacement one can attain perfection. I see these kits out of the box as flawed "historically" speaking, but manufacturers were not striving for perfection at these price points, however, they offer a good starting point.

Thank you guys!!
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Hope the possible UPS strike doesn't cause too much delay for any muzzleloaders! Imagine having a nice kit or gun stuck in a warehouse somewhere during a strike! Yikes!
 

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