"in the white"???

[just mark]

how difficult is it to finish a gun bought "in the white"? is it the sort of thing an amatuer with no experience can do? what is required in the way of equipment?

 

[rabjr]

The gun is basically built for you. All the inletting and holes are drilled. In other words all the hard work is done. You just have to do the final sanding and finishing of both the wood and metal parts and reassemble the parts. Not much different from one of the commercial gun kits from Lyman or T/C.

 

[Bill Hall]

Yep, they are put out there FOR the amateur, or first timer. Good way to get your feet wet, and you learn alot along the way. My first M/L was a T/C in-the-white kit I put together in the mid 70's, as a braindead teenager. When it was done, I felt like a bona-fide gunsmith. :rotf: Bill

 

[Zonie]

It depends on who supplied the "In the White" gun.

Many of these are fully assembled but they were built using a pre-carved stock.

That, in itself isn't bad. In fact, it's a good thing for most people who are new to building a muzzleloader.

The only thing that might be a bit of work is the pre-carved stocks usually have a lot of extra wood left on them and if you want the gun to look like it should you will have to do several things.

The first thing is to find some photos of the original guns. Notice how thin the wood is in many of the areas and compare your gun with the photos. I'm betting that quite a lot of sanding with course sandpaper will be needed to thin down the wood.

After the stock has been thinned down to look like it should it will have to be totally resanded using finer and finer grits of sandpaper. Stop sanding when you've reached 220 grit. Using sandpaper finer than that will not improve the surface and can cause problems with staining the wood.

After sanding the wood down to the 220 grit level you will probably want to stain it.
Although there are many different colors and kinds of stains I do NOT recommend using any stain that is oil based. If it says anything about petroleum or oil on the label pass it by.

IMO, the best stains are alcohol based although there have been some good water based stains on the market over the years.
I would recommend your getting some Birchwood Casey Walnut stain. One coat will be a nice light brown. Two coats will be darker and richer. Three coats will be a rich dark brown that will not hide the grain or curl of the wood.

After staining you will need to apply a good wood finish. Varnish and Urethane products can be used but usually leave a streaked, uneven look.
It is better to use a finish that is made for gunstocks. Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil comes to mind. Other oils like Boiled Linseed and Tung Oil can also be used although linseed oil will show water spots if it gets wet. It also takes forever to dry.

You will have to decide if you want to leave the barrel "in the white" or unfinished. Many of the original guns were left this way.
The other options are to brown the metal or to blue it.
The "Cold" or "Instant" bluing available at gun stores works very POORLY. I cannot recommend it.

Our Gun Builder's Bench forum here on the MLF was set up to help folks who are new to building guns. We have some very knowledgeable people here who will be more than happy to answer any questions you have about finishing your gun.

 

[hoochiepapa]

Go to www.longrifle.com There are a couple there made by a true gunsmith. Scroll through the pages till you find them.

 

[Supercracker]

The "Cold" or "Instant" bluing available at gun stores works very POORLY. I cannot recommend it.

I used oxphoblue on mine and got, I think, good results. I got it from Brownells, not sure if you can get it from gun stores. Of course, you should probably get a Brownells catalog anyway.

I also tried the permablue. To put it nicely, I decided not to use it on the gun. I did however reblue the handles on all my forks and spoons with it. They didn't stay blue either and need to be redone.