Profiling the upper forestock, Fusil de Chasse

[Flint62Smoothie]

Hi folks, inspired by Sean's current build of his 2nd arm, I am getting back to my left-handed Fusil de Chasse build, which started out as a basic kit from Sitting Fox that I bought here for $300 when the previous owner decided it was above their capabilities.

In its previous life it was a maple stock, 42" barrel and right-handed lock. I sent the lock, stock and barrel back to Ray @ SF and he sent back, for equal exchange, a 44-1/2" barrel, breeched (well too!) and a walnut stock inletted for the barrel and ramrod groove.

I bought a left-handed Caywood Trade round-faced lock, by Mike Rowe, and hand filed it to mimic a flat-faced lock, as per the 1721 contract to Tulle. I went with the Caywood as it is almost 6" long and was the only suitable lefty lock to modify. I also faceted the pan.

Anyway - to my question. I am profiling the upper forend and forestock (less the muzzle for now ...). Right now I have about 1/2 the barrel showing and between 1/2 and 1/3rd of the ramrod showing. I am doing my very best to make this FdC as trim as trim can be.

Should I take more off the ramrod groove sides to show ~1/3rd of the ramrod to give the illusion of an even more trim musket? I am afraid to pull down the top edge of the barrel inlet to show more barrel, as once I remove wood, I do not want to go below the point where the side of the barrel was tangent to the knife edge of the wood.

I greatly appreciate ALL input ... as my skin is thickened, haha :surrender: !

 

[galamb]

I zoomed your pictures about as much as I could without getting distortion and from what I see I think you have trimmed down to the ramrod channel about as far as I would go.

It looks very good. I think if you went further the thimbles would start to (protrude) to the point where it would look a little off.

On the other hand I think you could take down a fair bit more on the sides of the barrel - expose fully 2/3's of the barrel and then alter the taper into the barrel accordingly - so it looks like the barrel "emerges" from the wood without any noticeable break in the curve.

You didn't post up and overhead (birds eye) shot. If you have more than a maximum of 1/8" of wood on either side of the barrel you could trim that back as well (so if your barrel was say 1", the total width of the forestock would be no more than 1 1/4" at it's widest (normally just above the location of the pins).

That is going to be sweet when you get her done. Something about a Walnut stock....

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Good thoughts, thanks! You're right, where the barrel inlet is rounded already, to the profile, I can probably show more barrel. I've been going for 1/8" or less on each side from the above view. Thank you!

 

[galamb]

The only thing you might want to watch for is the line (top of the side) as it goes back towards the lock.

If you get it too low it will "look" like the lock is mounted too high. If you plan for that "earlier" in the build you can lower the lock slightly (unless you are working with a pre-inlet) - even 1/16" of an inch will allow you to lower the sides along the barrel as well. (something to keep in mind for your next flint build - with percussion you have less freedom in lock placement depending on the breech system you choose).

In this case where you already have the lock mounted if you draw a pencil line along the side to where you would like them to finish up AND it looks like it will end up a little low near the top of the lock plate (a fair bit below the top of the pan and you think it will look funny), you can still lower the sides leaving about 2/3's of the barrel exposed, but once you get to a point in line with the inlet pipe you can very slightly taper the top edge to a more "pleasing" intersection with the top of the lock plate.

This would be a pretty small measurement and unless you took a caliper to it, it would be difficult to detect simply by eye, but would give the desired effect or a very slim/trim forestock.

(if you get what I'm saying here)...