Teaser for Tony's English rifle

[dave_person]

Hi,
Tony has been really patient so here is a little candy for him. The stock is English walnut and finished with Sutherland-Welles polymerized tung oil tinted with aniline dyes. The first photo shows the wet finish before wiping. The next are after the excess finish was wiped off and the stock ready to be put aside to dry. Lots of engraving to do, the wrist gets checkered and I have some gold inlays to do on the breech. I made the front sight today and inlayed a thin gold wire in the middle of the blade, which can be clearly seen when shooting in low light.
Enjoy Folks and Tony,

dave

 

[DOUBLEDEUCE 1]

Stunning wood !

 

[Kansas Jake]

Beautiful as always.

 

[Brokennock]

Truly amazing work as always. Please clue me in on the process of putting the wire in the front sight. How do you get it precisely centered, cutting technique/tool, etc.?
Not sure if the technical response, if you wish to share it, should be in it's own thread.

Thanks for sharing. I don't build guns, but I always open your threads.

 

[dave_person]

Hi Brokennock,
Thanks for asking. I shape a steel blade and then mark the center of the end facing the shooter with calipers. I scribe a center line. Then using a square graver, I cut the line to a fairly deep depth (for engraved lines). I follow that up with a little flat graver on which the sides flare out so the flat bottom is wider than the top. I use that graver to deepen the line until it is about half the depth of the 18 gauge 22K gold wire that I use. The flat graver also undercuts the edges of the line because of the flared bottom. Then I just take the wire and tap it into the groove (line) and the gold fills the undercut locking it in place. I file and stone away the extra gold. Then I solder the blade into its base. The whole process takes me about an hour to completely make a front sight like that. I'll provide some photos after I finish the gold inlays on the chambered breech.

dave

 

[Brokennock]

Thank you much for the response. I have a couple front sights I'd like to do similar to, but they are complete and installed. Also could not figure a good way for an unskilled layman like myself to mark and cut a nice centered line.

Thanks again.