Building another flintlock

[Ryan C]

I'm building a 50 cal Kentucky rifle from a kit. This helps with that.

[caveman2533]

When you beveled the lock plate it looks like the widest edge is to the inside. I would have thought that for a nice clean fit it would bevel with the widest to the outside.

[Eric Krewson]

Widest is to the outside, if you look at the picture again you can see I am taking metal off the inside.

[caveman2533]

Ok that is what I thought.  Some of the pics of you tracing or maybe laying out the hole locations look like they were pre-filing. That's what had me confused.

[Eric Krewson]

The lock plate inlet is complete, I like to leave about 1/8" of extra wood around the plate and sand it down to the proper height just before I add finish to the rifle.During the build you will beat and bang up the outer wood surface a bit so It is best to have a little extra for "protection".   



The inlet is complete when lock bolster fits tightly against the side of the barrel.



Inletting the lock internals is next.

[Eric Krewson]

To put things in perspective; This plate inlet took about 8 hours, maybe a little more.

 Notice the blood on the stock under the lock plate, I can't work with sharp pointy things and not leave a blood trail.

[JW_Halverson]

To put things in perspective; This plate inlet took about 8 hours, maybe a little more.

 Notice the blood on the stock under the lock plate, I can't work with sharp pointy things and not leave a blood trail.

A gun, bow, or knife needs "life" in it.  I can't seem to finish one without putting a little of me on/in it.

[Eric Krewson]

So, now we have to make places for all the lock internals.




First locate all the screw holes;

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I do one piece at a time and start with the tumbler bridal.

Line it up with the screw holes and draw around it.

[URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/ekrewson/media/Squirrel%20rifle/lock%20internals%20inlet%20003_zpshmbqkcss.jpg.html]

 Make a stop cut around your pencil line.



If you are lucky you will have the correct size gouge to follow the curve for making your stop cuts deeper.



And start removing wood;

[Buffalogobbler]

Eric,
Is there a reason why you did not drill the screw holes first?

Kevin

[Eric Krewson]

Yes, no matter how well you think you have everything lined up, when I attach the tumbler and bridal to the plate with screws nothing is perfectly aligned. I get the bridal inlet pretty deep then put the bridal and tumbler on the lock plate with screws, blacken them, line up the nose of the lock inlet and press into place. I always have to enlarge or shift the bridal inlet for the lock plate to fit right. When I get everything lined up and settling in, the screw heads will leave a black place for me to use my drill on and have the hole in the right place.

My lock internal inlets are pretty sloppy, they don't show and I want everything to rotate without binding.

I will show this in my next step. 

[Eric Krewson]

My lock inlet will look like this when I get done, pretty hogged out looking. You go one piece at a time to retain as much wood as possible to keep the area stronger. You don't want to inlet into the ramrod channel if you don't have to. You will probably get into the barrel channel with your main spring inlet, you can reduce the spring width or notch the barrel to accommodate the spring.

[JW_Halverson]

My first flinter was a .36 cal Wilderness Mountain Arms. The person that inlet the lock plate went hog wild with removing wood and there was very little integrity left to hold anything ahead of the wrist area.  and sure enough, that is where she broke.  I had a real pro put it all back together and he filled in the lock mortise with Brownell's bedding compound and then properly rework the inletting. 

I could bust someone over the head with that gun, Davy Crockett style at the Alamo and it wouldn't break again in the same place!  And Eric is doing it right, right from the start!  A lock mortise is sloppy fit compared to a barrel channel, but nothing that isn't downright cozy.

[Eric Krewson]

After I get the bridal outlined I put the bridal and tumbler on the lock plate, blacken everything with soot and see how it fits my bridal inlet. It never fits perfectly so I start removing the blackened areas.



Done, I removed a lot of wood to get the lock plate back in its inlet and fitting flush.



Next I add the mainspring to the lock plate and repeat the blackened process.


Forstner bits are great for hogging out a lot of wood precisely.

[bow101]

I like to see, and do good old chisel work by hand. 

[Eric Krewson]

This is  the most splintery piece of wood I have ever worked. With the curl you can make a cut with you chisel and pop a S shaped splinter that will go down or to either side in a jagged cut, nightmarish stuff to work.   My chisels are so sharp they will cut a freestanding hair but will still cause a runout in this evil wood.

You can't do an proper inlet with forstner bits, my chisels get a substantial work out.

I finished the main spring inlet this afternoon, no forstner bits hole are left visible, I went deep with my chisels. It all came out pretty neatly. I invested three hours in this inlet, carefully removing wood a smidgen at a time to try to stay out of the ramrod channel, I succeeded.

The sear spring and sear are next.