TVM Late Lancaster Kit

As for browning the barrel and other steel parts, heat and humidity are key factors in how it turns out. Some make a box to place the parts in with a source of moisture and a heat lamp. But I think the best results may come from simply using our Georgia heat and humidity.
Wait until the rifle is finished and don't be in a hurry, you can shoot it before it's browned. Around May or June when the daily temps are high and the high summer humidity sets in is the time to brown that metal.
I simply wipe the agent on then sit the parts under my barn on 5 gallon buckets overnight. Card them off and reapply the solution and put the parts back outside. It will only take a few coats to get a deep rich brown.

Thanks Darkhorse, I ordered some LMF Browning solution from Brownell's this week. I'll probably be done with this in the spring so will wait for warm weather for the browning.

The last few days has been filing and sanding the trigger guard. I've been putting this off but its time. I did get the nose cap done and it turned out pretty nice. I'll get a photo of that in another update. It has taken longer than I thought to clean up this trigger guard. I'm going to declare victory and move on to the inletting. I can finish polish it once it is mounted I think.

Another part I've been putting off, shaping the lock panel When I was first inletting the lock, I went a little crazy and messed the panel up. After trying to rasp down to remove the gouge I put into it, I realized that I was taking too much wood off and just stopped, sick to my stomach that I had fudged this up big time.

Today I decided that I had to address it and the only way was to thin down the border to remove what I had done. It looks passable. Not great, not right but passable and better than leaving a 4" long gouge down the middle. Looking at it in the photo I can see some rough spots so a bit more work to do. Now I'm considering do I need to take more wood off the bottom of the stock? Can I take more wood off the bottom at this point or just try to aggressively curve from the trigger guard to the bottom of the lock panel. Measuring under the trigger guard, I have 0.425 before I hit the ramrod channel, so it is plenty beefy there but only have 0.20 where the ram rod enters the forestock. Not sure it worth it and maybe mess it all up again.

I think I would go ahead and inlet the triggers to the proper depth so they work as they should. In fact I would have done this right after inletting the lock.
When the trigger plate is inletted and fastened down it may be proud of the wood in which case it can be filed flush, it just can't stand out so much you get into any pins when fileing. It may also end up below the surface, here you'll just remove wood til flush. What controls the position of the trigger plate is always the relationship of the trigger bar(s) to the sear.
I would not remove any more wood from the bottom until the triggers are in the right position.

Thanks Darkhorse. The triggers were done right after I put in the lock but I pulled them out for this part of the work. They are at the right depth now and it has a good trigger pull without too much free play in the trigger.

Yes, I should have done this right after I put in the lock but I had in my mind that I wanted a thinner border on the lock and pulled out chisel and got started, then I panicked and stopped. That was the first week I think, and I decided to come back to the lock border later when I had settled in some.

I think I'm going to leave the bottom thickness about where it is and just ease the transition from the bottom of the stock to the bottom of the lock panel and round it over.

I was reading over on the ALR forum and someone used the term "a 3 to 5 foot rifle" which is where this one will hopefully end up. and not be a "5 to 10 foot" rifle.

I think the way you trimmed the lock panel looks pretty good. You can go back and deepen it into the stock a little so the border shows up better. Then blend that into the stock.
I should have thinned mine more but I didn't notice it at the time.
I will be redoing my .54 either this summer or the next, time permitting. Thinning the lock panel, rounding the forearm better, adding incised lines and maybe a cast pewter nosecap. Also redoing the browning as I browned this rifle in late winter when it was still cold and no humidity, and did not get a good deep finish.

Leoparddog,
Congratulations! Your work looks great! Impressive wood and metal work. Way beyond my ability!
Enjoy.

Thanks Hugh,
This hasn't been that difficult and I think anyone with some study, care and attention to detail could pull this off. I spent about a year saving the funds, reading, buying tools and books, and doing some practicing for inletting - I still need a lot of practice on that.

I haven't posted an update in a while but will soon. Progress has gone from major components to sanding and smaller details, so the visuals don't really jump out. When I get the RR thimbles installed I'll come back to post some photos.

Thanks again.
LD

Here's an update, ram rod thimbles. The front thimble went pretty well, but the entry thimble go so far and I've stopped to think. Get up and walk away has been the best advice.
This entry thimble should go in straight down, so far so good until I look at the rear view. It may be hard to tell but this TVM Late Lancaster kit has an almost flat forearm bottom. I can continue to inlet down and get that curve buried into the wood, sand and scrape around the sides and curve the handguard bottom some more. BUT...

My concern is that I'll either bury the front of the thimble too deeply into the RR channel or will have to tilt the tail of the thimble down and thus won't have a good straight entry into the RR hole.

I've done a good bit around the lock and sideplate to make that look better than in the photo above, but didn't get pics tonight. I'll wait until I pin the trigger guard for that photo.

I also posted this over on the ALR forum but since I've been here at Woody's Campfire for 14 years, this is sorta my Outdoor Forum home.

There looks to be a lot of wood on that stock to work with. I would go ahead and do some rounding on the forearm to get it closer to the end product, and to better fit the bend in the tail of the entry pipe. Don't over do it as you will still need material to finish it.
Inlet the first 2 pipes first. The top surface of the hole should be flush with the top of the RR groove and the RR should pass through them both. Now take the center one and inlet "It" in the position the entry pipe hole will be. Go straight down and when a ramrod will pass through it you're done.
Keep in mind many ramrods are to large to pass through the pipes and must be scraped or sanded to fit the pipes before fitting.
Now find the center of your fore arm and draw a line down it. Use this to ensure the tail of the entry pipe is going in straight. File a draft on the tail.
Coat the underside of the tail in inletting black and place it in position pushing down on the pipe. Now just take your time and keep inletting a little at a time until the surface of the tail is just below the surface of the wood and the ram rod will pass through all 3 pipes. Keep in mind these pipes may need opening up a little until the rr goes all the way in.
Now when you finish the forend with rasps and sandpaper keep going until the brass and wood are flush and you are taking off a little of each. That ring on the tail will make it harder to do this and if it was mine I'd file it off.
Entry pipes are not really that difficult just tedious.

Thanks Darkhorse.
I inlet the middle pipe into that location last night and started back on the entry pipe, but didn't do much more.

On thing I can't emphasize enough is finding good detail photos of similar styles, which is some research I did last night. Finding good photos of entry pipes on Lancaster style rifles with a similar flare on the pipe tail. It really helps get your head around shaping of the wood and options.

So while I "knew" the forearm was still pretty beefy and flat, I think I now see how to round and taper this portion and then hopefully blend the wood shapes back to the front of the trigger guard. All in all, its going to end up a much more svelte and shapely rifle than if I had just kept all that wood as it came from TVM.

FWIW I've just inletted the entry pipe whole and straight down. Next time I'll do like I suggested and inlet a plain pipe first and get it level and to where the rr passes through easily. The problem with inletting it whole is getting the pipe straight and level.
As for drawing a line down the center of your stock let me add, draw 3 lines, one for the center and a line for both sides of the tab. Find the center of the tab and make a small mark. By using these reference points you can get it straight. It's easy to end up with that tab a little crooked.
I'll try and get a few photos and post them later.

I don't know if these photo's will help much. On most of them the rifles are canted a little, I thought that might help show some perspective but to me it makes the rifles look warped.
The brass rifle was built 20 years ago and is my main deer rifle. It has a C profile barrel whereas the steel mounted rifle has a B profile barrel so it is the slimmer of the two.
On both of them I inlet the entry pipe and tail down until it was at the right depth, this put the tail well below the surface of the wood. When I finished the stock I filed and sanded the wood maintaining the same radius of the tail until they were flush. One of the photos shows the bottom of the brass rifle and how the flat in front of the trigger guard was blended into the radius of the stock.
The stock in this area runs in a straight line to the barrel where a curve is filed to a knife edge contacting the barrel. This continues to just ahead of the entry pipe where I begin to round the stock and blend it into the round or heart shape of the forend which continues to the end of the barrel.
Looking at the bottom of the steel mounted gun this rounding has began and notice where the stock has faded from sight where it contacts the barrel. The side view shows it a little better, the light reflection line shows where the actual rounding peaks as you go down the stock.
Look at your rifle for a while and plan how you plan to proceed. Make pencil marks where you intend to round the stock. Burn a mental picture in your mind of how you want it to look then make it happen. Remember the forend must have a good round shape if not it will look flat and slabsided.

Here is a link to a Isacc Haines build, there may be a couple of pictures that will help you visualize how it all fits together.

http://www.hootalrifleshop.org/Isaac Haines Rifle 2.htm

Thank you Darkhorse. That last photo of yours is really helpful.

That rifle is starting to show it's age. A lot of little marks on the wood from climbing in and out of deerstands. A lot of the browning has worn off. But the rifle is very fast and very accurate.
I think next year I'm going to go ahead and do some work on the stock and metal.

You’re doing great Leoparddog. I’m enjoying watching your progress. However, if you and Darkhorse don’t stop this I’ll be forced to order a box of parts and build another gun. It’s been8-10 years since I built my last flintlock. I love them. Id really like to try a FL pistol.
Cant wait to see the finished product.

Almost there. I think I've worked on this entry thimble about 6 hours or more. Next time will be faster I'm sure. Just a hair more to go. The ram rod goes in and out easily now and I think I may need to sink it just a few hundred thou more to get it flush with the current bottom of the handguard.

I drew some lines but they are getting faint and I'll refresh them before going back to shaping the hand guard. I think this was harder than the buttplate.

Thanks Darkhorse for all the advice and help.

Looks a whole lot better with some of that wood removed. Your getting there Leoparddog, you are right, the next one will be easier.

Next time I'll put this thimble in earlier rather than later. I removed about .15" from the bottom of the forearm to shallow up the RR channel and then that led to forearm shaping before the thimbles went in. Its obvious now that the forearm is thinner on one side of this thimble than on the other. I'll get it worked out I'm sure, but another lesson learned.

Get the ramrod channel the way you want it and then get this and the other thimbles inletted so they can serve as a visual balance point for thinning down the sides.