Midway sale on the Lyman GP's ...

[rfd]

Did you brown the barrel and hardware? (hard for me to tell from picture, the barrel looks darker than lock and other parts) if you did what did you use? I ordered some BC Plum Brown for the furniture and then TOTW Cold Brown. Trying to get a nice authentic look.

the GPR lock comes in a darkish brown colour. the barrel was left in-the-white, as i always do, to patina on its own. though i've completed a lot of barrels and locks in both plumb brown and blue-brown, i'd rather leave all the metal to patina on its own, naturally, over time. "back in the day", it is argued that most of the time the metal was left untouched and as-is, and thus as such is quite "period/era correct authentic", for those who feel the need to be historically "correct".

[Hickory]

Would one of these flintlock versions be smooth sailing? or a tiddlywink of errors waiting to happen due to lack of "knack and feel" from experience?

If you do everything right, it will fire every time.
Keep your powder dry.

[rfd]

the GPR flint lock is a good and reliable lock. instead of a flat main spring, it uses a coil main spring, and some like that fact. the hammer steel (frizzen) is hardened well and renders good sparks, but a REAL knapped english or french flint is required - throw out the cut rock "flint" that comes with any offshore flinter. i've either owned or worked on dozens of investarms flintlocks, and never had an issue with their lock geometry or materials or function.

ALL of the tough alignment build work is pre-completed with GPR and GPH "kits". these are screw-together assemblies. routing, mortising and inlet work is not required.

the "learning curve" for loading, shooting, cleaning flintlocks is not even a curve, it's a short straight line. ask me how if yer still baffled. i've started dozens of folks down the path of good flintlock shooting and all have been bitten by the flint bug and none have survived. (yep, that's a good thing for all).

as i stated before, assembly is fast and the gun is ready to load and shoot ... but you would want to take the time to at least seal the wood with some kind clear finish stuff. while the clear (polyu, oil, varnish, whatever) will protect the wood, you'll have a gun that's got a Lot of excess wood that's proud of the furniture (metal parts) and be kinda bulky looking if not plain ugly.

so, to make any offshore kit gun be the best it can be, and before staining and sealing the wood, rasp and sand all the wood that sticks above the metal right down to the metal. yes, you will scratch and score the metal (butt plate, toe plate, tang, trigger guard, fore end cap, barrel wedge escutcheons, etc). when the wood meets the metal and is sanded smooth to 220 grit, you have a choice to leave the metal on as is, or take it off and polish it smooth with a wire wheel and steel wool. i like tough, rugged, Used guns, so i leave the furniture alone and scratched, hit it with some steel wool as it's mounted on the stock.

the matter of whiskering the wood before staining or finishing, to knock down the wood grain, is also optional.

it's optional whether or not to stain the wood. stain is just color, and color is an aesthetic matter and not a functional thing. i like dark wood, so even walnut gets stained. i like LMF (laurel mountain forge) american walnut. one quick wipe is good for me. 0000 wool buffing after the stain cures.

rather than messing with a gazillion wipes of a real oil finish that requires really long "cure" times, the faster/easier varnish oil (tru-oil) can fully seal the wood in as little as 3 coats, with 0000 buffing 'tween coats. more coats essentially means a thicker seal, more durability, more finish shine (for hunters, the last coat also gets its shine knocked down with 0000 wool). not at all hard, and can be a satisfying mini project. i usually give 3 or 4 light wipes of warmed linseed oil (pre blended with drying agents - TOTW Original Oil finish), then 3 or more light wipes of Tru-Oil (all coats of any finish get 0000 wool buffing tween coats).

a buffed coat of carnuba car paste wax is also good wet weather protection, after the clear coats cure.

what'd i forget?

[duckey]

Roger that rfd. So the 2 pack of Tradition flints I ordered....yeh or ney?

[rfd]

dunno anything about "traditions flints" - got a link to them?

are they knapped (you need to use good, real, knapped english or french flints)?

are they the correct size (5/8x3/4) for a GPR?

[rfd]

ok, curious about "traditions flints" and did a search. found them at various vendors for $10 to $7 per PAIR. they're claimed to be english flints. midway shows this picture of a pair of 'em and they want $7 for both.

the one on the left has a peaked top that allows both edges to be used, the one on the right has a flat top w/single edge and is called a "fine" flint. i prefer the fine flint as it allows more surface holding area in the cock's jaws.



a great english black or french amber flint should cost no more than $2 ... i get mine at TOTW and can specify only fine flints.

[duckey]

Midway had them. Not sure on size. They came reccomended with the GPR. However I'm looking at TOTW's English flints, thanks for mentioning the size as I was about to ask.

[duckey]

rfd....I believe you mentioned that the lock that comes with the GP kit has some sorta black finish on it. I noticed that on some Lyman Hawken kits and thought it looked rather ugly. Can that finish be stripped off? I'd rather try and brown it myself. What would you recommend to strip the finish.

[rfd]

you can see where i used 0000 steel wool to basically rub off some of the finish (though the hammer and pan have some kinda "color cased" finish, probably faux) ...

[duckey]

Looks like the same finish through out. That 0000 steel wool seemed to take tame it down a lot. Thanks for the picture.

[FrontierMuzzleloading]

birchwood casey blue and rust remover.

[duckey]

I like that satin finish. The grain pops out. The LMF Honey Maple seems lighter in color than a walnut stain. I guess it all comes down to how much is applied. Was this a GPR? kit?

[rfd]

I like that satin finish. The grain pops out. The LMF Honey Maple seems lighter in color than a walnut stain. I guess it all comes down to how much is applied. Was this a GPR? kit?

LMF stains, like most all stains, will/can vary greatly in their final hue dependent on the stock wood genus, its grain, and what type of clear is used over the stain. also, the number of stain applications. of all the LMF stains, i like and use their american walnut the most because i like dark woods with a hint of red.

i always buy "kit" guns, so if yer addressing any of the investarms (GPR, DGW, etc) rifles i've posted about, yep, all kits.

[duckey]

So here are a few pics of my pops flinter he built from a TOTW kit. It took him many years to build, worked on it here and their....the winter he retired he got rite to it and finished it in a couple months. We shot it together and It is such a pleasant gun to shoot, surprisingly mild kick and very accurate. This one has a straight octagonal barrel (Douglas)

[rfd]

a most beautious rifle!

[54bore]

duckey, That is a beautiful rifle!!

[duckey]

I found some Locktite Naval Jelly today that I had kicking around. Says it'll remove bluing so I will try this on the lock prior to browning.

birchwood casey blue and rust remover.

[duckey]

Thanks. He did a darn good job on it. That patch box took a lot of time.

duckey, That is a beautiful rifle!!

[duckey]

Got my GPR kit today. Have a few more items on the way for the gun. I see that the butt plate will need to move forward about 3/16" due to some gapage and then of course a lot of bringing the stock down to the hardware. Barrel seems to fit nicely, maybe a tad bit of pinching up towards the fore end cap. I need to wrap my head around how the lines need to look around the lock and opposite side of the lock as well as blending everything together. The stock has some nice color to it. Fun times ahead.

[duckey]

Well I'd say I'm about 60% done with getting with stock filing and sanding. Just taking my time and making all the lines and curves flow. I bought some sanding sponges at ace (not the dry wall ones) and they work very well and are firm enough but not to firm. They can conform to curves etc and cheek piece area.