Pedersoli Bess #4. The usual suspect stuff, nothing new. I think I could assemble these blindfolded by now.
First thing I do is an overall check of the stock wood, looking for any boo-boos, just a few this time, none were deal breaking. As always with these guns the ramrod feels like it's glued into the pipes and fore stock, I'll deal with that last. I took off all the furniture, bbl, and lock, but left in the trigger and trigger plate, and the brass muzzle cap. Then rasped/sanded/scraped the wood (some flavor of walnut) until it better resembled a 2nd Land Pattern Bess to my liking. After taping off the trigger and its plate, and the muzzle cap, I used a square of 3M super fine synthetic abrasive (maroon) to wipe on a very wet coat of LM American Walnut in three sections - butt to tang, tang to fore stock end, fore stock end to muzzle. After each section was done all the excess stain was removed with paper toweling. Hung it up to cure overnight in a temp/humidity (70/50) controlled room.
Vised and pulled the bbl beech plug. Plug face had the typical half trough from drilling the touch hole - I opened and chamfered the outer end of the trough to better distribute the powder charge for better acceptance of the pan's ignition heat. Plug got homed with a generous coat of Nikal anti-seize. All brass furniture got filed, sanded, buffed bright with wire wheels on a Dremel.
Next day I began the first of 3 wiped coats of warmed Tru-Oil using a swatch of the 3M abrasive pad. Same deal; wiped on the same three sections and after each wipe the excess was removed with paper toweling. These thin coats dry off in a few hours and at the end of the day I left the stock hanging and curing overnight.
Following morning the stock got a single coat of Tru-Oil using a cotton pad, left wet, hung outdoors for the entire day for curing.
Next early morning the entire stock was lightly rubbed with 3M abrasive pads, wiped off the dust with naphtha on paper toweling, and given a final coat of Tru-Oil using the same process as the first three coats - oil on synthetic pad. Hung outdoors for curing. By noon the stock was bone dry and the assembly began.
Prep work for installing the bbl and lock is to dribble in water thin CYA (I use Hot Stuff) to both the bbl channel and the lock mortise and quickly wipe the dribblings with cut pieces of paper toweling. This really helps keep powder residue from sinking into the wood.
The assembly - first on is the trigger guard and wrist medallion, then the bbl and tang screw, then all the pipes get pinned in place, then the bbl pins go in, then the sling mount is added - as usual the sling hanger requires rebending to insure that its wide enuf to encompass the stock and that the machine screw fits into it correctly - I do that by vising the sling mount and using big pliers to bend and test that it will fit the stock and allow the screw to properly enter both its ends. The brass butt plate is added. The lock and its side plate are screwed on. I use new pins that I make from 6D (.092) 2" finishing nails. I made a sling from 1.5" heavy cotton webbing, depressed the feather spring and added a brass flash guard, made a leather stall for the steel. Blank fire baptism at a reenacting event tomorrow. Life is still good.
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