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To: Myrddin
Thanks, but I can't lay claim to the finish on that picture... that is a representative sample I found on the internet.

In my NOT so humble opinion, mine looked as good... and I got lots of compliments from Winchester collectors... and the guy who traded the original '95 SRC .30-40 Krag obviously thought so.

When I carved the stock and fore end, I used a duplicating pantagraph carving device to closely recreate an original '86 stock. I then used a micrometer to measure thicknesses at various locations on an original stock... and matched it exactly. I used a very fine figurred Black Walnut blank (Simms Hardware, the gun shop where I worked had bought hundreds of air-dried, sawn out black walnut slabs from an orchard in the area that used Black Walnut for the roots and boles of their English Walnut production trees. Those trunks and roots could bring anywhere from $2000 to $10,000 PER TREE!). Simms sold those 2" x 6" x 36" blanks for anwhere from $40 to $300... Frank Simms let me choose mine for the $40 price... guess what I chose. I did no checkering on the wood because duplicating Winchester factory select checkering was very difficult and I was no where good enough... nor did I want to pay an expert to do it... so I kept the stock stock, so to speak.

The gunsmith at Simms was an expert at reblueing and helped me with the case-hardening and blueing of the barrel and small metal parts. The barrel was a Winchester factory original .45-70 Barrel with all markings, unblued in the white, but with a factory select polished finish. (According to Simms' records, the barrel was purchased by them in 1921 on special order but the customer who paid for it never picked it up! I just lucked out... it went perfect with my sporterized .33 Win. that my mother bought for me from a local antique dealer. The barrel had never even been taken out of the shipping tube and was still wrapped in the brown paper wrapper, with factory grease still on it.)

80 posted on 10/11/2005 8:35:58 PM PDT by Swordmaker (Beware of Geeks bearing GIFs.)
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To: Swordmaker
That's quite a confluence of fortunate events. Still, it took much skill and care to carve the stock. I don't blame you for backing off on the checkering job. That takes serious patience and care. Flaws are immediately obvious. It was a good decision.
81 posted on 10/11/2005 10:08:32 PM PDT by Myrddin
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