I am curious,is there any one gun it was inspired by or a general school with you doing the overall layout of what goes where and how much?
well , it started out as a attempt at a John Baum rifle .. see rifles of Colonial America Volume 1 .
But it morphed into something else .
The person who requested the build liked the lines , small bore and the octagon to round barrel, which is rather unusual as it’s , more of a European barrel profile .
One of the other unusual things about that particular J.B rifle is that it has a long cheek piece that tapers all the way into the side plate mortise.
As I laid the rifle out and started shaping the blank I didn’t like the cheek piece at all . So I called up the customer . Had them come by and take a look .
Turned out they agreed . So we cut the cheek piece back to more along the conventional Lancaster lines .
This created an issue though with the wrist . With the cheek piece the wrist was more of an egg shape. Up through the side plate mortise. So in order to get rid of that , I had to reshape the mortise and oval the wrist .
Now normally this wouldn’t be an issue . But this rifle is very thin. Literally I can reach around the wrist with my index finger and touch the joint of my thumb . The forestock is no wider then my thumb .
So , now the question was . Do we start all over with a new blank or just go with it .
Well we ran with it . So to help blend the transition from the wrist to the mortises , I did the large diamond checkering on the wrist . Then added the silver pin inlays , so as to give the illusion of more depth then there really is .
Again something that’s seen a lot more in French fowlers then American long rifles
When it comes to the engraving , I was given free reign, with the exception of the rear sight . Which the customer chose . Kinda sore spot for me .
Anyway . I have seen a few Spanish barrels of this time period . Most carried some kind of long running leaf scroll down the barrel . . So as I started to draw the design , it came to me that if I boxed the design . But started one off on each flat , I would end up with not only a running leaf scroll pattern. BUT I would also end up with a wheat head type pattern that would alternate around the barrel .
So after laying it all out , that’s what I cut .
Thus I stayed with a leaf pattern on all the boarder work .
So what started out based around a American rifle , had become something a lot more European in its art work .
Its been one of those projects that’s been very hard not to end up going way overboard into something that’s more art then it is usable function
