Good day

Had a very productive day ins stockmaking today and if everything goes well this weekend, i should move on to shaping the blank Monday.  I'm also very close to done with the engraving on the front ring of the 338-06 Mauser, its taking me longer than i thought it would but is turning out nice.  Pics soon to follow.

A Sharp Project

Due to my interest in all things anachronistic and the west I decided that my third semester barreling project would be a sharps buffalo rifle in 2 and 7/8 more commonly called 45-110.

After confirming financial backing for the project (thanks mom and dad), I went about assembling the necessary parts. I procured my action from C sharps of big timber Montana, a great group of people who answer all my questions and were really helpful. My barrel, a 34 inch octagon heavy contour from Green Mountain, and a two piece stock blank from a friend in trade for some engraving. I also acquired gauges and chamber reamers from Pacific Tool and Gage.

Now that I had all the parts I needed a plan and a goal. I wanted to really pick up my game and make this as perfect as possible. I spoke with my instructor John about the layout of what I needed to do. I started with the barrel, draw filing and polishing the flats to a uniform 320 polish.

(Draw Filing the barrel)

(Polishing the Barrel)

Due to the demands of my classes and other projects there is no way I could have the entire action finished by shot show in January so I had to select a portion of the sharps to have ready. John suggested to do just the lock plate. While the action arrived from C Sharps in beautiful condition it was polished with buffing wheels and the nature of that kind of polishing gently rounded the corners. So i set about polishing up the lockplate flat and polishing all the nooks and crannies to a 400 grit polish.  Normally a standard grade gun would not have these small details fixed as it is very labor intensive and not really noticeable unless you know what you are looking for.

(This picture shows how the edges are not crisp due to buffing.)

(The edge of the lockplate that will require polish.)

The back side of the lockplate that i will polish and jewel in the areas that have moving parts.