vaturkey wrote:I think RGS does a good job with the Cyanide from what I've seen. FWIW, I'd consider getting something nicer then a basic black walnut blank if you are going to get it restocked. Restocking isn't inexpensive these days and a bit more bling if you going to have the gun engraved would be money well spent imo. PS. Don't get me wrong, black walnut it fine, but a medium grade black walnut stock blank might only run about a hundred bucks versus a plain jane black walnut blank at 50 bucks.
That is an excellent point, and really nothing is set in stone right now, except that it's going to be engraved and then re color case hardened with cyanide. I am by no means a stock maker, which is really driving my decision. I can do minor inletting and bedding and such, but to go from a blank to a finely shaped work of art is not my forte. I would absolutely love to take the gun down the road to Robert Szweda's shop and have him make me a stock, but I doubt I can afford him lol! Maybe I'll be able to come into some more cash while this is off being engraved to add to my budget. I would love to have a nice curly maple stock or some circassian walnut, but for now, the budget allows pre-inlet straight grain black walnut.
Anyways, the gun is all apart and I will start draw filing and polishing tomorrow night after class. Here's how it looks currently:
I made sure to mark parts left and right and took plenty of pictures so I know where everything goes when its all said and done. Once these are polished and off to my buddy for engraving, I'll be starting on the barrels. I have a nice factory white bead (thanks Jason Barden!) that I'm going to swap this little silver one for, as well as get them stripped down and ready for rust bluing. I won't start bluing until I have the trigger guard back from the engraver so I can get it all done at once. I also plan on nitre bluing all the pins and screws here. I figure the less small parts I send off the less I will hopefully have to worry about losing.
today I fitted a new bolt to get the lever back to just right of center. Here is it's current position 
. Now that its together, I'm going to take it back apart and start getting it ready for engraving. A friend and classmate of mine will be doing the engraving for me. He's been fortunate enough to study under Rachel Wells, and does pretty good work. Once he's done with it, I plan on sending it to off to get color case hardened with cyanide. R.G.S. Restorations is at the top of the list on places to send it right now, but if anyone has any suggestions on anyone else that uses cyanide for case hardening, I'm open to suggestions. I'll also be buying some new wood from Jason Barden sometime in the future. Straight grain American Black Walnut will do this gun just fine.
I should have left it in longer, or perhaps run it up a bit hotter, as some of the case hardening is still on the receiver, but flaking when I throw the file on it, rather than it just having peeled completely off. Thought you all might like to see it!
