Isaac Haines kit build log
- Thread starter Ian
- Start date
JWFilips
Well-Known Member
Ferric Nitrate is blushed with heat and so is Tannic acid.....Tannic acid is use to turn the curls of "curly maple" near black! Some like it but I'm not a big fan. I rather the darkening of the curls to be achieved with just the Ferric Nitrate and a good heat source for blushing.
Ian
Notorious member
Can do when you roll your own stains!
I almost added some nitric acid for more reds but I think it's good the way it is and it won't have to be neutralized.
JWFilips
Well-Known Member
Ian, Got to Get you making scratch Ferric oxide with pure nitric acid! Got to find wrought iron! I use circa 19th century Iron Smithed nails or Horse shoes Old Barns were a good source. I would make mine as thick as red syrup and dilute it with Distilled water.
I remmenbered My Young son telling his friend, who wanted to come over...."You can't come over now because my Dad is making poison in the yard"!
Ian
Notorious member
Been a while but I've been working on the varnish every few days for well over a month. It's been a pain in the ass to say the least. After MUCH deliberation I scrapped the idea of making a brass patch box because ultimately I dislike them and dislike every surviving Haines example even more than most. I have all the materials to do it and even worked out my own, slightly less offensive pattern, but in the end I went with my gut and skipped it. I also skipped the toe plate altogether, but now that the stock is done and buttplate is on I kind of wish I hadn't, the gun needs a touch of bling down there. The grain is good through the toe so it doesn't really need one for strength. I deviated in another way from the classic Haines styling by putting a pointed tail on the side plate instead of the squared-off one, and sculpted it a bit. I like it even if it isn't "correct" for the build.
I wanted a more waterproof finish than linseed oil for this rifle and also wanted to build a "natural" semi-gloss sheen to show the grain so I chose a tung oil/phenolic resin varnish sealer (Waterlox Original sealer and finish).
I say "natural" as in it dries to the finished sheen and doesn't have to be rubbed out to dull or polish to the semi-gloss phase. Trying to use rottenstone or whiting to adjust sheen on a carved and moulded stock just will never look right.
Waterlox is thinned so it penetrates deep into the wood for the first couple of coats and then starts to build. The solvent can be flashed off and allows a hand-rubbing but then it's like cold molasses and orange peels like the dickens. I finally found a happy medium that boils down to working small sections and timing the hand rubbing with the drying rate. So far I think there are 20-25 coats on there and I had to wet-sand most of it twice to level the finish. It is taking about two hours to apply a coat and it is exhausting trying to get it to blend out and not streak or start getting rough. Lots of time trying to get an even gloss in the edges of the mouldings and around the carvings without streaks. I learned that at an exact cetrain point of rubbing in the finish I can even out the parts on the carving by buffing with a dry toothbrush, but too soon and it glosses back out too much, too late and it streaks or just dulls out. After all this hell and stress I think I finally got the whole stock looking like I want it to and may be done with finish. I'll save taking photos for later.
During the evenings waiting for the finish to cure between coats I got all the brass filed out and polished satin and blended with burlap.
Yeah yeah yeah all this blathering and no pictures, I'm getting there I promise.
All that's left is a little more boring finish work and to make some small parts so I probably won't post too many more pictures of the process until I'm all done.
I wanted a more waterproof finish than linseed oil for this rifle and also wanted to build a "natural" semi-gloss sheen to show the grain so I chose a tung oil/phenolic resin varnish sealer (Waterlox Original sealer and finish).
I say "natural" as in it dries to the finished sheen and doesn't have to be rubbed out to dull or polish to the semi-gloss phase. Trying to use rottenstone or whiting to adjust sheen on a carved and moulded stock just will never look right.
Waterlox is thinned so it penetrates deep into the wood for the first couple of coats and then starts to build. The solvent can be flashed off and allows a hand-rubbing but then it's like cold molasses and orange peels like the dickens. I finally found a happy medium that boils down to working small sections and timing the hand rubbing with the drying rate. So far I think there are 20-25 coats on there and I had to wet-sand most of it twice to level the finish. It is taking about two hours to apply a coat and it is exhausting trying to get it to blend out and not streak or start getting rough. Lots of time trying to get an even gloss in the edges of the mouldings and around the carvings without streaks. I learned that at an exact cetrain point of rubbing in the finish I can even out the parts on the carving by buffing with a dry toothbrush, but too soon and it glosses back out too much, too late and it streaks or just dulls out. After all this hell and stress I think I finally got the whole stock looking like I want it to and may be done with finish. I'll save taking photos for later.
During the evenings waiting for the finish to cure between coats I got all the brass filed out and polished satin and blended with burlap.
Yeah yeah yeah all this blathering and no pictures, I'm getting there I promise.
All that's left is a little more boring finish work and to make some small parts so I probably won't post too many more pictures of the process until I'm all done.
Ian
Notorious member
I got the whole thing together minus sights, barrel finish, and flash hole liner yesterday and took one teaser photo. The trigger is a prototype that works well but isn't quite the right shape, it may stay in there forever if I know me. Spent a whole day filing, sanding, polishing, and case-hardening the flintcock and side plate, then another half day reworking the tumbler and springs and getting all the important parts smoothed up. I cold-blued the frizzen and case hardened the trigger too. I wasn't going for color so just used wood charcoal from my black powder experiments.
RicinYakima
High Steppes of Eastern Washington
You are an artisan.
Petrol & Powder
Well-Known Member
That’s beautiful but it looks like you accidentally put the lock on the wrong side of the stock. 
Ian
Notorious member
Thanks, but you're not getting it back!
I will when I get the last few details finished up. Might try to get the wife to take some better pictures with her new fone. I also dug up a photo tutorial @JWFilips made and posted on the internet somewhere (I forget now) so I have a much better idea of how to effectively light and photograph longrifles. I saw the white hood of one of my junk cars was getting some filtered light and some reflection off of the second story of the house through thin clouds and took the chance to get one good photo while I could.
Ian
Notorious member
No way, I'm just an apprentice, people like you are masters. I don't do the real fancy Germanic metal carving or cast silver inlays and such, I can just take rough pieces and fit together a decent longrifle that is close to authentic. I'm really starting to like this one now that it's close to done and turning out like I had envisioned.
Ian
Notorious member
Thanks Ric, I do try. Thing is the people who worked out longrifle architecture, mechanisms, and decorative designs did all the difficult and and truly original work for us centuries ago, and though many of the American builders were making lesser-quality copies of European designs and taking liberties of their own in many ways, I'm just blindly copying stuff and adding, deleting, or altering things as I see fit. Toward the end of the carving, I was almost getting the hang of freehand drawing unique Baroque Acanthus leaf designs...almost. If I kept that up I might actually become an artist instead of an artisan, but as I've written before I don't particularly care for the style or for ornately carved guns, furniture, house trim, or musical instruments.
Right there's some real validation, @Ian.
I get the humility aspect of it - you know that "talent" is basically an insult to stubborn persistence - WORK.
HOWEVER, one can persist all one wants to persist, but if they can't differentiate between a good line and a bad line or the RIGHT hue and a not QUITE right hue, it's wasted effort. Like it or not, you have an artist's eye. There are certainly worse afflictions.
