Forearm Shaping & Muzzle Cap Installation: [Click on photos to enlarge images.)

Now I want to start shaping the forearm.  I divided the sides of the forearm into thirds.  The forearm will be rounded in shape like the original Armstrong rifles.  So I used a spoke shave to remove wood down to the first line.

I did this to both sides. As you can see, I traced out the outline for the nose cap. 

Note, the Armstrong and Maryland rifles had a "V" shaped stock.  A narrow incised line ran down along the ramrod channel and the stock was rounded to this line. 

To get this done, I will now remove wood from the ramrod channel up the top line with my spoke shave.  See photo on the right. 

Well since I have to take off more wood this time, I pulled out the draw knife I inherited from my Dad. Works great and is sharp.

Now I have both sides of the stock shaped and you can see the "V" take shape on the stock. Notice how close the muzzle cap that was traced out prior now seems to match the stock better.

To shape the upper half of the stock, I had to remove the barrel. However, I had a short piece of a 13/16" rifle barrel and used a 5/16" dowel in the ramrod channel to secure the stock in my vise. This allowed for easy shaping of the stock and yet hold the stock secure. 

Then I removed the wood from the top of barrel channel down to the first line, leaving about 1/16" of wood along the barrel channel for now.  Used my hand file to round over the edges where the two flats meet. 

With this done, I'll come back to the nose cap area and filed the wood down across the ramrod in the vicinity of the nose cap, but 3/4" - 1" in front of the first ramrod thimble. Then flattened the stock out to the end of the muzzle. The whole time making sure the surface was flat.  Note, I did not take all the wood back to the line I placed out in front of the ramrod thimble. I wanted to remove enough wood to install the muzzle cap. 

Now I took a fine saw blade and marked it 1/32" along the edge. This will aid in allowing me to cut along the rear of the muzzle cap on the stock. I place the cap onto the top of the barrel above the stock. Made a mark on either side where the end of the cap was. Then I used a piece of thin cardboard to across the stock to align the two marks to allow me to draw a straight line from one side to the other. 

I measured the thickness of the muzzle cap and it was 0.030" thick. So using a calibers I transferred a mark into the wood along the traced line on the face. This gave me the inside dimensions of the muzzle cap face.  Using a chisel I bevel cut down to the depth of the cut across the rear line and also across the face to the new line.  

Now I removed the wood between the two bevel cuts and used a square against the end of the barrel to ensure the surface was flat. Using candle soot on the inside of the cap, I slid the cap onto the end of the stock till the cap was flat to the stock and up against the wood.  Now I can rivet the cap to the stock. I used a copper rivet.  Drilled the proper sized hole for the rivet thru the cap and the stock with the barrel in place. I stopped short of drilling thru the stock. Removed the barrel and finished drilling the hole from the cap side.  Inserting the rivet into the hole, I could mark the rivet to flatten two sides. Then I flattened the other sides to make it rectangular in shape.

Once the rivet was inletted flush with the bottom flat of the barrel channel, I removed the rivet and bevel cut out the face of the hole on the muzzle cap. This will provide an area for the rivet to expand into and hold the cap to the stock.  Then I reinserted the barrel into the stock. Marked the length of the exposed rivet to an 1/8" long and cut it off.

Now it was time to peen the rivet over. I placed the rifle upside down on my bench and clamped it down. Then using the peen hammer I peened the rivet into the exposed hole, covering it up.

Using a hand file, I removed the excess copper and this blended the rivet into the surface of the brass cap.

Now let's install the triggerguard.

Well, the triggerguard is installed, so let's add a little molding down the forearm along the ramrod channel.  To do this I measured up 1/4" from the lip of the ramrod channel and drew a line.  I used my knife along this line and then cut in toward the line with my 1/4" chisel.  I did this along the length of the channel on both sides to the end of the rear thimble.

When done, I then used a knife file perpendicular to the edge to straighten the line of the molding and then smoothed out the chisel marks with riffler files and sand paper.  

Now I went to the opposite end of the stock and did the same along the lower edge of the buttstock.

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