| You are here: | About>Sports>Hunting / Shooting |
 | Hunting / Shooting |
I'll tell much of the story with photographs, so each page may be a bit slow to load. Click on any photo for a larger image. I actually did the inletting for the wedge pin plates on the CVA muzzleloader stock after the initial stock sanding, but it should be mentioned before I get into that, so I can present the sanding info all together. This is a step I avoided for a while, because I didn't want to mess it up! I readily admit that I was a bit intimidated by the prospect of inletting for these plates. I don't have any fancy inletting tools, and I didn't want to mess up the stock. But Dad encouraged me -- told me to take my time, keep my knife good and sharp, and it wouldn't be any trouble at all, just slow. As usual, he was right. This is something I shouldn't have had to do, according to the instruction booklet from CVA which came with the kit. It tells me to "Fit both wedge plates into oval inlets of forestock." What they didn't say is that these inlets don't exist until you create them. The newer booklet which CVA sent simply says, "Fit both wedge plates flush with stock." That's a lot closer to the truth! Holes for the plates were pre-drilled (although the provided booklet told me to drill them), so after ensuring that everything lined up properly and that I wouldn't need to remove any metal from them to clear the wedge pin, I screwed them onto the stock. In doing this, I was very careful with the small, soft brass screws, since they have very shallow slots and the screwdriver kept trying to jump out. As always, it paid to have a screwdriver that fit the slot perfectly.
This shows the plate screwed onto the stock, prior to inletting. The pencil mark can barely be seen. Next, I drew a pencil line around the plates, to use as a guide, then removed the plates. I then got out a little old knife that I inherited from a great uncle, and super-sharpened the small blade. This would be my only inletting tool.
My high-tech inletting tool.
After removing the plate, the pencil mark is clearly visible. After removing the plates and marking them ("right" and "left," and which side was up), I began by cutting into the wood, perpendicular with the surface of the stock, staying inside the pencil line. Care must be taken to cut with the grain rather than against it, i.e. you should start at the narrow ends and cut away from them, to avoid the grain of the wood "grabbing" the blade and letting it cut into the wood outside the area to be inletted.
The initial cut, perpendicular to the stock, to establish a boundary. After establishing a perimeter, I began removing wood in very small chunks. I resharpened the knife often, because a dull blade is much more prone to slips that can mess up a good job. Go slow when inletting -- it's too easy to mess up if you get in a hurry. I checked for fit often, and as the inlet got deeper I had to re-cut the perimeter within it, to allow the small chunks I removed along the outside to come out freely, leaving a clean line along the edge of the inlet. I did slip up pretty bad on the second one and gouge the adjacent wood, and had to cut the inlet deeper so I could sand it out afterward.
Partially-cut inlet. When I was done, I screwed the plate to the stock and commenced further sanding, to even the stock with the plate and to work out fluctuations in the plate. The plate then remained on the stock during all further sanding, and was only removed when the time came to stain and finish the stock.
Fully inletted and sanded. I was careful not to allow the sanding to remove any material from the screw heads -- the slots are plenty shallow already. Next Page - Sanding the Stock - Russ Chastain
|
| ||||||||||||||||
All Topics | Email Article | |  |  |
| Advertising Info | News & Events | Work at About | SiteMap | Reprints | Help | Our Story | Be a Guide |
| User Agreement | Ethics Policy | Patent Info. | Privacy Policy | ©2008 About, Inc., A part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved. |