pewter forend question

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  • Last Post 23 December 2014
mike44 posted this 20 December 2014

My first time installing a pewter forend cap and all went well till I went to finish. I filed to shape and scraped but I can't get the finish I'm after without sanding. That is my problem. When I sand the wood surrounding the cap gets stained black. Anyone know how this was done  back in the day?

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R. Dupraz posted this 20 December 2014

mike44:        I don't know how it was done back in the day. But when finishing a stock after I have poured a pewter for end tip, I dont' sand both together. After rough shaping, just very carefully sanding up to the edge of the pewter and then finish the pewter the same by not touching the wood. And, always sand from wood to pewter, knocking the pewter dust from the paper after each stroke.           Those flexible finger nail boards that the gals use on their nails work great for doing this. They can be found most any where and come with different grits. And can be cut into different shapes. Make sure they are the black ones though because they are silicon carbide.         0000 steel wool backed by one of the above boards cut to the shape you want works very well for final finishing the pewter.

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onondaga posted this 20 December 2014

http://castbulletassoc.org/view_user.php?id=3649>mike44

I have fit several pewter , brass and steel for-end nose caps. I finish the metal first, fit and instal the piece and then cover it with masking tape to protect the surface when sanding the adjacent wood.

Gary

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mike44 posted this 21 December 2014

Thanks for the replies. The design I chose made a pour necessary. I had tried sanding from wood to pewter and used that technique to 320 grit and that worked pretty good but with 400 grit I started having problems again. The design makes sanding wood and pewter separately difficult. I tried burnishing with a piece of oak and that gave me the finish I'm after on the small area I tried. I'm going to try the steel wool suggestion now. I bought the pewter with instructions from track of the wolf. The instructions were detailed as far as the pouring went but it sure made the finishing sound a lot easier than it is. Good learning experience tho.

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R. Dupraz posted this 21 December 2014

How about a photo?

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gnoahhh posted this 21 December 2014

Don't sweat the discoloration of the wood caused by sanding the pewter and wood at the same time. It goes away in the finishing process. I have poured several pewter forend caps, and routinely use poured pewter for butt caps on knives I make. Even with relatively light colored wood like cherry, I never had an issue with a remaining “shadow” (although admittedly I never did it with maple). If using an oil finish, I sand everything to 600x. Varnishing sees me taking it to 320x first. Blow off with compressed air, wash with denatured alcohol, apply first coat.

Trying to sand both surfaces separately is way to tedious a chore when sanding them concurrently doesn't matter.

The biggest issue I have with poured pewter furniture is the wood surface shrinking away ever so slightly from the pewter edge sometimes, usually with cherry, and usually a year or two after the fact. It's not egregious, and certainly not objectionable- I continue using that combination because I really like the look of pewter against cherry.

The pic of the Vincent rifle I posted in the “Show us your muzzle loader” thread shows a pewter cap done exactly as I described.

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R. Dupraz posted this 21 December 2014

gnoahh wrote:   “Don't sweat the discoloration of the wood caused by sanding the pewter and wood at the same time. It goes away in the finishing process".   When using either red or sugar maple for ML stocks you have to be concerned with pewter dust embedding in the wood. They are both very light in color and those spots will show through the finish.  And the job will be second rate. With a darker wood, such as cherry, maybe not so much depending, but can still show through. basically ruining the job.  

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mike44 posted this 22 December 2014

This is after steel wool and then a light burnishing with a small piece of oak. There are a few small areas that I can still see scratches from the emery that I need to go over but I'm happy with the results so far. I did this yesterday morn before I read the post by gnoahhh. Wood is walnut with a linseed oil finish . so that black stain wouldn't show up with a oil finish?

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R. Dupraz posted this 22 December 2014

Not so much.          Nice job. Pretty ambitious design there. Now you just need to shoot it, use it and handle it some more so that it gets some nice age, patina and honest wear. It will only get better.    

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gnoahhh posted this 22 December 2014

That is a nice job!

Like I said, I never did pewter on maple so I can't speak to my method being ok for that. I should think though, that by using a proper sanding backer and only pushing it from the direction of the wood over the pewter, and not dragging it from the pewter in the direction of the wood, (in the final sanding stages) that one can minimize the distraction of a shadow caused by pewter dust, no?

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mike44 posted this 22 December 2014

gnoahhh wrote The pic of the Vincent rifle I posted in the “Show us your muzzle loader” thread shows a pewter cap done exactly as I described. Is that your handiwork?  That's a nice looking rifle.

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mike44 posted this 22 December 2014

Thanks for the complement's, the pic doesn't show the flaws very well. I had,whiskers,best word I can think of, I think my chisel's probably weren't sharp enough and I didn't get a clean enough cut.

Does the finish, a polished or a matte finish, affect how pewter ages?

I tried to duplicate the pattern on a original trapdoor officers model that is on merz antiques website.

And that leads to the next question. I haven't got that far yet but I was going to try to tin the barrel band with pewter as thats what it looks like was done to the original. It looks good. Any experience with that sorta thing?

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onondaga posted this 22 December 2014

http://www.castbulletassoc.org/view_user.php?id=3649>mike44

There was variation on barrel band finish, tinning is done with a torch and flux like a plumber tins copper pipe. Heat the steel so it is hot enough to flow the tin, wipe it even while hot and take it from there.  If you can sweat pipe with lead-free solder, you re doing this. Case hardening was more popular, that also adds rust resistance and is pretty easy to do with a torch, some powdered charcoal and an oil dip. A gray color comes from case hardening.

Gary

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Longone posted this 23 December 2014

All these fancy forends got me thinking, what if........ This is the cap on my Lyman GPR, just waiting to let the Tru-oil cure before I knock the gloss down.

Longone  

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