In The White Kits

[RyanR]

Has anyone here built an "in the white kit"? I have been thinking I want to build a 36 cal for squirrel hunting and am not ready to just build one from parts. I was looking at the kits from TVM. Does anyone have any experience working with their kits? I was thinking a Poor Boy flintlock.

[Eric Krewson]

I have see a lot of them at Tip Curtis's Frontier Shop north of Nashville. They are done except for the final wood and metal sanding and finishing.

Metal polishing will take the most time and you will have to know how to disassemble the lock to  polish the parts. 

For instance; The lock and all the other metal parts will come with an orange peal rough casting finish like this;



You need a slick finish on your metal for proper browning, bluing or graying. Get out your small files and 220 grit sand paper and make it look like this;

[Eric Krewson]

It would be best to ask before you order if any metal finishing has been done. If not you will need to draw file and sand the barrel and tang, file off the casting seams off the buttplate and trigger guard and some lock parts as well as sand them smooth. The ramrod pipes may need a little sanding but not much.

In my opinion a southern poorboy should be iron mounted instead of brass.

My squirrel rifle, iron mounted;

[JW_Halverson]

Has anyone here built an "in the white kit"? I have been thinking I want to build a 36 cal for squirrel hunting and am not ready to just build one from parts. I was looking at the kits from TVM. Does anyone have any experience working with their kits? I was thinking a Poor Boy flintlock.

I can speak directly to this.  Several years back I wanted another flinter, so I figured getting a few other folks to order up parts kits at the same time might get us a break in price. Boy, howdy!  They bent over backwards to make good on the deal at TVM for the six of us. Two of the kits were the poor boys in the white.  One guy had his gun assembled and shooting a week later.

Definitely call and ask exactly what they have inletted in the kit.  Having a few under my belt, I always have them inlet the butt plate for me, seriously aggravating work trying to get that dang thing set...a three axis puzzle! With brass buttplates, you can get close then use a dead blow plastic mallet or heavy wooden mallet to bash it into fitting (no kidding, couple of well placed wallops and she's good).  Barrel channels are not particularly hard, just time consuming. Chisel a little, fit, mark, chisel a little more. Repeat until you are pretty much brain dead.  Straight barrels are the easiest, a swamped barrel less so.  You pay for that sweet, light barrel with sweat and frustration, but I think it is worth it. In either case, whether you inlet or have them inlet, ALWAYS bed the barrel in the stock with Brownell's Glass Bedding. It's cheap enough insurance against having that thin rail of the forestock break on you. 

As for the lock inletting, despite having to assemble and disassemble the lock mechanism repeatedly, I think it is one of the easiest parts to inlet.  And you better learn to assemble and disassemble your lock. They are really not as complex as you might think.  So when you order the gun, ask him to add on a lock spring vise.  NEVER USE A VISE GRIP PLIERS, unless you like breaking springs, ordering new ones, and struggling to fit them to the lock over and over!

Usually, "in the white" is all but finished with stain/oil and the steel blued.  But call Jack Garner up and ask him detailed questions.  And ultimately, if you get to a step and don't know how to proceed, you can always ask questions.  Call Eric Krewson, day or nite. 

[RyanR]

Thanks for the information. I really don't know much about flintlock and the only person I know who has one moved to South Dakota. I like the metal color on the gun in the photo. That looks really sharp. I am sure if I order one I will have more questions.

[Eric Krewson]

On the gun in the lock picture I used cold blue on all the parts but the lock and rubbed the blue back to gray with a scotch bright pad. To this color;



On the squirrel rifle I  browned everything with Laurel Mountain Forge browning solution following the instructions, gave it a good coat of oil and assembled the rifle.

It took a few days but this stuff got a nice deep brown color.




 

[Tracker0721]

I’ve been reading that laurel mountain makes a better brown or bluing than Birchwood-Casey, do you think that’s true too? Seems a lot more people are using them.

[Eric Krewson]

You have to heat the barrel and parts to use Birchwood Casey Plum brown, you don't with LMF. I have only used LMF, I like it but it does have pitfalls and you might have to do some parts over. Sometimes it takes a while to get it to stop rusting, sometimes it goes on streaky but will fill in with subsequent coats.