mick wrote on 03/16/11 at 22:50:27:arteacher wrote on 03/16/11 at 03:55:12:I buy musical instruments just to enjoy the craftsmanship of the woodwork- maybe I'll have to start looking at rifles too. It's beautiful!
I once toyed with the idea of making a violin and or a guitar from a kit,
I think the violin kit was about $178 , My left hand is screwed up so I could never play, but I still might build one.
I love to listen to a great player like David Garrett,he is amazing.
Are you a fan ?
I actually just picked up one of his CD's a while back, based on your recommendations. Listening to it right now in fact, the "Rock Symphonies" album. Pretty cool, covers of rock songs, from Aerosmith to Metallica to Led Zeppelin. Liking it so far.
The gun's looking great, I've got a .45 that has almost exactly the same lines. The wood doesn't look as nice though.
Wish I had an answer for ya on bending the trigger guard.
Edit: actually, I do have an answer now, kinda...
Just got off the phone with my brother, who does some gunsmithing, and has built some muzzleloaders, and asked him about this. He said it should be ok to bend cold, unless it's been hardened. If it doesn't bend with reasonable pressure, it'll need to be annealed. He says this uses a process backwards from annealing steel; in other words, you need to heat it and quench it. Heating and air cooling actually hardens it. He couldn't remember how hot you need to get it, but he said not red hot, since he did that with a butt plate on one he built for me, and it made it brittle and it cracked when he tried to straighten it. You can probably find the particulars online somewhere. He also said, it's not a complete loss if it does break. If you're good with a brazing rod, you should be able to patch it back up to where you'd never know the difference. Hope this helps!
Oh, and here's a pic of his handiwork, it's the one on the bottom, .75 cal smoothbore. My .45's on the top, the pistol is a .50:
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