Kibler "Colonial" build thread

Thanks, Troy. I'm a mediocre rifleman so unless something is terrible wrong, the gun should easily outshoot me. I will report back.

The stock was sanded with 120, 220, and 320 paper backed with wood blocks.

Then I noticed purple in the stock, so switched to brown sandpaper and did it over.

The stock was wetted and "whiskered" three times with 320. Then I applied aqua fortis, let it dry for 30 minutes and then blushed with a heat gun. Then I applied a coat of Laurel Mountain Forge "honey maple" stain, let it dry for a day, and then applied a coat of Permalyn sealer. After that dried, I sanded most of the sealer and stain off with 120 paper and very rough Scotchbrite, then went back through with 220, 320, and whiskering. Then three more coats of Permalyn with 0000 steel wool in between, a final hand rubbed coat of Permalyn, and then a rubdown with a paste of paraffin oil and rottenstone on a rag.

If I had it to over, I would sand, whisker, aqua fortis, Permalyn, and paraffin/rottenstone. That would have resulted in a slightly lighter finish and a whole hell of a lot less work!
 
JeffG said:
You did a fine job on that rifle! Go shoot and enjoy!

Excellent hawk, by the way...
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I lucked out with the 'hawk, I think. I bought it primarily as a canvas upon which to practice finishes, and it turned out to have a pretty impressive bit of figure. Smokes pretty good too - although my wife thinks I have utterly lost my marbles: "Are you smoking an axe?!?"
 
HarryB said:
That is a beautiful tool and a work of art! Thank you for sharing the process. I've been inspired to get one of these kits and make the rifle I've wanted for quite a while.

Well done sir
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I will be a Kibler salesman any time the topic comes up. If you're thinking about it, you should do it. Nothing from Italy comes close, and buying a ready-made gun of the same quality will cost twice as much, or take several years, or both.
 
I've been putting getting one off to long, was going to get one last year but put the money into my 6mm arc build. Want a nice stainless deer rifle this year but should really get a kibler before something happens where I couldn't get one for some reason. Really wish he would come out with his Fowler already.
 
While it is certainly a very nice kit it's done to the point of not being a challenge to me. I would want something that would need the inletting and fitting and so on.
 
troy fairweather said:
Almost don't see them as kits there more like finished guns you get to customize there finish to how you like.
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I think that's pretty accurate. I personally wasn't looking for any sort of challenge - I'd have been perfectly happy to buy the rifle already complete, if it hadn't been for the cost and wait - I just wanted a good quality flintlock, and this was the most obvious way to get there.
 
I would love to have one but can't afford it. Besides I'd screw it up taking it out of the box. Yes my woodworking skills are that bad. I can sand a stock down and refinish it but that's about it.
 
hawg said:
I would love to have one but can't afford it. Besides I'd screw it up taking it out of the box. Yes my woodworking skills are that bad. I can sand a stock down and refinish it but that's about it.
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My woodworking skills are pretty good it's my metal working skills that are lacking. It's not that I can't properly cut, file, sand & polish it's that I hate doing it on steel, brass is pretty easy.
When I decided to do my first non-Pedersoli build I found a "kit" I liked, an in the white Fusil from Pecatonica........ It was a collection of very unfinished metal parts and a stock that needed quite a bit of work. I tried different times over the next couple of years to work on it but keep sticking back in the closet, finally sold it a year or so ago for someone else to finish it.
 
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kje54 said:
My woodworking skills are pretty good it's my metal working skills that are lacking. It's not that I can't properly cut, file, sand & polish it's that I hate doing it on steel, brass is pretty easy.
When I decided to do my first non-Pedersoli build I found a "kit" I liked, an in the white Fusil from Pecatonica........ I was a collection of very unfinished metal parts and a stock that needed quite a bit of work. I tried different times over the next couple of years to work on it but keep sticking back in the closet, finally sold it a year or so ago for someone else to finish it.
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I am just the opposite: fairly experienced with metalwork, and can generally make metal do what I want it to, but woodworking is something I usually leave to better men than me. And of course, there's really no metalwork to be done on these kits, other than sanding and finishing. But there's really not much more woodwork than that either - I really do believe that anyone with even basic abilities can finish one out with good results.

<edit> I will note that there are some fairly ugly Kibler guns out there. I think the issue is not lack of skill but rather lack of understanding one's own limitations. I am very glad I did not try any fancy carving...
 
hawg said:
Besides I'd screw it up taking it out of the box. Yes my woodworking skills are that bad.
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Yep, we must be twin brothers, from different mothers. My Brown Bess "Ranger Carbine" was a Pedersoli "Kit". Yep, already assembled, take it apart, sand and oil. Had to do some lock tuning, lower the floor of the pan, drill out bigger and cone the flash hole, but that's right up my alley. So I thought I could build a Jeager kit from TOW. Yep, I got it out of the box, and then ruined the stock with the first few strokes of the chisle (how do you spell chissle?)
 
Ugly Sauce said:
Yep, we must be twin brothers, from different mothers. My Brown Bess "Ranger Carbine" was a Pedersoli "Kit". Yep, already assembled, take it apart, sand and oil. Had to do some lock tuning, lower the floor of the pan, drill out bigger and cone the flash hole, but that's right up my alley. So I thought I could build a Jeager kit from TOW. Yep, I got it out of the box, and then ruined the stock with the first few strokes of the chisle (how do you spell chissle?)
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I can do sanding and oiling and probably the rest of the metalwork but I've never been good at woodworking. I believe Chisel is what you're looking for.
 
hawg said:
I can do sanding and oiling and probably the rest of the metalwork but I've never been good at woodworking. I believe Chisel is what you're looking for.
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Chisel. Chisel. Oh yeah, I can do an oil finish as well as the best of them. I can bring out the beauty in wood. Just can't shape it very well!
 
Ugly Sauce said:
Chisel. Chisel. Oh yeah, I can do an oil finish as well as the best of them. I can bring out the beauty in wood. Just can't shape it very well!
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I've got a beautiful piece of wood but it's not smoothed out and the barrel channel isn't complete. I've had it for 8 or 9 years now. I did manage to smooth out the flat parts but that's about it. It was advertised as curly maple but somebody that knows wood said it was English walnut. All I know is it's super hard.
 
hawg said:
I've got a beautiful piece of wood but it's not smoothed out and the barrel channel isn't complete. I've had it for 8 or 9 years now. I did manage to smooth out the flat parts but that's about it. It was advertised as curly maple but somebody that knows wood said it was English walnut. All I know is it's super hard.
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You should take a picture of that stock.
 
Another minor update: Jax black offers essentially no rust resistance. Just hanging on my wall, the rifle already has developed some "character", which I rubbed out with oiled burlap. This honestly doesn't bother me - I had given serious thought to just leaving it in-the-white and letting it patina naturally - but it's worth noting that the Jax finish turned out to be purely cosmetic. So I'll be treating it just like an in-the-white gun, and hopefully will live long enough to see how it turns out! I did try the @Ugly Sauce plan of rubbing my deadly hands all over it...

First shots will be fired Friday morning.
 
troy fairweather said:
You try a cleaning patch down the bore yet, probably some oil to get out and you can check if it is smooth in there, I liked to scrub with scotch brite to polish the bore, makes loading easier.
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Yes, cleaned and lubed. Nothing notable so far. As I mentioned I generally prefer a looser combination than do most folks these days, so generally have no issues with loading. Will report back.
 
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