Some ideas are just plumb great!! This one wasn't mine, but I wish it was.

My customer, "nextjoe" to the hunting boards, ask me about doing the "Wormtrack" treatment that usually goes on the bolt and follower (think a classier and much easier jeweling)....on the extractor before the nitre blueing.

I couldn't think of a good reason not to try it......



It's like trying to photograph a diamond......You don't see the best part of it in a photo. It's truely striking........I'll be doing more of it.

But I'm not paying Joe a royalty!!

Please explain how it is done I've never seen or herd of it. Looks good.

Dan P.

WOW! Those wormtracks light things up. I really think you are on to something. What are you using to put on the wormtracks? Are you doing it freehand or do you have a fixture of some type.

You got a very uniform Nitre on the extractor. I always shyed away for big pieces especially if the material was of different thickness.

Roger

That giddy Joe guy ask---

quote:

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you just build my .275 Rigby for free and we'll call it even, ok?

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And you think I'm s l o w when I'm being paid..........? Silly boy.

Roger---

I learned "wormtrack" from Jerry Fisher and made the tool according to his instructions...

It's a two inch long piece of ceramic "Crock Stik" that's chucked in the drill press and spun against the bolt. The secret is in the wobble....

To make a "worm" it needs to be shaped while running eccentric. The way I did it was to super glue a strip of flat toothpick to the crock stick, lenght-wise, for one jaw of the drill press chuck to rest on......then, with a diamond file, sharpened the end to a stubby spitzer shape wih about a 1/32" radius that's running true with the drill press spindle.....the body will be wobbling by .010 to .015 in the shaping stage.

Remove the shim and re-chuck the tool. The point wobbles, right ?? Good.

I polish a rifle bolt with NOTHING but stones to 600 grit and only then shoe-shine polish with 600 wet or dry then ^lightly^ buff with Lea 312 (Brownell 555 works as well). When I say ^lightly^ I mean buffed the same way I do my Rolex watch crystal when it gets too scarred up to look through.

Then I turn the drill press on at about 1500 RPM and free-hand one of a dozen or so patterns I've invented or stolen from old, classic guns.

There's some neat stuff to do with diamond paste and a brass lap used like a skidding graver in the GraverMax, too. There are some really neat fish scale patterns that look good on side-lock innards and small parts. You can bet I'll start doing it before the nitre where it's called for.

Thanks Jack
I will definitely be putting this to work. I really like the looks of it and jeweling the bolt and follower is about the most boring piece of gun work I can think of.
Roger

Jack, would it be way too much to ask you to show some pictures, tell what the croc stick is, and why is the toothepick needed?

I would also be interested in being told how to stone the bolt to 600 grit. What I have been doing is taking the bolts and dropping them off at the gunshop and they polish them out for me. but I think they only polish it to 400 grit.

I have the bolt off of that KAR98, that action is now just for practicing and such, so I can practice the stoning of it on that. I really appreciate all the help.

Red

Verrry nice! But won't it make the cracks harder to see?

I have to admit, the first impression that I had when I saw the picture was that someone's dremel tool had slipped once, and that the gunsmith kept going to make it look like he did it on purpose!



You'll have to post some more pics to show it better.

Steve

Need Just One More------ (me too)

Your comment about the slipped Dremel reminds me of Len Brownell's old saying, "Whatever you do it should LOOK like it was done on purpose."

I've taken at least 20 digital photos of various wormtracked bolts, but without movement there's very little to see.......it's very much like trying to photo jewelry or crystal.