Graeme,

I am very late in sending you those copies I promised you some time ago. I have something that will help this exercise. Email your mailing address to me again and I will enclose a copy of David Westbrooks "Professional Stockmaking" along with those copies of inletting in a blank from that one annual. Westbrook's book deals with semi inlets and it was interesting but it just gathers dust on my shelf.



Have you had any word from our mutual friend Russel? I have not heard from him in a few years. Assume he is still in Queensland.

The first things you need are inletting black and a set of pins. You can use a couple of bolts with the heads removed for pins. Ive done quite a lot to inlet with a good sharp pocket knife, rasps and various sanding blocks. I have also used 50 grit sandpaper wrapped around a deep socket or a rounded sanding block made from a piece of pine to form a barrel channel. Its slow but effective. An inexpensive set of wood carving tools is something Ive found usefull as well. A cheap sharp tool is better than any dull one. By no means are these the prefered method, but it works. The main thing is the approach you take to it. Try a few different things and find what works for you.

stupid question time...what are inletting pins and how are they used.

thanks,

ned

Thanks guys

Dad has a set of carving chisels which I may be able to borrow and I will probably buy a couple of other bits and pieces from Brownells to get me started - then I will just buy stuff as I get into the job and find I can't improvise any other way.

Will let you know how I go.

Cheers.

GG

Agreed that inletting screws and spotting compound are a minimum, but, if you put tape over the air ports on a propane torch, you get a really sooty flame that'll deposit sufficient carbon on the barrel for spotting.

You can actually make some pretty decent scrapers by breaking old hacksaw or bandsaw blades, and grinding various radius on them. Leave the burr from grinding, as that is what does the cutting on a scraper.

The biggest hurdle starting out is roughing out as close to finished dimensions before going to the scraper route. The fear of messing up leads one to go to the slower finishing tools too early, and thus builds up alot of frustration due to slow progress. That is also what defines a pro, he can hog out 95% of wood quickly, then spends the time doing the fine work. The new guy gets to 75%, whittles off another % or two, gets frustrated, then goes wild and goes to 103%. Just keep your sawdust to mix up with some epoxy for those occasional 103% cuts