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I am about to do a 30" Macon Conversion on an Armisport M1842 musket. This involves cutting back the barrel and, of course, the stock, and moving the front barrel band back to follow. I'm torn between doing "perfect woodwork" and "period correct looking conversion".
My first inclination is to strip the stock to bare wood before beginning the modification. But I wonder what they did in period? I doubt they would have gone to the trouble to strip the entire stock when the work was to take a damaged musket and cut off the offending end and shorten it. I suspect they just re-worked the end of the stock to fit the nose cap, slathered on some BLO and called it good.
Are there any period references that hint at the correct process? Are there any quality pictures of originals that hint at the process?
Thanks,
Steve Sheldon
My first inclination is to strip the stock to bare wood before beginning the modification. But I wonder what they did in period? I doubt they would have gone to the trouble to strip the entire stock when the work was to take a damaged musket and cut off the offending end and shorten it. I suspect they just re-worked the end of the stock to fit the nose cap, slathered on some BLO and called it good.
Are there any period references that hint at the correct process? Are there any quality pictures of originals that hint at the process?
Thanks,
Steve Sheldon