work in progress

[Big-Un]

Here is the Winchester .22 rolling block I am working on and a "sling pin" fpr an early 1800's trade rifle. Comments are welcome....and I have tough skin!

Bill

 

[D.Ellis]

That looks nice so far Bill.The scrolls flow nicely and I like the beaded background as well. Be sure to show us when you get it shaded. A couple of leaves could have been streched a wee bit longer to make them touch the border, but that is getting nit picky.
The sling pin looks like it would fit in fine in the early 1800's, so mission accomplished there.
Darcy

 

[KSnyder]

looks good so far , lets see it when its done.
Just curious about the sling button, what type of rifle is it for? all the ones I've ever seen are steel and don't recall one on a trade rifle, mostly early Jaegers & military stuff. But I'll be the first to say there are always exceptions. Lets see some rifle pics when you complete it.
Kent

 

[Dulltool]

Big-un,
I feel the punch dot back ground is just as important as the engraved pattern. I would suggest taking more time in your dot placement... get them to just touch with no gaps or over laps and keep the tool at a 90 degree angel with the work (no crescent shapes). Try to be uniform with the amount of force used with your hammer blows. I know it's VERY time consuming and a person could go insane doing these but it's well worth the time and effort in the end. This sure looks like a fun project....

My two cents

 

[Big-Un]

After engraving it and getting all the "stuff" off, I saw several areas that needed some extra touches and they have been addressed.

Dennis...I had a hard time keeping the tool at the proper angle, as my lights kept getting in the way. This will be addressed better on future projects (like the other side!) Plus, towards the end, my fingers were falling asleep, probably something to do with 'ole Arthur in my neck.

Thank you all for your comments and insight, its really appreciated.

Bill

 

[Big-Un]

finished project

OK, here is the Winchester completed on one side.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Hi Bill

Looks great!!!!!!!!!!

Show us the pictures when it's all put back together again.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[D.Ellis]

Dang that's purty!
Nice job. Will you do the same on the other side or a slightly different version of this?
Darcy

 

[pilkguns]

Hey Bill, looks pretty good overall, scrolls are formed nicely and the leaves all look good, the shading looks good too. There are some areas that could use some improving though. Just to make this interesting, how about I put up a picture and let you all comment on what can make this pattern better? Some of it should be obvious, since I am using the same numbers for the same improvements.

 

[ddushane]

Nice Job Big-un, Dwayne

 

[beegee]

I LIKE it!!!

 

[Gene Tru]

Bill,
I can't really find anything to criticize. I think your design, flows really well, shading is nice and overall neatly done. Thanks for posting.
Gene

 

[Ron Smith]

Of course there are always improvements, but this is a nice well balanced job, Big-Un.....Rock on!

 

[Christopher Malouf]

Hiding where the scrolls split with leaves is a nice touch. That's a great "habit" to get into early on and one less hurdle to jump as you develop more complex layouts.


What I like most is that you can rotate this around and not have any flat spots in your backbone jump out.

Nicely done.

Chris

 

[Big-Un]

other side

Dang that's purty!
Nice job. Will you do the same on the other side or a slightly different version of this?
Darcy

I'll try and repeat the pattern on the other side, but it will differ slightly as I free hand it all with a mirror....for now!

 

[Russ Sutton]

Bill: I think it looks great! Russ

 

[Big-Un]

Hey Bill, looks pretty good overall, scrolls are formed nicely and the leaves all look good, the shading looks good too. There are some areas that could use some improving though. Just to make this interesting, how about I put up a picture and let you all comment on what can make this pattern better? Some of it should be obvious, since I am using the same numbers for the same improvements.

OK, here goes my comments Scott.

#1 not symmetrical
#2 not consistant with design
#3 all should be larger and touching the adjacent element
#4 awkward design
#5 ditto #4
#6 not a consistant line
#7 I don't really know about that one

Am I close on any of them?

 

[pilkguns]

OK, here goes my comments Scott.

#1 not symmetrical
#2 not consistant with design
#3 all should be larger and touching the adjacent element
#4 awkward design
#5 ditto #4
#6 not a consistant line
#7 I don't really know about that one

#1's are places where the scroll backbone goes outside the border. This is not necessarily a mistake, but if it is done it should be done consistently throughout the pattern, or done to focus or spefically to draw attention to another part of the pattern. In this case, they are random and I don't imagine were intentional, as evidenced by the #3s where these points don't come and meet the border as they should like all the other elements in the pattern, as you correctly noted above. Specifically look at the 1 and 3 point in the big center scroll, 1 is bumping through the border wheras the 3 is not touching the border by an equal amount. If the whole scroll was shifted down slightly, both top and bottom would just be skimming inside the border.


#2 is not consistent with the design as you say because you have a series of leaves one after another, which does'nt exist anywhere else in the pattern, but I would really say that the problem is you have too much positive space and not enough negative space here. If you removed the leaves below each of those 2's, you would have equal spacing of your background to scroll ratio instead of a solid mass of scroll. Nothing says that you still now could not go back and circle punch these leaves out and correct this problem.

#4 yes, I think you see it, just below the 4, that circle punched area really looks like it is covering over what should be part of of the backbone on the last large scroll orignating at 5.

#5 In that same line of vertical descending 4,5,3 of leaves coming off the that center scroll, all could use IMO some crosshatching right up against the backbone cut, hitting the backbone at about 90 degrees all the way up, this would be done before the central shade lines you have running into the backbone at 10-20 degree intersections, which are shaded quite nicely as I said before.

#6 looks to me like it needs a smidge more circle punching up against the border

#7, just below 7 is an odd area, I can't really tell what happened but there is no backbone visible there. maybe this was a design error inthe drawing or maybe you just got a flat spot in that scroll that crossed up too close to your other shade lines.

Overall I think its a very good looking pattern and cutting. For me , the most esthetically displeasing is the placement of the pins in the pattern. I would work really hard in the design stage to avoid having scrolls crossing a pin or a screw, or have either be in a border. I would make them part of the orgination or end of scroll, leave them totally in the background, or make tehm somepart of a flower matching the scroll.