***March 30, 2025 - April 5, 2025 Weekly Show, Tell, and Critique***

Anything goes in this thread (as long as DPReview's general standards are not violated): any camera; any subject; any post-processing; etc. Recent images you have created in the past week or two are much preferred but not required. A little background on where, how and why you made the image(s) you posted would add interest. By posting here, you are inviting constructive criticism and general discussion of your images. Please share your expertise by providing constructive criticism on photos others have posted.

Before posting your own images, view and comment on at least one other image.

We look forward to seeing your recent photos and reading everyone's comments.

Greg

Apologies for not participating very much in last week's ST&C thread. We were very busy with house guests, shoots, etc.

Here's a catch-up in the longrifle work:

When I got home after shooting last Sunday, Nancy was out, so I decided to undertake the risky job to putting a brass plate on to the back of the patchbox cover. I've frankly been afraid about starting this because once you take that first file stroke, there is no going back. On one hand, I was worried about ruining the gun with this job; on the other hand, I knew I'd never be completely happy with the gun unless I did this. The other hand won out yesterday. So, please forgive the overly detailed saga of how this is done.

The first step is to dismount the latch and cut back the rear of the patchbox cover until the wood is precisely equal to the wood on the inside of the buttplate, all the while retaining the rather complex shapes of the part (impossible to see on pics).





I had a chunk of scrap brass plate. Knowing that I would be working it to precisely match the profile of the rear of the patchbox cover, I first annealed the brass by heating to a very high, temp and then allowing it to cool slowly. This makes it easier to bend and hammer into shape. As the brass became work hardened during this whole process, I had to anneal it several times to keep it co-operating but won't show this again.



It was then rough cut with a hacksaw:



Then, filed a bit closer to shape, but still allowing quite a bit of extra for fitting this tricky little part:



A lot of modern flintlock builders shortcut this process by simply using epoxy to hold the now fully shaped brass to the cover. That also has the benefit of filling up any spaces between the brass and the wood, so the wood-to-metal fit looks perfect, even if it's not. It also greatly reduces the risk of ruining a project by driving screws into very thin wood. Since I want this rifle to be period correct, I used the 1760 method of using small screws to attach the brass. Holes are drilled and then small countersinks created, because the screws are used like rivets. (Yes, I cheated with an electric drill...)



Driving screws at an angle into the very thin wood without either splitting it or coming through the bottom, requires, first, tiny screws. I never inherited money from my PA Dutch grandparents (they didn't have any), but I inherited all sorts of old cans full of screws, bolts, parts, etc. I was able to come up with two 3/8" flathead screws from this old tobacco can that had been my grandfather's.



Given that he taught me basic gunmaking skills as a child, I was pleased to be able to incorporate something from him in the rifle.

First, you drive the screws partway in to create the threads, then you cut off the tips of the screws (they would come though the bottom if left full length), then screw the stubs tightly into the threads you have created. Now, the plate is on the cover. No epoxy.



Everything is filed down to proper thickness to match the buttplate and to get rid of the screw heads, turning them into rivets.



Then the plate is filed down to the shape of the cover, leaving a tiny bit of extra, which is then slowly fitted to and blended into the curves of the buttplate, like so, until both wood-to-metal and metal-to-metal fits are good everywhere. The latch is reinstalled. Finally, you must make sure the latch works smoothly and that the cover doesn't bind.



Maybe 6 or 7 hours or work, but I was happy with the result and there were, fortunately, no rifle-wrecking mistakes. Went back upstairs to enjoy the evening with Nancy and the deer watching hounds.



Monday was lock and **** day. Again, this took quite a bit of time to get the result I wanted - no machine tool marks; a finish smooth enough for engraving, but not a modern polished finish; all while retaining the necessary flats and precise geometry of the parts to one another. Turns out, I did need to build a few special tools to fully take down the lock; which also added time to the project.

Filing up the lockplate - using the engraving vise to hold the part really helped.



Finished lockplate - ready for engraving:



Finished ****:



These parts will all be period-correct corrosive blacked after the engraving is done, which will cause the engraving to pop and give the parts a nice depth/texture.

I'm pretty happy with my carving designs now, so I've started to play around with the engraving designs. I'm not very happy with my scribbles so far. It's easy to get carried away and be too elaborate with the engraving - which was pretty simple back in the 1760's. Back to the drawing board with this....



Wednesday: Tools now resharpened from the assembly process, it's time to start the carving. I had great trepidation to start the carving. It requires a strong and steady hand; and I haven't done this in many years. One slip with a sharp tool under pressure and the whole thing is junk.

I decided to start with the easiest stuff and not get into the fancy stuff until I see if my hand and eye for this kind of work still exist. The various moldings are the easiest to do, but any tiny wiggle will show because they are supposed to be straight. So, the first scary cut of the project was the lower butt molding on the cheek side. (These pics do a really lousy job of showing this sort of work, BTW).



Since this gun will have both incise and relief carvings, the upper part of the molding needed to be relieved and smoothly blended to give me the proper shape. These shapes carry over into the buttplate.



At first, I thought this wasn't too bad, so I cut and relieved the butt molding on the lock side and started working on the three cheek piece moldings, which are done in true 1760 Berks County fashion.



My confidence began to fade for some reason, so I decided to quit carving and go do my exercise before I made an unrecoverable mistake. For me anyway, patience is the key - there is no hurry.

Thursday, I finished up the cheekpiece moldings; cut incised lines on the forestock and put the muzzle end finial on them. Cutting such long lines absolutely straight by hand with a chisel is tricky and takes a good bit of time - any tiny wobble shows up; one slip and you damage the very thin wood there. For some reason, the pics of this kind of work don't show it well at all. Sorry.



Now, that line will need to be relieved along its length, by very smoothly carving away wood above it, so the molding sticks out. That is a Berks County feature. Also, hard to do well as any flaw will show.

Friday, I only had a little time because we had friends staying at our house to attend a Ruffed Grouse Society fundraiser shoot in Lancaster on Saturday and a sporting clays competition at my club on Sunday. So, I did only a few hours of work roughing out the relief carvings on the front of the comb area of the rifle - again in the distinctive Bers County stye:



Each day there were the usual dog runs. Joy and Bliss by one of the mountain lakes:



Yet another wild goose chase by Joy in the icy waters:



Bliss in action:



They found some big, but very wary wild turkeys:





Greg

--
Check out my photos at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/137747053@N07/

Birddogman said:

Apologies for not participating very much in last week's ST&C thread. We were very busy with house guests, shoots, etc.

Here's a catch-up in the longrifle work:

When I got home after shooting last Sunday, Nancy was out, so I decided to undertake the risky job to putting a brass plate on to the back of the patchbox cover. I've frankly been afraid about starting this because once you take that first file stroke, there is no going back. On one hand, I was worried about ruining the gun with this job; on the other hand, I knew I'd never be completely happy with the gun unless I did this. The other hand won out yesterday. So, please forgive the overly detailed saga of how this is done.

The first step is to dismount the latch and cut back the rear of the patchbox cover until the wood is precisely equal to the wood on the inside of the buttplate, all the while retaining the rather complex shapes of the part (impossible to see on pics).





I had a chunk of scrap brass plate. Knowing that I would be working it to precisely match the profile of the rear of the patchbox cover, I first annealed the brass by heating to a very high, temp and then allowing it to cool slowly. This makes it easier to bend and hammer into shape. As the brass became work hardened during this whole process, I had to anneal it several times to keep it co-operating but won't show this again.



It was then rough cut with a hacksaw:



Then, filed a bit closer to shape, but still allowing quite a bit of extra for fitting this tricky little part:



A lot of modern flintlock builders shortcut this process by simply using epoxy to hold the now fully shaped brass to the cover. That also has the benefit of filling up any spaces between the brass and the wood, so the wood-to-metal fit looks perfect, even if it's not. It also greatly reduces the risk of ruining a project by driving screws into very thin wood. Since I want this rifle to be period correct, I used the 1760 method of using small screws to attach the brass. Holes are drilled and then small countersinks created, because the screws are used like rivets. (Yes, I cheated with an electric drill...)



Driving screws at an angle into the very thin wood without either splitting it or coming through the bottom, requires, first, tiny screws. I never inherited money from my PA Dutch grandparents (they didn't have any), but I inherited all sorts of old cans full of screws, bolts, parts, etc. I was able to come up with two 3/8" flathead screws from this old tobacco can that had been my grandfather's.



Given that he taught me basic gunmaking skills as a child, I was pleased to be able to incorporate something from him in the rifle.

First, you drive the screws partway in to create the threads, then you cut off the tips of the screws (they would come though the bottom if left full length), then screw the stubs tightly into the threads you have created. Now, the plate is on the cover. No epoxy.



Everything is filed down to proper thickness to match the buttplate and to get rid of the screw heads, turning them into rivets.



Then the plate is filed down to the shape of the cover, leaving a tiny bit of extra, which is then slowly fitted to and blended into the curves of the buttplate, like so, until both wood-to-metal and metal-to-metal fits are good everywhere. The latch is reinstalled. Finally, you must make sure the latch works smoothly and that the cover doesn't bind.



Maybe 6 or 7 hours or work, but I was happy with the result and there were, fortunately, no rifle-wrecking mistakes. Went back upstairs to enjoy the evening with Nancy and the deer watching hounds.



Monday was lock and **** day. Again, this took quite a bit of time to get the result I wanted - no machine tool marks; a finish smooth enough for engraving, but not a modern polished finish; all while retaining the necessary flats and precise geometry of the parts to one another. Turns out, I did need to build a few special tools to fully take down the lock; which also added time to the project.

Filing up the lockplate - using the engraving vise to hold the part really helped.



Finished lockplate - ready for engraving:



Finished ****:



These parts will all be period-correct corrosive blacked after the engraving is done, which will cause the engraving to pop and give the parts a nice depth/texture.

I'm pretty happy with my carving designs now, so I've started to play around with the engraving designs. I'm not very happy with my scribbles so far. It's easy to get carried away and be too elaborate with the engraving - which was pretty simple back in the 1760's. Back to the drawing board with this....



Wednesday: Tools now resharpened from the assembly process, it's time to start the carving. I had great trepidation to start the carving. It requires a strong and steady hand; and I haven't done this in many years. One slip with a sharp tool under pressure and the whole thing is junk.

I decided to start with the easiest stuff and not get into the fancy stuff until I see if my hand and eye for this kind of work still exist. The various moldings are the easiest to do, but any tiny wiggle will show because they are supposed to be straight. So, the first scary cut of the project was the lower butt molding on the cheek side. (These pics do a really lousy job of showing this sort of work, BTW).



Since this gun will have both incise and relief carvings, the upper part of the molding needed to be relieved and smoothly blended to give me the proper shape. These shapes carry over into the buttplate.



At first, I thought this wasn't too bad, so I cut and relieved the butt molding on the lock side and started working on the three cheek piece moldings, which are done in true 1760 Berks County fashion.



My confidence began to fade for some reason, so I decided to quit carving and go do my exercise before I made an unrecoverable mistake. For me anyway, patience is the key - there is no hurry.

Thursday, I finished up the cheekpiece moldings; cut incised lines on the forestock and put the muzzle end finial on them. Cutting such long lines absolutely straight by hand with a chisel is tricky and takes a good bit of time - any tiny wobble shows up; one slip and you damage the very thin wood there. For some reason, the pics of this kind of work don't show it well at all. Sorry.



Now, that line will need to be relieved along its length, by very smoothly carving away wood above it, so the molding sticks out. That is a Berks County feature. Also, hard to do well as any flaw will show.

Friday, I only had a little time because we had friends staying at our house to attend a Ruffed Grouse Society fundraiser shoot in Lancaster on Saturday and a sporting clays competition at my club on Sunday. So, I did only a few hours of work roughing out the relief carvings on the front of the comb area of the rifle - again in the distinctive Bers County stye:



Each day there were the usual dog runs. Joy and Bliss by one of the mountain lakes:



Yet another wild goose chase by Joy in the icy waters:



Bliss in action:



They found some big, but very wary wild turkeys:





Greg

--
Check out my photos at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/137747053@N07/

Click to expand...

Oh wow, that is a lot of work! It will look great once finished I’m sure, although the carving and engraving must be tedious to get everything right! It’s coming together slowly but surely.



I live the photo of Bluss by the lake.

--
Courtney

Yes, it's a slow process for sure. Back in the day around here, it was slow, also. A single maker did the whole thing, from lock work to carving and engraving. A rifle was a very expensive thing and likely a person's most prized possession. Most regular country people had simple, very basic, smoothbore muskets.

In Europe at the time, such things were made by large groups of skilled people. One person might make only buttplates and another only inlet locks, etc. So, each craftsman got very good and time efficient at what he did.

The girls are enjoying their daily runs - Nanc and me not so much, as we keep pushing our exercise to the point that we are sore most of the time.

Greg

Birddogman said:

Apologies for not participating very much in last week's ST&C thread. We were very busy with house guests, shoots, etc.

Here's a catch-up in the longrifle work:









I decided to start with the easiest stuff and not get into the fancy stuff until I see if my hand and eye for this kind of work still exist. The various moldings are the easiest to do, but any tiny wiggle will show because they are supposed to be straight. So, the first scary cut of the project was the lower butt molding on the cheek side. (These pics do a really lousy job of showing this sort of work, BTW).







Greg

Click to expand...

Your work is looking really good Greg.

We got a bit of freezing rain over a bunch of snow the last few days. Most days coming up are over freezing so the white stuff will disappear soon. It all turns into fresh water that many places in the world would love to have.

A lot of detail can be added to the gun by playing with lighting settings. Frequency separation is another way to add detail.

It's great to hear about you getting out and about. It's just about time that it gets nicer to do.

Grant.

Thanks, Grant!

Reposting from last week, I don’t think anyone saw them. Here is Buffy playing out in the yard, and a bonus picture of Buddy. Sissy and Buffy are nearly impossible to photograph, which is why I have a ton of videos but only a few photos in the year we’ve had them. Sissy runs away every time I try to get a picture.

Buffy is learning to pose, although he has the worst tear stain problem I’ve ever seen. We clip his eye hair but it never goes away. I’ve heard they make wipes to help, but we’ve never tried them.













Buddy. He’s due for a haircut, his last one was a few days before Christmas.



Bonus Puppy Buffy Photos. He was only six weeks here:







This was when we went to pick him up after meeting him at Home Depot:





--
Courtney

Evenstar606 said:

Reposting from last week, I don’t think anyone saw them. Here is Buffy playing out in the yard, and a bonus picture of Buddy. Sissy and Buffy are nearly impossible to photograph, which is why I have a ton of videos but only a few photos in the year we’ve had them. Sissy runs away every time I try to get a picture.

Buffy is learning to pose, although he has the worst tear stain problem I’ve ever seen. We clip his eye hair but it never goes away. I’ve heard they make wipes to help, but we’ve never tried them.













Buddy. He’s due for a haircut, his last one was a few days before Christmas.



Bonus Puppy Buffy Photos. He was only six weeks here:







This was when we went to pick him up after meeting him at Home Depot:

Click to expand...

Some cuties!

--
Dak

Birddogman said:

Apologies for not participating very much in last week's ST&C thread. We were very busy with house guests, shoots, etc.

Here's a catch-up in the longrifle work:

Driving screws at an angle into the very thin wood without either splitting it or coming through the bottom, requires, first, tiny screws. I never inherited money from my PA Dutch grandparents (they didn't have any), but I inherited all sorts of old cans full of screws, bolts, parts, etc. I was able to come up with two 3/8" flathead screws from this old tobacco can that had been my grandfather's.



Given that he taught me basic gunmaking skills as a child, I was pleased to be able to incorporate something from him in the rifle.

Click to expand...

Just some side remark: if you ever get tempted to put that box in a dishwasher: don't. It is really appalling what happens with the paint on those old tin cans.

Birddogman said:

Finished ****:

Click to expand...

I like that finishing!

--
Dak

--
Dak

Looks like they all want to be given a good hug and ear scratches.

Funny that Buffy is learning to pose! One of the commands my dogs know is "whoa!". This means "stop instantly and do not move a muscle"! It is a necessary command for the safety of a working dog to stop them from running across a highway while on the track of a pheasant, attacking a porcupine or any of a thousand other dangerous things. I also use this command frequently to get them to stop when they are in a pretty place so I can take a picture. They put up with it but aren't happy about posing - they want to keep running. You can almost hear the frustrated sigh.









Greg

--
Check out my photos at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/137747053@N07/

That is NICE, David. I think your bike paths have our completely beat. This was a "rest stop" (for lunch actually) when we biked all the way to Valley Forge, near Philadelphia.





Valley Forge is a National Park and a very cool place to bike, BTW. Everything from the enlisted troops' log cabins:





To Washington's headquarters:









Greg



--
Check out my photos at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/137747053@N07/

Birddogman said:

That is NICE, David. I think your bike paths have our completely beat. This was a "rest stop" (for lunch actually) when we biked all the way to Valley Forge, near Philadelphia.

Click to expand...

You get selective coverage from me, photographing worthwhile points. Absolutely enfuriating is the consistency of signs and the continuity of the paths.

The car equivalent would be a highway that somehow ends in an open field and if you find your way across someone's backyard you get back to a side road leading back on your road. Because this is just a temporary interruption while a power plant has been erected in the path some 8 years ago or so and fossile energy will get decommissioned in the 2040s anyway, nobody bothered putting up signs for the detour.

You usually cannot go more than an hour or two apiece before hitting such a puzzler. If you follow the signs and are planning for, say, a 10mi commute, it will take you weeks before you puzzle together all the pieces you are supposed to be taking because there will always remain segments you cannot puzzle out. That renders spontaneous and/or longer trips rather tricky.

If pieces are closed for some reason, that doesn't mean that the signs are changed.

And we are talking about "scenic routes" here, with their own names and overregional planning. Just seems like nobody bothers actually checking with some regularity that the connectivity is still there and discoverable. The routes get locally disrupted and nobody gets informed.

Birddogman said:

Valley Forge is a National Park and a very cool place to bike, BTW. Everything from the enlisted troops' log cabins:



To Washington's headquarters:





Greg

Click to expand...

Nice!

--
Dak

Dak on cam said:

You get selective coverage from me, photographing worthwhile points. Absolutely enfuriating is the consistency of signs and the continuity of the paths.

The car equivalent would be a highway that somehow ends in an open field and if you find your way across someone's backyard you get back to a side road leading back on your road. Because this is just a temporary interruption while a power plant has been erected in the path some 8 years ago or so and fossile energy will get decommissioned in the 2040s anyway, nobody bothered putting up signs for the detour.

You usually cannot go more than an hour or two apiece before hitting such a puzzler. If you follow the signs and are planning for, say, a 10mi commute, it will take you weeks before you puzzle together all the pieces you are supposed to be taking because there will always remain segments you cannot puzzle out. That renders spontaneous and/or longer trips rather tricky.

If pieces are closed for some reason, that doesn't mean that the signs are changed.

And we are talking about "scenic routes" here, with their own names and overregional planning. Just seems like nobody bothers actually checking with some regularity that the connectivity is still there and discoverable. The routes get locally disrupted and nobody gets informed.

Click to expand...

We have some to that here too. Not so much in the rural areas where we mostly go - it's pretty hard to go wrong there, as most trails are old RR beds.





The more urban areas can be confusing; are often poorly marked; and it's not hard to end up in a condo parking lot, busy street or some such. Trails there can sometimes take you through some dangerous areas, with "homeless" encampments, etc. We usually try to stick to the rural areas for many reasons.





Greg

--
Check out my photos at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/137747053@N07/

Not too much new on the rifle - had two shoots and houseguests over the weekend. I was able to get some initial carving done on the patchbox cover (both incised and relief) and the thumb cut; the area surrounding the patchbox cover (incised); and the incised extensions to the comb moldings.



Maybe the lock moldings are next. Made some slow progress with the backhoe on Breezy's parking area, too. I still need four or five more dumptruck loads of dirt - and am at the mercy of my friend the excavator, who gives me free fill for that.





1800's tenant house late day:





Operating waterwheel:





Greg

--
Check out my photos at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/137747053@N07/

Birddogman said:

Looks like they all want to be given a good hug and ear scratches.

Funny that Buffy is learning to pose! One of the commands my dogs know is "whoa!". This means "stop instantly and do not move a muscle"! It is a necessary command for the safety of a working dog to stop them from running across a highway while on the track of a pheasant, attacking a porcupine or any of a thousand other dangerous things. I also use this command frequently to get them to stop when they are in a pretty place so I can take a picture. They put up with it but aren't happy about posing - they want to keep running. You can almost hear the frustrated sigh.



Greg

Click to expand...

Sissy goes nuts when playing outside in the yard, she hasn’t learned to relax yet. Buffy likes to run and then lay on the bricks by our shed.

--
Courtney

Dak on cam said:

Evenstar606 said:

Reposting from last week, I don’t think anyone saw them. Here is Buffy playing out in the yard, and a bonus picture of Buddy. Sissy and Buffy are nearly impossible to photograph, which is why I have a ton of videos but only a few photos in the year we’ve had them. Sissy runs away every time I try to get a picture.

Buffy is learning to pose, although he has the worst tear stain problem I’ve ever seen. We clip his eye hair but it never goes away. I’ve heard they make wipes to help, but we’ve never tried them.













Buddy. He’s due for a haircut, his last one was a few days before Christmas.



Bonus Puppy Buffy Photos. He was only six weeks here:







This was when we went to pick him up after meeting him at Home Depot:

Click to expand...

Some cuties!

Click to expand...

Thank you Dak!

--
Courtney

Some interesting photos this week. I won't quote on any specific ones because it already took me ages to scroll to the bottom, and I saw the same photos several times as people quoted quotes from previous quotes.

I had planned to get some outdoor portraits with the blooming cherry blossoms on Saturday, but there was a family emergency with the model so I pivoted and went to cars & coffee style event instead. It justifies my habit of always bringing my RX10IV with me in addition to my main camera, since the focal length range allows for a lot of compositional creativity.

Wow! Some nice stuff there!! Big money, too.

What do you drive?

These days, my old man fun car is a much modified (but stock-looking) Miata. It's 18 years old and only has about 22k miles on it. I drive my very basic pick-up truck 98% of the time. The two-seater still produces lots of smiles on our narrow, winding mountain roads here. Unlike cars I've owned in the past, it doesn't need to be driven very fast to be enjoyable.





With all the enormous pick-up's these days, driving in traffic can be intimidating:









With this crazy new Tariff World, nice sports cars are very soon (if not already) going to be even more impossible to afford.

Greg

--
Check out my photos at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/137747053@N07/

A grandson playing varsity volleyball at the same high school where I attended as a kid. The school is now maybe 4 times as big.

I would normally use my Fuji ILC and a huge, fast, 100-400mm lens for this kind of thing, but sitting in the bleachers watching a seemingly endless game is miserable enough, so, rather than deal with all of that equipment, I took the little RX100 VII. I was frankly amazed at the results.

He is #4 in the middle here:





























Not bad for indoor shooting with that tiny camera, me thinks.....



Found enough time to relief carve the sideplate moldings on the longrifle project yesterday.





Hoping to do the lockplate moldings today.



Greg

--
Check out my photos at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/137747053@N07/