French Fitting?


Texfire

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Had a buddy ask me about options for a box for a pair of matched single action pistols. I did some research and found that one style of presentation style case has profiles for the pistols carved into some kind of material then covered with a felt or felt like material, this style was referred to as french fitted. Also seen this style used for musical instrument cases.

Does anyone have any experience doing this? Curious on the types of material used to carve out the profile, styrofoam and balsa come to mind off th top of my head, and the materials used to cover the carved out form. Is it hard to apply a felt lining without wrinkling?

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I am not sure about making the profile for the pistols but once you have you could use flocking to line the box. I made a cutlery canteen a little while ago and made a similar thing for the serving set in the top of the box. I used a router and hand sanding to cut some MDF into the shapes of the utensils and then put a green flocking over the whole thing. It turned out very well and looked like green baize had been applied to the insides of the canteen. HTH. I have some photos in my galleries on here if you do a search.

Sorry I have just had a look and there are better photos of the inside of it in the crittique section under cutlery canteen. HTH.

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French fitting is fairly easy. You of course need the gun. If its a revolver for example draw a tight fiting template around the entire pistol at its widest point and scroll saw out the template, sand to adjust the fit as needed and clean the edges. Now start with the bottom layer. Think of the pistol in steps the cylinder will be the widest. Your just laying up plys to match the steps. The first ply would just have the cylinder cut out, the next ply may have part of the handle and the cylinder keep working your way up to about 1/3 of the barrel. Smooth out the interior and lay your felt or velvet. Traditionally velvet is loose laid.

Hope that makes sense.

Don

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