Neanderpundit

or, at least on the screen- is “My life and work” the autobiography of Henry Ford. An excerpt, that any good businessman will understand:

The principal part of a chisel is the cutting edge. If there is a single principle on which our business rests it is that. It makes no difference how finely made a chisel is or what splendid steel it has in it or how well it is forged–if it has no cutting edge it is not a chisel. It is just a piece of metal.

Ford, Henry (2009-10-04). My Life and Work (Kindle Locations 230-232). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

You should ought to read this, if you do any kind of a business, or strive to.

Hale is still bound and determined that the taxpayer is no authority over the civil servant, repeating the notion that he has been trained to repeat, that the taxpayer has no right to expect the civil servant to do his or her job, which is of course the merest bullshit. The plain fact is, they do.

He is certainly correct in that this is not the way it currently IS, but that’s not a patch on the fact that this is how it is designed to be.

When BP had it’s oil spill it was forced to fork over truckloads of cash to people, and it forked over even more truckloads of cash to people on it’s own. Despite the money it was losing and the media frenzy public relations disaster that surrounded it. In the end, the environmental impact was far less than it was suspected it would be, and BP is still paying people off. That’s how business works, and that’s how the government is supposed to work; to provide the consumer with service above and beyond the call.

The standard shibboleth of the unaccountable is the cop analogy, and Hale went right for it. “A cop pulls a guy over for speeding”

No. We are not criminals. Expecting to get the government we pay for, no more, and NO LESS, is not a criminal activity. We are not speeders asking to be let off a ticket because “We pay the cops salary!” We are consumers of a product- governance- that deserve to have the actions of that governance accountable to us. it isn’t, and the people who provide it are not, and they- like Hale- believe that they do not deserve to be held accountable, and that is in fact the problem in whole. So they have put the rest of us in the role of criminal because that is the only way this ignorance can be reconciled.

I bought this rifle for$20, with a 32-20 WCF barrel and no breechblock. The stock had apparently been made from a 2×6, because it still said ‘Boise Cascade” on it in green letters. I would have kept that but for the fact that it was loose and therefore useless. I found an octagonal 22 blank and a correct breechblock, and I have to make a firing pin which I will do on monday. These are the first pictures of the stock, which began as a 2″ by 8″ piece of bloody hard wood- so hard that it will probably not take a finish, and will have to be buffed- as it gets fitted to the receiver. I have the receiver completely apart so none of the pieces get lost, and once I have the stock fitted, and the barrel chambered, and the ejector fitted, i will fire up the tank and blue this puppy. I hope to have a functional single shot by spring.

This is the top of the stock as inletted to the receiver. It’s a long way from block of wood to this point, trust me.

The bottom. You get an idea how much material has to be removed to make this work.

The block roughly shaped with the receiver inletted to it. Now I need to start shaping, and this is a light rifle, and this is dense wood, so I need to remove a LOT of it. Here’s the first evening’s sanding progress.

There’s a LOT left to do. This is going to be like a splinter when it’s done.

Now I understand why Pope liked that ballard action so much- almost no stock fitting to do, no tang, nothing.