Chuck, your method makes good sense. Walter has way more confidence (and guts) than I ever could have and takes the pad down to with a few thousands of an inch, and does only a few minutes of hand sanding. He has a new tape that he bemoans not having been invented till he decided to fully retire. It is some space age material that resists sanding abrasion, so he can actually sand right on top of it.
My dad and I spent alternating Thursday nights going to Safari, and those nights, Walter also worked till the 8pm closing (often even later) One particular night my dad took back an upgraded two barrel Parker that started life as a VHE 28, but ended up a John Warren highly engraved 28, with a Joe Jurjevic set of 38-55WCF barrels. My dad merely mentioned he might have liked the gun more if it was a straight stocked gun (he never even shot the rifle barrels) Walter disappeared with the receiver, went down stairs and ran it thru the bandsaw, and by closing had a shaped, checkered, and one coat of finish. He had also extended the trigger bow, and only needed to blue that.
Part of his work in Ferlach was hand making springs for sidelocks. He did a wonderful job reworking the locks on my 26" grade two, and has promised to do the same to my 30". Those springs are like butter.
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