With the continuation of our Investarms Flintlock Video series, we've recieved a lot of questions about what tools we reccommend for building your kit. Whether you are building a CVA, Traditions, Thompson Center, Lyman, Pedersoli or Investarms muzzleloader kit, here are the tools we think you should invest in.

First, you'll want to outfit your workspace with a vise. The vise is a very important tool to doing any work on a muzzleloader and muzzleloader kit. You'll see many folks online using a "Tipton Gun Vice", but I think that vice is better for maintenance, not building. While the vice I'm using in the videos is a bit older, it's a near match to this Woodriver universal Vise available from WoodCraft.

If you want something with a little more adjustment, several friends of mine like to use this pattern makers vise https://www.woodcraft.com/products/woodriver-patternmakers-or-gunstock-carving-vise

Other tools I use for kit

Safety Gear

• Rubber Gloves

• Eye Protection

One Large rough flat file

One course half-round file

One 4 ½” long fine half round file

One dovetail file for fitting the barrel lug and sights.

A pair of pliers

Exacto or another thin-bladed knife

File Card - https://www.woodcraft.com/products/file-card-and-brush

Knife - https://www.woodcraft.com/products/pfeil-swiss-made-chip-carving-knife-1

Checkering tools - https://www.woodcraft.com/products/leader-set-le18-gunline

Chisels

When it comes to chisels, you'll need a varitey. I reccommend a V Chisel, a couple gouges, a straight and a skew chisel for your muzzleloader kit. At a very base level, you could get all of these chisels as a palm chisel, popular among muzzleloader builders. I reccommend the PFEIL Swissmade brand, they are top of the line, but I use several Woodcraft and Ramelson brand chisels as well, which are a bit more budget-friendly.

You can purchase chisels in a set or individually from many woodworking supply shops.

My chisels are set up like the following:

Palm

• Skew V Chisel

• 2 small gouges

Normal wood carving Chisels

• Flat

I find that I use the palm chisels the most, especially on the kit muzzleloaders, but a normal carving chisel is handly for the initial dryfitting.

Old Chisel Makers of Good Quality
E.A Berg. Eskil Tuna. Even though they have a plastic handle. - Sweden
Herring Bro's - England
Moulson Bro's - England
Ward - Scotland
Titan - Australia
Pexto - USA
Mathieson - Scotland
C.E Jennings -USA
Tuck - USA
Crown - England
Any old bi metal Japanese Nomi chisels are top of the heap.

List continued

2 flathead screwdrivers, one ⅛” , one 3/16 ”

Sandpaper

• 180 Grit

• 240 Grit

• 400 Grit

“Scotch Brite” pad

Oil for threads

Non-marring mallet

Wood handled ball-peen hammer

Heat gun

Finishing Compounds

• Brass Black

• Brownell’s Oxpho-Blue

• Browning Solution

3-4 Cheap plastic containers (recycle yogurt or condiment containers)

Cotton swabs

Wood Stain (Your choice of color)

Paintbrushes

Finish Oil

• Linseed, Danish, or Tung

Shop Rags for clean up

Other tool manufacturers and providers

Patrick Leach - http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan0a.html

Brownells - https://www.brownells.com/

The Canadian company is Chipping Away - https://www.chippingaway.com/

All in all, this may not be EVERY tool you need for your muzzleloader kit, but it will be more than enough to get you started. This list has served me well on 4 complete muzzleloader kits so far.