The kit has all inletting done on the stock, and from what I can see, it is more of an assembly and finishing job than a "rifle building project
To a certain degree. Lyman doesn't send you a Block of wood to carve a stock out of, but doesg give you a stock that is carved, and partially inletted. I had to finish the inletting for the barrel channel, lock, tang, estachions (sp?),trigger guard, and most difficult of all, the buttplate. Other brands can be put together by simply screwing the parts together, but Lymans take quite a bit of fitting and inletting to even start thinking about putting together. The metal parts except the barrel are rough cast, so you also have to file and polish them smooth before you brown or blue them- there arn't any brass parts like on other brands of MLs. There are upsides and downsides to the kit. On the upside, you get to learn alot about metal finishing and inletting, and you can fit the furniture to the stock tightly and smoothly to get a quality look. On the downside, its not a project for a novice, for someone who doesn't have alot of time, and if it isn't done very carefully, the gun will not look well.
Lyman frizzen- I've been using cut Agate flints as I haven't bothered to source out any englich knapped flints yet. I just set the flints in and lay it up against the frizzen so that it touches the frizzen 1/2 up and tighten them down. They do throw good sparks, and there is never a problem with igniting the priming charge.