Well since the Gunbuilder's Workshop staff photographer was on strike today I decided to take matters into my own hands. Actually I only had time to get a few pictures, we had a real busy day. We took a little time out later this afternoon for a brief demo on proper sharpening and use of cabinet scrapers, but for most of the day the guys were hard at work.
Here are a couple shots of Gregg Biebelhausen and his mountain rifle in progress. I am pretty sure this is Gregg's first rifle. He is fairly new to longrifles but has some background in custom auto / fabrication and he doing some good, careful work. He also does some blacksmithing, the buttplate is one that he forged for his project.
He has had the opportunity to check out a couple original guns of this type and has incorporated some good traditional details into his rifle. This morning when he got started I saw he'd done some work roughing out the cheekpiece side of the butt, to me looks like it's leaning toward Ambrose Lawing's style in certain respects, kind of clean and angular.
Marc Tornichio has already posted some shots of his progress on this particular rifle, thought you all might like to see where he's at with it now. Some really nice work. He has based this one on a great old iron mounted gun that has been attributed to Phillip Sheets. Comparing it to the original he has made some changes that I really liked, namely the shape of the box finial and the form of the sideplate. Classy stuff. He needs to finish up the box release and then I think he's going to add some suitable relief carving on the cheek piece side - also a change from the original, which has none. Can't wait to see this one finished.
Only one shot of John Gaeckle ( yes, the John Gaeckle of Hackberry Rifle fame) shown here working on drilling clearance holes in his buttplate heel using medium tech methods. John has been building some neat, different guns with kind of a primitive feel. I unfortunately didn't get a picture of the new one he has started on but we'll try to get some next time.
We're taking the next month off but will be back to the workshop September 15th. Anybody within reasonable driving distance who wants to come and hang out, feel free, visitors are always welcome.
