1720's Dutch/German horse pistol done! (Picture heavy!)

[Hemo]

I thought I'd share a build I just finished. It's not exactly American Longrifle, but at least has elements of Dutch/German design! This is my interpretation of a flint horse pistol from the Dutch/northern German region of about the 1720's.  I pulled lots of details from the Bolk Antiques pistol site (http://www.bolk-antiques.nl/index.cfm?page=collection&cat=1209&subcat=2186&catname=Antique%20Pistols), which has lots of beautiful hi-res enlargeable photos of some fine old firearms in many projections.

Stock is from Dunlap, 20 gauge smoothbore octagon-to-round 12" French dragoon-type barrel and cast brass ball-butt and retainer are from Muzzleloader Builder's Supply, lock is a Davis Jaeger I've had sitting in a drawer for literally almost thirty years (modified), trigger guard is a type D French fusil guard (cut, bent, filed and engraved) from TOW, and ramrod pipes are originally octagonal longrifle cast pipes by Bivens, also from TOW, also very modified.

Lock is not yet engraved. I will be at the NMLRA gunmaker's seminar next month taking the engraving course by Jim Kibler, and hopefully will get some good ideas there about finishing the lock. (Barrel engraving, by the way, is my first attempt at relief engraving.)

Comments and criticisms appreciated!

Hemo

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If you click on the pics, I think you can link to the Photobucket series showing progress pics of the whole build.

[KLMoors]

I like it!  Once you see Jim's engraving, you might want to put some more shading into your scroll work.

Question- How did you do your background removal on the barrel?

Thanks for the pics.

Ken Moors

[bama]

Very nicely done. Thanks for sharing.

[Hemo]

Ken,

The basic design on the barrel was cut out with a regular square graver, then the background was cut first by laying the square graver as far on its side as possible and cutting around the edge, followed by a wide flat-bottomed graver and then riffler files to flatten it all out. I got some fairly cheap rifflers from Amazon, but the cut was very coarse, and I had better luck going with #2 and #4 rifflers from Gesswein. A single riffler from Gesswein cost more than the whole cheap set from Amazon, but they cut much smoother. Final finishing was with pattern makers stones from Gesswein.
I agree there's not much shading on the foliage on my brass parts, but I was going for a little more provincial heavy German engraved look, as seen on several German pieces on the Bolk's site.  Still looking forward to honing my skills at Jim's course, though!

Gregg

[ken]

Nice work, I think I will stop calling myself a builder, you are way in front of me. Good lines and I like the engraving, carving looks good and clean. Again  real nice job  ken

[Glenn]

WOW ... GREAT JOB !!!

[Micah2]

This is a wonderful pistol. 

[KLMoors]

Thanks for the information Gregg. I've been planning on trying some of that style of engraving/background removal,  and I like the look you got with it.

Thanks again!

Ken

[kaintuck]

Do you have a front sight close up? And how was it placed and anchored?
Super nice pistol, please consider a dueling pair!!!! with the box and tools!!!!
WAY above my abilities.....your metalwork is magic......!

Ken......step away from your workbench.....slowing slowly.....I KNOW what your thinking!
BTW, that next project of mine is is the works.....Dave has the blank and barrel, Jim and Barbie will get me a lock with a bronze pan and backplate......I hope your happy.......I'm turning to the dark side of early German style rifles from a clean background of SMR and Lancasters.......it's YOUR fault!!!

Marc in Tenn

[smart dog]

Great Pistol,

It looks very credible and well done.  You certainly got the style and feel of those horse pistols very well.  No extra wood left just the way it should be.

dave

[wattlebuster]

I took a look see at your photo bucket album. WOW you got skills my friend

[James Rogers]

Hemo,
That type of work is down my line of country!!
Very nice. It is evident you are making efforts to observe the subtle details. The more you seek, the more you find.
Although I am in Jim's class as well I am coming in with much less experience behind the hammer. Looking forward to meeting you.

[Mike Brooks]

Excellent work.

[Hemo]

Thanks to all for your kind comments!

Kaintuck, here's a closeup of the front sight from the top. In the background is my first go at the sight, showing the shape. After cutting out the arc shape from thick sheet brass, I filed out a little rectangular tab on the base, as you can see. Then I used a wide flat graver on the top of the barrel to make a corresponding notch for the tab. After a little file work, it dropped in nicely. I then tinned the base of the sight with solder and sweated it into the notch in the barrel. It seems pretty strong.


Ken and James, here's another picture of the relief barrel engraving, with the Gesswein riffler files I used to take down the background. I also used these to make the raised sighting plane. Looking forward to meeting you at the engraving class, James!

Finally, a pic of the raw parts before it all started! (Always makes me feel good to see progress!) You can see the basic shape of the octagon-to-round barrel before I lit into it.


Hemo (Gregg)

[Rolf]

I really love your barrel work!! I've been wanting to try something like that for a llong time, but could not figure out how to file/carve the sigth ramp and panels on the barrel.  Do you have any pictures of the process on the barrel?

Best regards
Rolf

[Acer Saccharum]

Wow, there is an awful lot to like about this pistol. Thanks for posting the pics. Your photography is very good, BTW.

Your stock carving design is really appropriate for the piece; the colors of the wood and metals are really delicious. Your chiseling workmanship is most excellent. Nice overall shape of the stock.


A comment, since you asked, I feel the metal relief on the barrel and some of the stock carving is a little too bold. Around the entry pipe, and lock panels are a little deeper than I like to see on a piece of this period. Carving depth is a very hard thing to determine when building something from photos.

You have achieved a wonderful piece of workmanship, something to be really proud of.

Tom

[P.W.Berkuta]

All I can say is IMPRESSIVE  !!!

[kaintuck]

I like that front sight, I get tired of the drifted front sights on my rifles.....I saw a original with your type of sight, looked really nice~ old....maybe I can use this on a build.....thank you!
Marc

[Hemo]

Thanks again for your comments, all!

Rolf, I didn't take too many pictures of the process of the relief engraving on the barrel, unfortunately, but I'll send what I've got. Mind you, I'm no expert, this is my first try at relief engraving and I pretty much taught myself by trial and error.
Starting with the untouched barrel. as made by Oregon:


...and next I did the raised sight plane. I marked a center line by laying the barrel on its top flat and dragging it over a file to score an even center. I then used dividers or calipers to mark the planned edges of the sight plane. If memory serves me, I think I laid some strips of masking tape on the sides of each of these lines to keep then straight. Then I went along the lines with a square graver and chasing hammer and cut as straight a line as I could. It was still a bit wobbly at first, but by cutting on the outside edge of the engraved line with a riffler file with a "safe" edge against the sight plane, I was able to raise up a straight elevated plane. Then I cut the round ends of the sight plane fore and aft with the square graver, and filed out the excess beyond the ends with pillar files. This is what it looked like after roughing out:

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Next step was making the panels on the right and left flats. I did this by going into the upper two 45 degree flats with a pillar file from the breech end and relieving the flats to a little more rounded shape...

...and at the front ends of the flat panels, a curved engraved line was cut in, and the metal in front of the line was removed with pillar files, bringing the profile round to match the forward round barrel plane.


...and after this point I didn't take many pictures of my engraving process. I stole the basic design of the Maastricht flint pistol on the Bolk Antiques site, on my earlier post--this is about the eighteenth pistol down the list, click it and enlarge it for details. Anyway, after cutting in the design with a square graver, I went to work with wide flat gravers around the edges and riffler files to flatten out the background. Here is a pic before final cleanup:


...after which as many scratches and tool marks as possilbe were taken out with rifflers, Gesswein patternmaker's stones, and 600-1000 grit sandpaper.
After I did all the cleanup I could stand, I went over the engraving with liquid Birchwood Casey Super Blue for depth, then went over the surface with 0000 steel wool and finally a light buffing on the wheel to bring the surface back to bright.

Hope that's some help. As I said before, I'm no authority and this is my first attempt at the relief stuff!

Good luck!

Hemo (Gregg)

[KLMoors]

Great pics of the relief work.

Thanks.

[Curtis]

Absolutely fantastic work, Hemo!  A very beautiful pistol.  I am looking forward to meeting you in Jim's class at Bowling Green next month!  I have never tried relief engraving before but you make it look enticing!

Curtis

[Ric27]

Stunning!

[A.Merrill]

     Very, very nice....thanks for the pic.   AL

[Dry Baller]

 LAWZEE !!!

[B Shipman]

Great stuff. Super skills in so many things.