Author Topic: Kreps Rifle  (Read 14967 times)

Offline B Shipman

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Kreps Rifle
« on: June 22, 2009, 02:44:34 AM »
Recently I posted this rifle on the contemporarymakers blog. A few people e-mailed me to post it here as well for discussion. So here it is. A close but not exact copy of an original by George Kreps, Hagerstown, MD school, about 1800. 4 steel wedges with brass heads.




















Offline Eric Laird

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #1 on: June 22, 2009, 03:23:15 AM »
Bill,
Let me be the first (at least in this forum) to compliment you - that is a beautiful piece of work! With the cheekpiece inlay, I hope this is a graduation present or some other form of commemoration and not a memorial.
Eric
Eric Laird

Offline Randall Steffy

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #2 on: June 22, 2009, 04:44:44 AM »
Now that is what I am talking about! You, Bill, set the bar up in the clouds for the majority of us builders, if I may say so. But it is a challenge knowing that such a level of workmanship and artistry is possible among mere men. Awesome.

Offline sz

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #3 on: June 22, 2009, 04:56:22 AM »
OUTSTANDING!

 :)

Offline Brian

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #4 on: June 22, 2009, 05:27:22 AM »
Beautiful!  Wow!
"This is my word, and as such is beyond contestation"

hatchetdan

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #5 on: June 22, 2009, 05:28:24 AM »
Wish I was  a  navy seal!    :o

Offline Ben I. Voss

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #6 on: June 22, 2009, 06:10:00 AM »
Masterpiece is a word that could get one in trouble on this forum - how about masterful? Wow!

Offline Dave R

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #7 on: June 22, 2009, 06:20:40 AM »
EXCEPTIONAL!!! ;)

Offline B Shipman

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #8 on: June 22, 2009, 07:59:59 AM »
elaird, everythings fine.  Always training or deployed. He just finished high altitude jumps with mobile equipment into the ocean day and night. Actually much more complex than what was done with the pirates in Africa.  They came in at high altitude at night  but were picked up by the Navy. Apparently the trick is to free fall with oxygen , group up, and manouver to the contact point. In training, they drop on their own transport, stacked and motorized Zodiacs, dropped by static line. In addition to other supplies and equipment. At night , in the ocean.

Offline Lucky R A

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #9 on: June 22, 2009, 05:10:59 PM »
   Great job Bill, clean precise work as always, Kreps would be envious!
"The highest reward that God gives us for good work is the ability to do better work."  - Elbert Hubbard

Offline Tim Crosby

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #10 on: June 22, 2009, 05:44:50 PM »
 Top shelf workmanship, I don't believe it gets better than that. 

Tim C.

Offline jerrywh

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #11 on: June 22, 2009, 07:24:57 PM »
Super good job Bill. Ive never seen one better. That's as good as it gets. J.H.
Nobody is always correct, Not even me.

Offline Ed Wenger

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #12 on: June 22, 2009, 07:37:49 PM »
Bill...  As always, awesome!  Hope you'll be bringing it to Dixon's and thanks for the photo's.  I still wish you would have done some kind of mermaid thing.  You know, with the trident, large bare...  you get the picture...  Seriously, what a beautiful rifle and superb workmanship!

         Ed
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Sean

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #13 on: June 22, 2009, 07:54:01 PM »
Bill,

Really beautiful work as always.  If I might ask, was the original piece you modeled this after published somewhere, and if so where?

Sean

flintman-tx

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #14 on: June 22, 2009, 07:55:37 PM »
" It  DON"T get any better than that!!!"

Offline Roger Fisher

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #15 on: June 22, 2009, 10:08:07 PM »
Some guys really know how to put we peons in our place,.   :-[

Can't come up with a better description of that piece other than 'sweet'!! :-

Offline J. Talbert

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #16 on: June 23, 2009, 12:45:13 AM »
I never get tired of looking at great longrifles, and Bill yours stack up there with any of the best.

God bless your sons!  You should most definitely be proud.

Jeff
There are no solutions.  There are only trade-offs.”
Thomas Sowell

Offline Scott Bumpus

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #17 on: June 23, 2009, 05:36:31 AM »
What's the most deadly animal in the jungle?      A SEAL !!!!   WELL DONE!!!!!
YOU CAN ONLY BE LOST IF YOU GIVE A @!*% WHERE THE $#*! YOU ARE!!

Offline B Shipman

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #18 on: June 23, 2009, 07:01:30 AM »
Hey Sean, it's pictured on page 49 of "The Kentucky Rifle- A True American Heritage in Pictures". A pretty well known rifle. Or I should say a pretty well known rifle if you've been around this stuff for 20 years or more.

Here's a question for the board. Should I have tried to copy the original exactly or do an interpretation by changing a few major items? Assuming I don't have the original in hand.

Offline jerrywh

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #19 on: June 23, 2009, 09:17:14 AM »
Even God never copies anything exactly the same. Everything needs a touch of the maker or what is the need for more than one maker???
Nobody is always correct, Not even me.

Offline Tom Currie

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #20 on: June 23, 2009, 03:21:50 PM »
I like the interpretation idea. I like the challenge of working within a school , using some known design elements, yet allowing myself to be creative at the same time. Sort of picked this up from EK as he has published and presented some of his recent work in this fashion.

Offline J. Talbert

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #21 on: June 23, 2009, 08:42:04 PM »
If Bill Shipman was building me a rifle, I wouldn't want him constrained by someone elses design.

Jeff
There are no solutions.  There are only trade-offs.”
Thomas Sowell

Offline dogcreek

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #22 on: June 23, 2009, 11:06:24 PM »
Excellent workmanship! That's a wonderful rifle. Congratulations!

Daryl

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #23 on: June 23, 2009, 11:21:06 PM »
Very tastefully done, Bill.  I just love to see the metal grow out of the wood.  Excellent.  A rifle like that could get one's mind off the English Sporting Rifles - for a time.

Offline Brian Jordan

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Re: Kreps Rifle
« Reply #24 on: June 24, 2009, 02:08:07 AM »
Bill, that is a beautiful rifle! I would like to make one of your pictures my screensaver!
Elizabeth, PA

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms"...Thomas Jefferson

Let's Go Brandon!