One piece nose cap

[Tom Currie]

Made my first one piece nose cap this week and learned the following.
1. It's much harder than just soldering on a front on a 2 piece.
2. Hammer, aneal, hammer, aneal, reshape, repeat.
3. I think it looks better than my previous 2 piece nose caps
4. Sort of has a natural flare to it.
5. I'm glad it's done
It has a shallow groove in it for the tapered rod, it actual extends to the end but the picture doesnt show that well at all.


 

[Larry Luck]

Tom,

Looks good.

Larry Luck

[Jim Kibler]

I recently made a one piece grooved nose cap.  I made a male die out of steel to shape it around.  Worked quite well.  The tendency is for it to swell at the end.  You have to have a pretty good set-up and be mindful of it while shaping to avoid it.  A one piece nose cap without the groove is certainly a little easier. 

[Rich]

I made my dies out of hardwood and they seem it hasn't split yet.

[David Rase]

Here are a couple of pics of my one piece nose cap tool and the corrosponding cap.


DMR

[Long John]

I watched Paul Allison hammer one out without annealing at all in less than 2 minutes!  He uses a steel mandrel and hoose clamps and a ball pien hammer.  I was impressed!

JMC

[Dennis Glazener]

I watched Paul Allison hammer one out without annealing at all in less than 2 minutes!  He uses a steel mandrel and hoose clamps and a ball pien hammer.  I was impressed!

JMC

I think Paul normally makes them without the rr groove which is MUCH easier to do. If you don't have a proper mandrel making a decent grooved nose cap is a real pain! At least for me
Dennis

[Stophel]

I've done one.  Don't really care to do another!  Really you need a proper jig/mould/form to do one.  I didn't have anything.

Brass don't shrink when you hit it with a hammer!

[rich pierce]

Nice nosecap, Stophel, would like to see the rest of the rifle- is it your gun modeled after RCA 21 or something else?

BTW, you may want to add, "and carry a bullet block" to your tagline, there.

[Stophel]

Yeah, it's here:

www.photobucket.com/albums/v326/Fatdutchman/Flintlocks/Reading


Oh, I don't really like using a bullet block.