forged barrel

[David R. Pennington]

got any pictures of that walnut stocked gun?

[wmaser]

Sorry about the quality of the photo. I only have a cell phone to take pictures with.



This gun has no store bought parts other than a couple of wood screws

[David R. Pennington]

very nice

[James Wilson Everett]

Wild Bill & Guys,

An absolutely outstanding work of art.  Congratulations on the really hand made gun.  We will certainly have to get together and swap stories!  Several suggestions:

1.  The next time you do a hand made gun, let me know and I will supply the wood screws!  Free

2.  I have two very fine wrought iron studs, 18" long x 1.5" in diameter, the ends only are threaded.  The slag streaks are very fine, but visible when the surface is polished.  If "we" get the studs drilled through, say about 3/8" could"we" try forging swamped octagon barrels?  I don't have a forge big enough any more, but I have borrowed the forges at the Scottdale Center if you are familiar with that facility.

3.  Here is a rifle I made, the barrel is forged welded (the one that I had to trim back to 38").  All the parts are hand made including the screws.

Jim

[David R. Pennington]

Jim, did you make your swedges or dies for your wood screws, or did you find originals? I have made triggers, buttplates, sights, rammer pipes, lock screws, everything but the lock and barrel. I havn't made wood screws yet. This is what I like about this hobby it is always a learning experience. Half the fun is making the tools and learning the old techniques. Very nice pieces guys. Do you get bewildered looks from folks when you tell them it is all homemade?

[wmaser]

Do you get bewildered looks from folks when you tell them it is all homemade?

Very often, the reply is "I know you made it, but where'd you get the kit."

[James Wilson Everett]

David R. & Guys,

Check out the tutorial on making 18th c wood screws, this is how a correct period wood screw is made.  It is very difficult to make a correct 18th c reproduction wood screw by modifying a modern wood screw as the modern ones are straight sided and the 18th c ones are tapered.

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=18831.0

Jim

[wmaser]

Well Jim...You shamed me into it. This afternoon I put my other projects away and made a handfull of wood screws. I'm beginning to replace the screws on all of my scratch made guns. I don't have wood screw swedges so I filed mine.

Wild Bill

[Shootrj2003]

I was a farrier and as a result a blacksmith for myself as a hobby and as a need arises ,to become a really good one would require I stop playing with my guns,making horns,leatherwork,and not ride my Sportster as much as well as not play with my granddaughters enough,but, I do know about forging and forge welding and if I made the time to make 1 good shooting barrel and put it into a beautiful piece of wood with beautiful fittings I would consider Myself as having accomplished a really cool feat and worthy of the time,and if it was a rifle and I rifled it,twice the feat. God bless those men that have and those that have had to ,to build this world where we can now go and buy a good one for a paltry 200-300 dollars!

[David R. Pennington]

Jim, I looked at those tutorials again. I'm going to have to try and make a screw swedge one of these days. I love your posts!

Chris, I borrowed your video from one of my friends. I thought I'd watch a couple minutes of it that evening but couldn't turn it off. Great video. I think I have a project in motion. I've got a couple local guys interested. I'm hoping we can get started on a barrel soon. I'm dependent on them as I don't have a roof over my shop and my little rivet forge is not up to the task.

[KNeilson]

Cool thread, this is a subject I have great interest in. I have all the neccesary tools/ machinery , but like some have had a hard time finding the round tuit. A question for those that have done this... Are you upsetting the edges of your skelp, or providing a scarf of sorts to weld together? For ex. Like rounding the edges that meet to weld.  I have looked for info on this and found little on skelp welding. It seems that a scarf of sorts was used when welding twists together to provide material to allow a wider weld joint. Always wondered if a method like this was used when doing a long seam.   ..  Kerry