Canter's Cave Gunbuiding Class

[Ian Pratt]

Before I get too carried away I want to quickly introduce both of our 2018 scholarship students.  We were very fortunate to be able to offer a pair of full scholarships this year thanks to generosity of the Kentucky Rifle Foundation, and  Muzzleloader Magazine - whose scholarship included much appreciated private donations.

 Ben was the recipient of the KRF's scholarship which included the full tuition, plus an additional amount to be used for gun parts and his materials. Ben came to the class with a little gun building experience but an impressive eagerness to learn. In the week he spent with us he was able to get his stock shaped out and he inlet most of the parts, as well as learning how to fabricate a buttplate from sheet brass along with some other small parts. By the end of the week he had his project to a stage where he could take it home and work out the details when he has time.
 






Levi was the recipient of Jason Gatliff / Muzzleloader Magazine's Scholarship. In conjunction with the tuition being covered by Muzzleloader (including most appreciated private donations), Levi's lock and barrel were donated by Larry Zornes of Mold and Gun Shop , and his barrel inlet was donated by Paul Hall of Red Brush Stocks. Levi was generally one of the first guys in the shop in the morning and one of the last to turn in at the end of each day. He put in a lot of hours and was able to stay a couple of extra days into week 2 to get his gunstock stained and a coat of finish applied.         

[Ian Pratt]

Speaking of fabrication, a couple of the things Ken taught was how to swage buttplates and form ramrod pipes out of sheet brass. Here are a couple of pictures of Ken's ramrod pipe demo








Bob was building a mountain rifle in the style of Elisha Bull. He forged his own hardware for it as a part of a related class we held previously. The photo shows him getting a nice fit with his properly styled entry pipe - round tailed as commonly seen on Bull rifles.   







Here is Tim designing and annealing the stock for his swaged buttplate, and Levi designing and inletting his own. They were both working on neat, folky adaptations of a cool old composite gun that Ken had made a copy of.

[Ian Pratt]

Stock shaping can be one of the more difficult things for beginners to learn, but for many it becomes one of the most gratifying aspects of building a gun when they learn some basics and start to get the hang of it.

Part of understanding how to shape a stock efficiently is learning to see where you are headed. You need to see the big chunks and know what tools are going to help get them out of the way, and in the process you must also set yourself up for the finer tools and know when it's time to switch to those. This is all covered in the class through demonstrations, and everybody has the chance to try different tools that Ken and I or other students have brought.   

Here I am knocking some bulk material off a forend, then switching to rasps and files to finish. Most of the students don't get this extreme to start with but I do it anyhow to help them see that you want to start with larger and faster cutting tools.







A few shots of Craig using a couple of different rasps to shape out the buttstock on his fowling piece









Gary and Robert doing some fine tuning on their projects

[Ian Pratt]

More parts fabrication  -  Ken and Tim curling a hand made trigger





Demonstrating how to make a threaded sheet metal ramrod tip, hammering it to final shape around a tapered mandrel







Gary final fitting his hand made muzzle cap





Jerry shaping up a long, over the comb tang for his mountain rifle project

[Robert Wolfe]

Thanks for posting the pictures Ian - I was too focused working on my gun to take any.........

[Tim Crosby]

 Great Pix Ian, Thanks.

   Tim

[jim alford]

Ian , Thanks for taking  time to post the photos .

[Dave_Cavanaugh]

I was a new student in week one this year. I would like to echo the sentiments of my fellow students regarding the outstanding level of instruction and support offered by our instructors and staff. Ken and Ian were seemingly tireless in assisting students for up to 18 hours at a stretch. They fixed problems big and small as they came up with workman like efficiency and obvious skill which was something to see in and of itself. They were extremely generous with students borrowing their personal tools and sifting through their parts inventories, which was critical to keeping the projects moving forward. It is probably not possible to overstate how much dedication they put into making this course a success.  The support staff and friends of SOAW also deserve enormous credit. Canter's Cave is an ideal facility for these classes and I appreciate the efforts of those who prepared our meals and kept our living quarters functional.  Joe McGee deserves special mention. Aside from being a multi discipline artisan in his own right, he worked hard all week keeping us on schedule for our meals and otherwise keeping everything going while we were all head down in our work. He took most or all of the photo's that were shared  in this thread and was also extremely generous in sharing his personal plans for work benches and gas forges. Thanks to Maryellen Pratt making the registration process painless, and also to Larry Zorne for opening his shop for an interesting tour and his generosity toward myself and this program.  I found my fellow students to be skilled, dedicated, and polite without exception and I hope to see each of you next time around.

[marcusb]

Where can I find more information on this class? Location, dates and costs? Thanks

[Robert Wolfe]

Here's the website: https://www.southernohioartisanworkshops.com/gunmakers.html

Next year's course is not posted but I suspect it will be roughly the same time of year.

[marcusb]

Wow!

Less than 1 hour from home, nice.

Thanks for the link.

[Martin S.]

OK, I just mailed in my check for this class, and I am trying to research my project.

I plan to make a pre-Rev war or F&I war fowler, that I can use to hunt turkeys.

I am thinking 12 gauge octagon to round Rice barrel, but have not decided on the length, maybe 38, 40, or 42 inches.
I don't want it too terribly long, for hunting reasons, so I am open to advice on this.

It has been suggest that I look at a William Antes style smooth rifle, and that seems fine, but I am still open to other suggestions that would look good without carving, as I have not yet learned that skill.

I would like to find some pictures for inspiration. 

I have seen the "RCA" book referenced, but I don't have a clue what RCA stands for.

So, for a new builder, can you tell me what RCA means and where I can get a copy?

I plan to attend the CLA meeting, and hope to have a decision made by then so I can start buying components.

Thank you, and I am looking forward to the class.

[G_T]

RCA = Rifles of Colonial America, which is a 2 volume set. Here is one source for volume 1: https://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/294/1/BOOK-RCA-V1 There are other sources of course. Dig around a bit.

Gerald

[Martin S.]

Thanks for the fast response!

[Iktomi]

Some day after I retire I'd love to be able to take some course such as this.