New Projects

[smart dog]

Hi Guys,
Well, I am having some fun although I never thought I would be this busy when I retired. I am building a late flint era English rifle for a member of this forum.  Since May, I worked on it in fits and starts because of other work but also these guns are hard to get right.  I needed a lot of research and consulting to understand the nuances. Anyway, I am having a lot of fun with the project and as with earlier period British guns, you have to make many parts from scratch to get it right.




My second project is building a "Little Fella's Rifle" kit from Chambers as a scaled down Reading gun.  The owner cannot heft a heavy rifle anymore but shooting and re-enacting are important to his well being.  The lightweight rifle should fill the bill and I am making it as close to an early Reading rifle as I can, given the limits I have with the kit. This is all challenging and fun. My life is not dull and never was.






dave

[Pukka Bundook]

Very nice starts, Dave!

What lock on the late English?  You're dong a good job as always!!

[smylee grouch]

Yes I'm curious about the late English lock. Looks like a knockout chunk of wood too.

[smart dog]

Hi Richard and Smylee,
Thanks for looking.  The lock on the English rifle is a Davis late Ketland lock.  It has a nice roller frizzen and stirrup tumbler, and seems to work very well.  I will cut proper stepped moldings around the flintcock and engrave it in the style of the 1820s.  It will be color case hardened. The trigger guard was fun.  It is a cast steel English fowler guard from TOW but I reshaped it a lot. I cut off about 15% of the front of the bow including the stud and then heated and bent it so it was smaller.  Then I welded on a new stud and threaded it for the trigger plate.  I made a nice pineapple finial copied from a John Manton gun for the front of the trigger plate.  The standing breech was from TRS Clark rifle parts and my machinist friend made a beautiful chambered breech from 4140 steel. I filed the hook on it to fit the standing breech. The 54 cal barrel is a straight taper from 1.0625" at the breech to 0.9375" at the muzzle made by Burton.  It has flat bottomed grooves with a 1 in 66 twist I think.  The butt plate is original and possibly >150 years old. The pipes are cast steel but completely modified by me.  The stock is a fabulous figured piece of English walnut from Ron Scott.  I was able to get a nice pistol stock and rectangular block for other projects (tomahawk handles?) from it as well, which I saved for the owner. There will not be any carving but the wrist will be checkered. I am not sure yet if I will do flat topped or pyramid topped checkering.  It seems both are appropriate for the time period. The nose cap is ebony and when I burnish it, it looks just like horn.  I may use the alkanet root oil suggested by Ron Scott for finish.  I am having trouble finding the right rear folding leaf sight.  There are the usual Jaeger and English rifle sight offerings from TOW and everyone else but they are not available right now and I am not sure they are what I want anyway. Ideally, I would like some simple period correct express sights on which the leaves are held up by spring pressure or some sort of resistance to just flopping over.  Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.  The front sight will be a simple blade but I intend to try and inlet thin gold wire in the middle of the blade facing the shooter so the view will be a thin gold line sandwiched between dark browned steel. The gun will be fitted with swivels and a sling.  All in all, it should be a nice gun, if I don't screw it up.

dave   

[Ky-Flinter]

......  All in all, it should be a nice gun, if I don't screw it up.

dave

Something tells me that's not very likely.  As always, I enjoy seeing your work.

-Ron

[Pukka Bundook]

Good reply Dave, Thanks.

Is that buttplate wider towards the toe, or had the style changed back to wider at heel by this time? 
I know the 1800-1815 maybe, but am not so sure on late flint.

BTW,
Do you have any suggestions on who to contact about replacement cock and frizzen for a lock of the approx. 1815 -or a bit later period?  I have one with both broken off.
The breech is inset, so frizzens/steels are thin on the ground.

[Craig Wilcox]

Dave, took one look at that English stock, and thought what a beautiful job you were doing on it - truly marvelous!  Thanks for showing us your work.

[Mr. Bubbles]

Did you get the stock from Gobi?  That must have taken a while to find the wood that is absolutely PERFECT through the wrist like that.

[smart dog]

Hi Mr. B,
The wood is from Ron Scott.  I don't know who his supplier is.  However, the wood runs through the wrist like that because I cut the blank that way. You usually have more options when cutting out a half stock. 

dave

[TommyG]

Hi Dave, As always, great looking and interesting work.  I really enjoy reading your posts as well.  Just remember this retirement thing is basically what you want to be when you grow up!!!  TommyG

[SingleMalt]

You ARE busy, Dave.  Mighty nice work, too.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Dave, I like what you've done with the trigger guard.  I have two of those in stock, and always bemoaned the extra large bow.  Your solution gives me pause for thought.  Two great projects for a skilled and prolific builder.