Fowler from a blank

[Dwshotwell]

Howdy folks, in the spirit of Rich’s thread encouraging us to share our work, here are some photos of a fowler I started at the Southern Ohio Artisan’s Center Gun Building workshop last winter with Ian Pratt and Ken Gahagan. Barrel is a custom profile smoothbore in 58 from Rice. Lock is the Chambers Early Germanic. Trigger guard is from Mike Brooks. We made the butt plate and side plate in class (the side plate was a one of a kind collaboration between Ian and Ken and is my favorite part of the gun). I ended up ordering the thimbles from Track of the Wolf. I tried to make them at home and just couldn’t get them right.

There are a few flaws… I ended up with a “dip” in the top of the comb where I messed up the fit with the butt plate tang. The butt plate itself I filed too thin on an edge chasing my tail trying to get the fit better. This was my first time carving beaver tails and around the barrel tang, and while I think I caught the “folksy” look of the original I do think I could have done better.

If anyone is on the fence about taking that class or one like it, just do it.

I do welcome input/criticism. I realize that my pictures could be better. I'm on crutches right now and it was a struggle to photograph.

[Dwshotwell]

Here’s a picture of the butt plate while I was working on and one of the main issues that I had. At one point, I had a good metal to wood finish but as I kept going things changed. I couldn’t get the front of the finial to stay down, so I tacked on a a piece of brass so I could pin it. In the process, I think the heat messed with the rest of the finial so that it was warped/wavy. I also managed to file too much of the brass away on one edge and at the same time made an “divot” in the wood of the comb next to it. Anyway, everything I did to fix it made it worse. I should have stopped and asked for help.


I ended up putting in a wood patch and re-inletting that side, but I should have made a bigger patch and done more. It ended up ok, but could hav been better.


I’d love to hear ideas on how I could have done it better. Thx.

[rich pierce]

David, thin sheet metal buttplates are tricky. In my experience they need to be done in a sort of “all at once” way. Shape the stock as close to finished as possible then trace the outline and go right to making the mortise full depth and smooth. There’s nothing to be gained by slowly working it in 15/1000” at a time. Things will get wonky.

Next, I’ve started to use wooden blocks more and more to lay over any thin inlay when looking to tap to transfer soot or inletting black or whatever you are using. Some are flat but most are concave.  They are the same forms I use to form buttplates. This eliminates making ripples or inadvertently flattening a thin curved inlay during the inletting process. I’ve got a small pile of wooden blocks like this. They are also handy when inletting the tang of a rear thimble and key escutcheons or thin wrist escutcheons or cheekpiece inlays.

I’ve used brass as thin as 0.050” for buttplates but prefer 1/16” brass up to 0.090” thick.

Another trick is to reinforce the front extension of a thin sheet metal buttplate by soldering another plate beneath that section. It’s invisible but really stiffens the inlay.

[Dwshotwell]

Thanks Rich. The initial inletting had gone well and I had thought I was all set. Using wood blocks is a great idea. Adding another piece of brass in the area I thinned too much would have been a very good solution once I had done the damage. I have no idea how to do that though so if I get there again I'll need to ask for help.

[galudwig]

Hey David,
Rich’s advice on inletting the plate into a stock that is close to finished dimension is spot on. In addition to that, Ian explained to me that you need to basically inlet straight down as well. You can always adjust the inlet slightly forward as you go. It took me two or three explanations before that made sense to me. Once I got it organized in my mind, I’ve done a better job inletting complicated buttplate extensions.



Also, his advice to solder a piece of brass under the extension is a sound one. I recently applied that principal to help a friend repair his great-great grandpa’s Belgium shotgun. There was a crack in the screw hole of the bottom tang through which the main stock bolt passed. I soldered a piece of steel to the inside of the tang, relieved the stock to accommodate the increased thickness, and re-drilled the screw hole. The reinforcement made the area stronger than ever would have been attainable by trying to repair the crack alone. The piece wouldn’t have to be all that thick, maybe 0.025-0.032” stock that could conform to the gentle underside curve of the extension. A low temp solder would reduce the potential for heat warping the thin metal.

Another thing to consider for next time might be to make the terminal part of the extension shorter overall. I think anytime you have a piece of metal that long and thin, you are going to have an issue trying to keep that extension in the inlet where it belongs without pinning. That’s one good reason to start out with a heavy piece of stock (0.090”)” to begin with. You have more leeway when taking metal off.

I really like how the finish turned out. Looked like you had a beautiful piece of curly maple to begin with and your finish really seemed to highlight that. One thing that caught my eye though was that transition area mid-stock behind the nose of the comb. To my eye, that transition is way too abrupt. The picture of your unfinished gun/repair shows both sides of that transition very well. In general, that area should transition gradually and blend in with the wrist and butt. Many of the wrists you see on fowlers are also cylindrical in shape as they transition into the butt. Buchele’s book had a good illustration of that concept.







See you in class!

[Dwshotwell]

Hey Gary, thanks for this. Particularly regarding the comb being too abrupt a transition. I see what you’re saying. As far as overall stock shaping went, I can definitely tell where I left off in class last winter and what I then tried to do on my own.

I won’t be there this year so I won’t see you in class - I was registered and ready and broke my leg two weeks ago and had to cancel. Have fun and I’ll be back next year.

[galudwig]

Oh man, that sucks! Well, I hope you get healed up fast. We’ll send you a few pics to let you know what you’re missing! 😉