First gun from my new shop

[smart dog]

Hi Folks,
I brought this rifle mostly finished from Alaska and then completed it in my new shop in Vermont.  It is a gift for an Alaskan friend who helped me over many years with my wildlife research.  He is a local legend as a geologist and hunter and will use the gun for hunting black bears, deer, elk, and possibly mountain goats.  It is a Virginia-Lancaster-British-Dave's Boola school of gunmaking.  The barrel is a 42" D weight 58 cal Colerain.  I used every trick in the book to keep the gun slim given the big-a-s barrel.  It holds very well and feels more like the few 18th century longrifles I've handled than any other gun I've made.  The stain is LMF honey maple and something else.  The finish is Sutherland-Wells polymerized tung oil. I would prefer brass mounts but my friend likes browned steel.  I used hammer and chisel for all the engraving to preserve a vintage look.  I normally use my Airgraver for most work and was a little out of practice doing lettering and detail work with the hammer and chisel.  It came out Ok though.  It was a fun gun to make and I indulged a little of my whimsical nature.  Hope you like the photos.

dave

[smylee grouch]

Nice looking unit. Great photos against the great looking backdrop.

[eddillon]

Great job!  Beautiful woodwork, relief carving, metal engraving and finish.  Nice combination of rust and fire bluing.  All in all, I would say the recipient should be one happy guy.  Where are you in VT?

[Ed Wenger]

Very nice rifle, Dave.  I like your engraving on the side plate.  Carving looks nicely executed and with the right "amount", not over done.  That's a really nice gift!  Thanks for sharing with us.  Love the back drop of the photos as well....


     Ed

[rich pierce]

Keep the good stuff coming!

[acorn20]

Nice looking rifle, Dave.  The carving and engraving look top shelf from where I'm sitting.  The recipient should be proud to carry that rifle after any game.  It should have plenty of knock-down power. 

Looks like Mother Nature has finally thrown back her wintry blanket and things are budding and greening up in your neck of the woods.  Envious of your location...especially in Fall!  Thanks for posting.

[Bill of the 45th]

Love  everything about it Dave.  How many cycles to get that deep of rust blue finis?  looks an 1/8" deep or more, just wonderful.

Bill

[Mike Brooks]

I like it. Nice color and decoration. Not over done. You're quite an engraver!

[alyce-james]

Good evening Dave; Thanks for sharing with us the first gun from your great new shop. Lots to say, Color, styling, engraving, carving and inlays. It all works for me. Outstanding. Hope you post the second gun from your shop. Thanks, AJ.

[wattlebuster]

Very sharp. Beautiful engraving

[bama]

Very nice rifle sir. I love your sun, moon and star inlays. My wife name is Celeste and I have been thinking of using these celestial signs on her rifle. Yours came out splendid, well placed and nicely engraved.

Thank you for sharing

[Cory Joe Stewart]

Wow, your new shop is working out well.

[greybeard]

Very fine gun indeed. Somebody will be proud to have that gun  hanging on thier wall!!!
As a border collie lover, please give Bella an extra hug from me. 
      Bob

[smart dog]

Hi and Thanks folks,
I appreciate the interest and comments.  Bill, the browning is Wahkon Bay browning solution applied in the standard way.  The difference from perhaps others, is that after I stop the browning with hot water, I let the metal "after rust" for a day.  Then I wipe it with a linen cloth and apply carbolated vaseline (vaseline with carbolic acid).  It used to be known as "medicated vaseline".  I get mine from Ron's Apothecary in Juneau, Alaska.  He makes it up for me.  I apply the vaseline and then heat the metal with a heat gun or torch until it starts to smoke.  I then let it cool and wipe off the excess.  The resulting brown has a textured look and the color changes to a deep even brown.  I then wax the barrel with paste wax (same as the stock) or beeswax, it doesn't matter.  The resulting finish is the most weather resistant brown I have ever seen, and that brown has been tested in the worst environmental circumstances for a gun that you can imagine - 200 inches of rain annually along with sea spray.  It works, so well that several SE Alaskan muzzleloader hunters asked me to rebrown their guns.  

Some of you commented on the color and finish.  I used LMF dye stains for the first time ( after testing on spare wood).  I will never use it again.  It dries too fast and did not penetrate the hard maple spots at all.  It bled into the corners of the carving and was impossible to even out very effectively. In future, I will stick to acid stains and water-based stains.  Live and learn.  Quick drying alcohol or xylol-based stains don't work for me.

dave

[KLMoors]

Very cool gun with a lot of unique personality. I love the carving, etc. behind the cheek piece.  It is one of those guns that has some surprises. I like that.

I miss being close to Vermont!

[Eric]

So I was Talking with my new neighbor Larry the other day, he'll be building a hand jointed timbered frame home, so we were talking about a shared interest in wood working particularly with hand tools and I commented about my interest in building longrifles.  Well, he lights up and says he has a friend that builds the beautiful longrifles, but he recently moved from Alaska to Vermont. I put two and two together, what a small world.

[smart dog]

Hi,
Thanks for looking and comments.  The gun is less orangey than the sunny photos show. It shimmers more between between chestnut and honey brown.  I love to engrave and I had fun just using my hammer and chisel, no compressor running, no foot pedal to maneuver around, just simple tools.  My problem with just using the hammer is that I struggle to see the chisel tip clearly, even with an optivisor.  The positive side to that problem is it makes my work look properly provincial rather than like a bank note. I can do the bank note with my Airgraver, but it just doesn't look right on a long rifle made in rural PA, VA, MD, NC, etc.

Greybeard,
I give Bella >10 hugs a day and will give her another from you.  She is a remarkable dog and we communicate more like person to person than person to dog.
Ed,
I  live in Braintree Vermont.  It is about the geographic center of the state.
Eric,
Larry must be Larry O'Loan or Larry Edwards.  It is a small world.

Thanks again everyone,

dave

[pushboater]

Beautiful rifle!  The color looks great.  I only wish that i could engrave half as good. So much detail that it takes a while to pick out all the little things.  Great job.  Can't wait to see the next one!

Capt. David