How to clean up brass castings with sculpted features

[lexington1]

I am working on a Jaeger that is using a lot of Rifle Shoppe castings with raised sculpted moldings, etc. What is the best way to clean these up and make them look sharp? My first impulse is to file everything off and make plain furniture from them  The castings are from the earlier Poser Jaeger listing in the Rifle Shoppe catalog.

[Swab]

Try running them as is on a buffing wheel.

[James Rogers]

No buffing wheels. Small files, stoning and chisel/graver work for the cast details to be properly done.

[jerrywh]

 All castings on the original guns in Europe were chased. That is what they called cleaning them up with gravers and punches. Probably the worst thing you can do is buff them on a buffer. At times for the very final finish they might be very lightly buffed with very fine compound. The same goes for the rifle shop or any other detailed castings. In England and Europe that process was done by the Engravers guild members. Welcome to my world.

[Swab]

Knowing the rifle shoppes castings and given the thought of filing them all down its easy to hit them with a buffing wheel real quick.  All I did on this one is use a buffing wheel . . .

[lexington1]

All castings on the original guns in Europe were chased. That is what they called cleaning them up with gravers and punches. Probably the worst thing you can do is buff them on a buffer. At times for the very final finish they might be very lightly buffed with very fine compound. The same goes for the rifle shop or any other detailed castings. In England and Europe that process was done by the Engravers guild members. Welcome to my world.

Was the original furniture cast with the design in it and then chased out? This is brand new territory for me. I was just joking about filing everything off, lol.

[Ed Wenger]

In addition to what Jerry and James suggested, Gesswein sells very small ceramic SuperStones which work really well for small detail. 



      Ed

[jerrywh]

 Some of the original guns were one of a kind and chiseled out individually but a lot of them were either copied by making clay molds of them or copied by sand casters. The silver casters of the 18th century were very talented and could do casting in special sand that was almost as good as lost wax. The castings were then chased as I explained previously.  Also I believe some of them were cast by the lost wax process.
  I have studied this for many years and have found evidence to prove some of them were reproduced as I said. The lost wax process is not a modern day invention. It has been known for over a thousand years. Even the south American Indians did lost wax casting by the centrifugal process pre Columbian. Silver and brass casting was a guild in Europe and England. If my memory serves me correctly the engravers and the gold smiths were in the same guild in England. If you inspect the original castings you will see that a lot of work was done with punches. Notice how sharp the castings on this pistol are. That is because of the chasing.   http://www.jwh-flintlocks.net/06pistol-pg6.html

[flehto]

Files, various grits of wet/dry paper and a lot of patience......Fred

[Ron Scott]

I own one of the Rifles from which those parts are copied, so have a fair familiarity with them. A buffing wheel will polish but also remove detail. Files, gravers and polishing stones are your needed tools. If you would like, call me at 541-941-0395 and I can talk you through the process.

[lexington1]

Thanks everyone for the information. I really appreciate the generous offer of help Ron, but I really don't want to bug you as I know that you are busy. I guess I was looking for a book or video that explained the process well. I know that you gentlemen are masters in your field!

[lexington1]

What would you guys recommend for instructional media?

[jerrywh]

 I really don't know of any instructional media for chasing castings. There are books on chasing but it is a different kind. The books I have found are related to repousse work. They do help to some extent because the use of punches is the same as in chasing castings. In the 18th century, professional casting chaser's probably had hundreds of different punches. I use about 50 but often make another for a special job. I do a lot of gold work. There is some instructional info on the Engravers cafe website and some more videos on the FEGA
[Firearms Engravers of America]. The videos related to that field would be for sculpting. I think Ron Smith made one and Lee Griffith also. They will help some. Education is not cheap.

[lexington1]

Thanks Jerry, I'll check them out. If I can learn to be 10% as good as you are I will consider it a huge success. I'm still blown away by the Jaeger that you had at the Vegas show last year.

[jerrywh]

Lexington.
  thanks for the compliments. the guy who owns the gun won't take it across the country to the CLA show.
 He is afraid it will get lost or stolen.  The one I did before will probably never get there for the same reason.