I drew the trigger guard pattern based pictures from the book “The American longrifle, its art and evolution” and measurements from a brass casting from an original Fleeger trigger guard made by Goering.
The biggest blocks of carving wax I could find are 3-5/8” x 6”x 1-½" which is not long enough for the guard. I therefore decided to cut off a piece and weld the blocks together.
I chose blue wax for the trigger guard since is supposed to be easier to weld than purple or green wax. It’s also more elastic and less prone to break, since the guard has portions that are long and skinny. The welding was done with a cheap wax pen set (30$) bought on ebay.
Wax welding.You can’t join hot wax to cold wax. The surfaces on both parts to be joined have to be melted at the same time. I glued both blocks to a piece of paper so them would not shift during the process. First, I used the large spoon tip to melt out a channel between the blocks that goes 2/3 through them and filled it with melted wax.
The weld was then filed flat, the paper removed, and the process repeated from the other side. The wax pens proved to be inadequate for joining such large blocks. Wax solidifies in a few seconds after removing the heat source and won’t bind to molten wax, so I could only add a few drops at a time. As result, I got a lot of cold shunts and air bubbles in the weld that had to be repeatedly repair during the rest of the carving process. It took me about 6 days to carve the guard and estimated half the time was used repairing flaws. Next, I time I try something like this, I’ll use a soldering iron (for tin solder).
Carving the block.I “milled” the block down to the required thickness using a rotary rasp and a drill press. The profile pattern was glued on to the block.
The next step was to saw out the side profile of rear tang on the band saw. Sawing out the whole profile in one go, would make the blank more prone to breakage and harder to hold onto. Then glue the top pattern to the blank. I started in the rear because this is the thinnest section. I tried to finish each section completely before moving to the next. The wax is weak and wobbly and has to be supported while shaping. This impairs presession work because you can only file one handed.
The next picture shows the first attempt to repair the weld. The next shows sawing out the rear half of the bow. If you look closely at the tang, you see another repair of the weld.
Next picture shows another repair of the weld after finishing the rear tang.
I then sawed out the rest of the side profile og the bow and finished the carving of the rear portion of the bow.
A rotary file in a fordom was used to take out the top profile of the rest of the bow. Look closely and you will see more repairs to the rear tang.
After shaping the bow, I had to do more repairs to the weld. Because of all the repairs the tang was now too thin, and I had to add wax to the top of the tang to thicken it. This introduced a lot of small air bubbles. When filed though they appear as pores in the surface of the wax and have to be filled with more wax or they will show up in the final casting. I filled the largest, but it’s impossible to get all the small ones. I think I can file them out in the silver casting.
The last steps were to saw out and carve the front tang and weld tabs to the tangs (to pin the guard to the stock). I forgot to take pictures.
The last pictures show the finished guard. Notice the finish is a lot rougher that what I was able to do than on the butt plate. Blue wax is very soft clogs sandpaper a lot more than purple wax. It also dings and scratches very easy. It’s better to accept a rougher finish (400 grit) than risk having to do more repairs.
Next time I carve a trigger guard I will use purple wax. Purple wax melts at 225 Fahrenheit. I’ll make a plywood mold in the need shape and line it with tin foil. The mold with a piece of solid wax will be place in oven and heated to melting point. The wax should slump down into the mold avoiding air bubbles and the need for welding. After casting the block needs to rest for 48 hours to recrystalize completely and regain its carving properties.
Best regards
Rolf
The casting went great. I've added pictures of the finished sterling silver trigger guard.
