The House Brothers Project on TV today and tomorrow

[Blackpowder Barbie]

The House Brother's Making of the Kentucky Longrifle t.v. show airs on the Outdoor Channel's American Rifleman Television on the following dates and times:

Wed. July 29th 3:30 pm.eastern time,2:30 pm central, 10pm eastern time; 9pm
central;

and Thursday July 30,2009 at 2:30am.eastern, 1:30am central time.

The House Brothers Project "An American Tradition" is the Contemporary
Longrifle Foundation Fund Raising Raffle for which the three House brothers,
Hershel, Frank and John of Woodbury, KY built a totally handmade Kentucky
rifle.  The rifle, valued at $50,000 will be raffled next month at the
Annual CLA show on Lexington.

To see more about the project and to buy tickets, go to
www.housebrothersproject.com 

[Ken G]

Thanks for the information Barbie.  Sounds like it will be interesting to see not to mention good publicity for the entire Black Powder community.
Ken

[T*O*F]

Well, I was gonna watch it this afternoon, but fell asleep in the chair waiting for it to come on.  It's the first segment of the program, less than 15 minutes long.  I did wake up 7 minutes into the program.  Typical gun program interview....not a lot of detail, but I don't know what I missed either.  Will catch it again tonite.

[Bioprof]

Saw the episode this afternoon.    I've never seen any of the videos about the House brothers, but found it interesting that one of them could forge an iron buttplate in what seemed like less than a minute.  I was kind of disappointed that they didn't show how they forge weld a barrel from a skep.

[jmforge]

I was at the shop this afternoon, so I took a nap so I could watch it tonight.  15 minutes or not, it is good that guys like the House brothers are getting air time on a "mainstream" shooting show.  What little muzzleloader hunting you see on Outdoor Channel and its clones tend to be stuff sponsored by Thompson Center, etc and showing pretty much exclusviely those projectile discharging devices which cannot be mentioned.   As for the buttplate, that wouldbe the easy part of forging once you have the correct stock thickness and a swgae block. Now the barrel and lock parts are another matter altogether!  I have enough trouble keeping a big bowie blade straight and I have a hydraulic forging press with beveling/straightening dies!!  I can't imagine trying to get a 44 inch barrel straight and even.

[Kermit]

And then there are those of us without cable. 

[G-Man]

Bioprof you have probably already seen it, but there is a very good segment with Wallace Gusler forging a barrel in the "Gunsmith of Colonial Williamsburg", which was shot back in the late 60s.  It is not long, but it is amazing how clearly and concisely that video presents an overview of making a rifle in Colonial America, from start to finish, in around an hour or so, without skipping any major steps, I think.  It still holds up well today and I would encourage anyone interested in gunbuilding to watch it.  Might be able to get it at your local library. 

Guy

[jmforge]

I saw it last night.  The segment was too short, but it was good.  Those boys sound like most of my relatives.   They are not only very talented gunmakers, but also make very good spokesmen for the craft.  Frank got the most camera face time.  I would have liked to have heard more from Hershel.  He really is very get at getting the information across.  Kind of the same vibe as Bill Moran had in the knife making world.  Has Hershel done any instructional videos?

[G-Man]

There are at least three Herhsel House gunbuilding and blacksmithing iinstructional videos. They were produced by American Pioneer Video and are very good, and very entertaining.  Frank has at least one, maybe two, as well.

Guy

[Roger Fisher]

Blksmith in the shanty at Dixon's was sweatin up a storm hand forging a barrel.

No idea if they stuck with it til the mandrel could be yanked....mine got tired just watchin!!

[Ky Ken]

I missed it

[chris laubach]

Blksmith in the shanty at Dixon's was sweatin up a storm hand forging a barrel.

No idea if they stuck with it til the mandrel could be yanked....mine got tired just watchin!!

Roger,
We actually managed to get 2 barrel tubes forged between Saturday and Sunday. The mandrel is taken out when the skelp is put back in the forge and it re-inserted during the hammer blows to weld the skelp.
Once the temp is no longer at welding temp the mandrel is taken out and the skelp is put back into the forge. You only get about 1” of weld per heat and than it goes back into the fire.

There is a video that shows this process from start to finish.
Forging A Flintlock Rifle Barrel
www.americanpioneervideo.com/np.html


Chris Laubach