Author Topic: Longrifles with checkered wrists  (Read 2715 times)

Offline Dobyns

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Longrifles with checkered wrists
« on: October 11, 2021, 11:16:53 PM »
Does anyone know who started the trend with checkered wrists and when it began?  I'm sure it wwas copied from English guns like J Manton, but who was responsible for it here?

Obviously, there were a number of Lancaster makers who did this, so they were contemporaries and their apprentices, which would make sense.  Those who come to mind, or I'm seeing in a Lancaster book are:

Melchior Fordney
Henry Leman
William Holtzworth
Andrew,Gumpf
George Gumpf
Christopher Gumpf
John Gonter
Henry Gibbs
Jacob Fordney
John Drepperd
J Bear
Christian Beck


In the Adams, Franklin, and Cumberland County book I'm seeing:

John Orwin
George Piper
J Clippinger
Christian Beck

I recall some in the York book, but don't have it handy, and seem to recall that Deringer and Tryon also did this in Philadelphia.







« Last Edit: October 12, 2021, 04:29:45 PM by Dobyns »

Offline mr. no gold

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Re: Longrifles with checkered wrists
« Reply #1 on: October 12, 2021, 06:27:14 AM »
Some of the Welshans rifles down in York County have checkered wrists. Perhaps others as well.
Dick

Offline jdm

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Re: Longrifles with checkered wrists
« Reply #2 on: October 12, 2021, 08:38:49 PM »
Rupp @ Kuntz  did checkered wrists . So did the Young family out of Easton.
 Here is one by Jacob Kuntz. He did each individual square by it's self.





image uploader online
« Last Edit: October 15, 2021, 02:55:34 AM by jdm »
JIM

Offline Mike Brooks

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Re: Longrifles with checkered wrists
« Reply #3 on: October 12, 2021, 08:53:20 PM »
Nifty
NEW WEBSITE! www.mikebrooksflintlocks.com
Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'?

Offline D. Taylor Sapergia

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Re: Longrifles with checkered wrists
« Reply #4 on: October 12, 2021, 09:25:29 PM »
One of the two Kuntz rifles in the Met in New York was the inspiration for my contemporary effort, and it bears a wrap around chequered wrist.  It took me most of two days with the rifle stock in my lap, holding it with one hand and chequering with the other.





D. Taylor Sapergia
www.sapergia.blogspot.com

Art is not an object.  It is the excitement inspired by the object.

Offline Dobyns

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Re: Longrifles with checkered wrists
« Reply #5 on: October 12, 2021, 10:39:34 PM »
Looking in the York book, I'm seeing:

Axariah Alloway listed as gunsmith intermittently 1803-1827
Martin Fry (most likely MF III) as early as 1799
Andrew Kline as early as 1817
Henry Pickel listed as gunsmith 1795-1810
J Welshans
Joseph Welshans listed as gunsmith 1800
Christian Zorger
Frederick Zorger died 1815

Offline Mike Brooks

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Re: Longrifles with checkered wrists
« Reply #6 on: October 13, 2021, 11:34:46 PM »
One of the two Kuntz rifles in the Met in New York was the inspiration for my contemporary effort, and it bears a wrap around chequered wrist.  It took me most of two days with the rifle stock in my lap, holding it with one hand and chequering with the other.





This Kuntz rifle is really exceptionally nifty Taylor. I can't imagine how many hours you spent on it.
NEW WEBSITE! www.mikebrooksflintlocks.com
Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'?

Offline mr. no gold

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Re: Longrifles with checkered wrists
« Reply #7 on: October 14, 2021, 01:33:38 AM »
Superb, Taylor, just superb!!!
Dick

Offline ed lundquist

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Re: Longrifles with checkered wrists
« Reply #8 on: October 14, 2021, 03:19:55 AM »
Awesome! I would like to hear a bit about how you laid out your lines and your tool. Just beautiful.

Offline jdm

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Re: Longrifles with checkered wrists
« Reply #9 on: October 14, 2021, 03:26:33 AM »
Taylor,   Jacob Kuntz would have to up his game after seeing yours!
JIM

Offline Dobyns

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Re: Longrifles with checkered wrists
« Reply #10 on: October 14, 2021, 04:03:15 AM »
The original Jacob Kuntz pictured looks more like basketweave, and seems far more detailed and laborious to get that result.

Offline Bob Roller

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Re: Longrifles with checkered wrists
« Reply #11 on: October 14, 2021, 04:23:16 AM »
Ed,
Thank you for the compliment on my lock work.I am not qualified to judge anyone's stock work
but think your pistol is a work of art.When I posted a picture if a fullstock flintlock rifle it was also
criticized about the lock panels and my reply was it is Swiss and not American design called the
Schweizerfeldstutzer (Swiss Field Rifle) a military type pattern 1803 but with a refined lock.
Enjoy the coming winter in the Catskills ;D ;D.
Bob Roller

Offline Daryl

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Re: Longrifles with checkered wrists
« Reply #12 on: October 14, 2021, 09:11:16 PM »
Taylor's Kuntz:
Dixon's: odd - I don't remember the year.








Daryl

"a gun without hammers is like a spaniel without ears" King George V

Offline Hungry Horse

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Re: Longrifles with checkered wrists
« Reply #13 on: October 16, 2021, 06:01:20 PM »
 Years ago I tried desperately to buy a broken rifle from an old gentleman that had found it while remodeling an old house for a neighbor. It was marked Krider on the barrel which was 52 caliber, and about an inch and a half across the flats. The barrel was only 28” long, and the walnut forearm was quite short, indicating the barrel was likely its original length. The gun was broken through the wrist, where the back action lock had no doubt been a factor. The wrist of the gun had beautiful fine checkering cut within the recess of a panel with lovely sculpted contours. It had no doubt been a pretty high end firearm in its day. Interestingly its furniture was very similar to the iron furniture on modern Tryon reproductions.

  Hungry Horse

Offline D. Taylor Sapergia

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Re: Longrifles with checkered wrists
« Reply #14 on: October 17, 2021, 02:12:04 AM »
Ed:  chequering a wrist like this is not too much different than any other chequering job.  But notice that the "diamonds" are almost square and flat topped rather than elongated to 2 1/2 - 3 to one ratio, and pointed, like modern chequering.
I start with some 1/4" wide plastic strips, laying one along the wrist and taping down the ends.  Then a sharp scribe is used to trace a line into the finish - yes, the rifle is completely finished before chequering begins.  Once one base line is scratched in, I remove the strip and tape it down to the wrist going in the other direction in this case, at ninety degrees to the first line, to create the angle of intersection I'm looking for.  In the case of my Kuntz rifle, the strip had to go completely over the wrist and onto the opposite side of the stock.  Make sure the ends of both lines end up at the same adjacent spot on opposite sides of the wrist.  Once both layout lines at scribed, I cut them with a parting tool.  Now I have solid layout lines that my cutters can follow without slipping out of the groove and creating a mess.
I use DemBart and Gunline chequering cutters that are 60 degrees rather than 90 degrees.  In this case the lines per inch were 20 iirc.  The cutters have a smooth side parallel to the cutter side.  The smooth side rides along in the groove you've cut with the parting tool, and cuts a parallel line to than groove.  Take the line right up to the border of your pattern, but don't try to finish it at the border.  Continue following cut lines and creating new lines until your entire area within the borders is cut - all lines going in the same direction.  And don't try to go to full depth with the first pass. 
Now cut all the lines following the other lay-out line, which will give you the chequering pattern you're looking for.  I take the lines to within 1/16" - 3/32" of the border lines.  Once the entire wrist is chequered with one pass, go back to the beginning and re-trace your first cuts, deepening the lines.  Again, finish all of the lines that run parallel until the entire wrist is cut twice in one direction, and then follow the other set of lines deepening them.  I usually have to cut all the lines at least three times before I'm satisfied that the pattern is deep enough.
Turn out all your shop lights except for one incandescent bulb over your bench, while you do your cutting.  The shadows from the lines will make it easier for you to follow than if you have a brightly lit shop.
I use a 60 degree parting tool to finish the chequering right up to the border lines, and also a cutter that has the teeth reversed so that it cuts on the pull rather than the push.  This way, you can set the cutter right in the groove at the border line, and pull the cutter toward yourself, finishing up the line without danger of a run-over.
This has been a very short treatise on chequering with a great deal not mentioned, but it should get you started.
Oh yes, finishing...once you are satisfied that you have cut your pattern as deeply as you want, and you're done, use a toothbrush to clean the chequering, removing all dust.  In fact the brush is used frequently to make sure dust doesn't accumulate and blur your work, and clog your cutters.  Apply stock finish with another toothbrush, sparingly and thoroughly, wiping away any that goes over onto the finished wood.  Apply several applications drying between, to seal the chequering lines.
In the case of a half-stocked rifle, use a chequering cradle to hole the stock.  Then you can use two hands to run and guide the cutter and the cradle holds the stock firmly.  I made my cradle out of scrap maple using a pattern from a gunsmithing book called, "The Modern Gunsmith".  I clamp my cradle in a machinist's vise.  For this rifle though, the cradle wasn't long enough, so I just held it with my right hand in  my lap, and chequered with my left.
I'm sorry I don't have pictures of all this...I have posted this information here before , in the thread involving the pistol gripped Hawken rifle I built a few years ago.
D. Taylor Sapergia
www.sapergia.blogspot.com

Art is not an object.  It is the excitement inspired by the object.

Offline ed lundquist

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Re: Longrifles with checkered wrists
« Reply #15 on: October 17, 2021, 03:49:16 AM »
Taylor, I appreciate you taking the time. I have been 'getting ready' for too long, I think you cleared up a point or two for me and I'll get started soon. I need to make a cutter with a safe side to ride in the previous cut, looks like trial and a few errors. Thanks.