S. Hawken..inspiration and tribute

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I don't think mine is a good example of AF staining...was looking for a lot more red and better curl definition...but oh well.

I just put a couple of ounces of water into an old pill bottle, and then kept adding and stirring the crystals 'til no more would dissolve.  I slopped it on heavy with a cotton cloth wad held in hemostats and heated it with a powerful heat gun.  I applied several times, each time burnishing it off with steel wool, but there was little change after the first application.  I don't like LMF stains because though they give wonderful colour, the colour comes out right through the finish, onto your hands.  The AF is right in the wood deeply, and is difficult to get down through it.

[California Kid]

This sample was mixed 50/50 with denatured alcohol on sugar maple. Has a bit of red in it. Did you neutralize the stain. I was thinking it unnecessary.

[b bogart]

Hey Kid have you tried some oil finish on it? I'm gonna order some crystals cause I got one close to ready to stain. I like what I see so far.

[California Kid]

It has a little Chambers oil on it.

[longcruise]

Taylor,  As usual, your work is just beautiful!!

how much meat is left in the sides of the forestock.  I'm getting ready to thin a GPR stock and would like to get it to the correct thickness.  It's not going to look anything like your wonderful rifle, but would like to get that thickness down a bit.

Your pics taken without the white hide are much easier to see.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Thanks Longcruise.
Thinning the forend on a GPR build is a little tricky, since there isn't much wood to work with.  Start by rounding off the wood right next to the barrel channel until there is only about 1/16" or a little less of a flat along the channel.  Then round the stock below the level of the escutcheon plates.  What you are looking for is to take away the slab sidedness of the forend.  Here's a picture of the GPR I did for my buddy Brian Dancey, and two of my Hawken.  I don't measure the stock's thickness along the forend... but I'll bet there isn't much more than 1/8" from the side flat of the barrel.

[longcruise]

Taylor, thanks for those pics and advice.  Maybe should not take off as much as I was thinking. 

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

On this particular rifle, I have a barrel that is 1 1/8" at the breech tapering to 1" at the muzzle.  The rib I used is a little over 1/4" thick and the rod hole is another 1/2".  The forend has 1/8" below the rod hole, so you can see the forend is very deep.  If I went too thin, I would end up with a forend that appeared to be slab-sided, and not have that very gentle roundedness that I was after.  There aren't too many things on a rifle that are more out of place than having a slab-sided forend.

[Leatherbelly]

Hey! Where is that Brian Dancy? He's probably got a "kit" or two stashed away that he could sell me! Brian, come out from under the mountain! (Hudson Bay Mtn.,LOL!!)

[M Tornichio]

Hi Taylor,
I really like this rifle. I am so glad you posted pictures of the rear sight.
you have to give us a review about how well it works after you get a chance to do some shooting.
I can see why you were inspired to build this rifle after seeing the original.
Great Job,
Marc

[D. Bowman]

I don't know how I missed this thread but that is one fine looking Hawken and in my favorite Cal.
Thanks for posting. Very nice Taylor.


                                                    Duane Bowman

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Marc, I think, from studying the images of the original, that it had a two piece brazed butt plate, and that would have made my rifle nicer...as it was I filed a casting of a Bridger plate to the approximate form of the original.  I had two of those in my inventory, so could not justify buying one of yours for this build.

Again, I thank you all for your kind words.

[Mike L]

Taylor, It looks like you have re-created a pretty nice example of the original. Out of curiosity, what was it about the original that fired you up and inspired you? Architecture, a certain detail, etc. I am just curious, it is a nice rifle.
Mike

[KennyC]

All I can say is wow you do beautiful work thanks for sharing

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Someone on this site posted these two pictures in very high resolution, perhaps three years ago.  Naturally, I saved them, because they represent to me, the epitome of the fully developed American hunting rifle, and because of the pure grace of the architecture.  I love the deep crescent of the butt plate that is hard to replicate in today's castings, the beefy wrist and forend, and the sexy lock panels.  As I said before, I have built close to two hundred Hawken styled rifles, and was surprised that I was turned on to do another one.  I think that a lot of the appeal may come from the 200 postal match, in which Daryl pretty much overwhelmed us with his English sporter in .69 cal.  I am hoping that this rifle will be the answer...a little competetive, you see.
Another reason for the build, is that I didn't have one.  The images of the original reminded me of my very first Hawken rifle, also a .62 cal. that I shot so well in the mid 70's, and sold in a weak moment.  Now, when I have a display at our local gun show, I can say, "...and this is what a Hawken rifle looks and feels like".

Incidentally, I made a second ramrod for it yesterday, out of osage orange, tapered from 1/2" to 3/8", mostly in the last 14".  It weighs 1/4 oz. more than its hickory twin.

[Daryl]

How's that bo-dark rod for whip?

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Stiff as a..as a....very stiff!

[whitebear]

Taylor have you had any problems with the Osage rod?  Were there any problems in making or using it?  I have some Osage and have thought about making one for some of my guns.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Making the rod was quite easy.  A friend of mine who I've been kind of mentoring in his own Hawken build, gave me a faily straight grained piece of osage orange about 38" long, cut from a board, and had the edges routered off round.  I put it in my lathe and turned it round to a little over 1/2" diameter.  I measured the diameter of my hickory rod that fit the rifle every two inches from the rod tip, and then turned these dimensions on the osage piece.  That gave me the same taper as the hickory rod.  Now it was a simple matter of joining the sections into a smooth taper, and the wood is nice to work.  I used Acer's great rod scraper, a sanding block and files to bring down those steps smoothly.  I finished sanding it with 180 grit and then stained it with Fiebings dark brown leather dye.  It took the stain better than the hickory, and came out a little darker.  Lastly, I finished it with floor wax, which is my way of completing a ramrod.  The osage rod is just a little less stiff than the hickory rod, but I anticipate no trouble with it.  At 1/2" diameter, it's pretty robust.

[wetzel]

Taylor,

Thanks for the post!  I am itching to make a Hawken after following this post. 

Wetzel

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Judging from the number of hits this thread has received, I would say that there is still a lot of serious interest in Hawken rifles, and that's good.  Their architecture and workmanship is to be emulated and continued...they are such fine rifles, and quite a departure from the longrifle.  Everyone should have at least one.
I went back to page three and replaced the images of the sights that had been deleted...sorry about that.  I moved them around in the albums at Photobucket, and poof - they disappeared.
I want to say thanks to everyone for their kind critique.  I will start a new thread discussing the pro's and con's of that rear sight, when I am able to get out and test it.  I have high hopes for it...

[Chuck Burrows]

Great job Taylor! and for those who would like to see the large scale images he worked from click the links - this Hawken was sold by JC Devine Auctions (no longer in business) and was from the James Serven collection - IIRC it sold for $70,000.00 US

http://www.wrtcleather.com/1-ckd/firearms-hawken/hawken-jc-devine_01.jpg

http://www.wrtcleather.com/1-ckd/firearms-hawken/hawken-jc-devine_02.jpg

http://www.wrtcleather.com/1-ckd/firearms-hawken/hawken-jc-devine_03.jpg

[Dew]

Taylor,  I'm a newbie here and I just wanted to say that I really like your rifles. I have a thing for Hawkens and I saw an old post on a fullstock flint Hawken that you built awhile back and I thought it was one of the coolest rifles I have seen. And this one is just as good. Love the sight by the way.I stumbled through a Don Stith half stock kit last year and learned alot but still have a long way to go. Thanks for sharing and setting the bar high. It gives me somethine to shoot for in a build. Dew

[Ed Wenger]

Taylor,

As usual, excellent work!  I'm sure there was a tremendous amount of work that went into the rifle that doesn't meet the eye.  Very clean and crisp!  Thanks for posting the pics and sharing.

      Ed

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Thanks Chuck, Dew and Ed.  Chuck, the left and right profile pics are the same as the ones I downloaded from this site several years ago.  And the additional one of the barrel stamp is great to have as well.
I wonder if this is the same rifle - from the James Serven collection,  that was tested and examined so thoroughly in Baird's first Hawken book.  It sure is in good shape.  Baird spoke of a coning of the muzzle, where the actual bore didn't start for about two inches into the bore.  It would be cool to see a picture of the muzzle.  When I scaled up the images on my computer, I measured the ramrod at 1/2".  If I was out at all, it would still have been at least 7/16".  I scaled my rifle around a 36" x 1 1/8" tapered to 1"x  .62 cal. Rice barrel.  The original I suspect was just a hair under that, and likely around .52 cal, as was the standard.  Great stuff!!