Forging the Triggerguard Psuedo Tutorial.

[M Tornichio]

I had many guys ask me how I forged the guards with additional metal at the bolster. For lack of a better description this is what I am going to call it. The rifle that I was inspired by was made by Jacob Young. This is not a copy of that guard though. It is for a squirrel rifle that I am finishing up at the moment. I am going to call this a Psuedo Tutorial, because I don't think I have enough pictures to show the entire process, but I think this will help give you guys the general idea. I am sure there are many different ways to end up with the same result. This is how I made this particular guard. Also note That I am going to show a more traditional tennesse style guard also for comparison. I hope this is helpful for those that are interested.
To start off with this is what we want to end up with.

[M Tornichio]

To start with, I am using a 1" square bar of steel. This is what I had on hand. I would encourage you to use what you have available.
first step is to make a 90 degree bend in the bar.

I would guess that one leg is 2 1/2" long and the other is 3" to 3 1/2". We are going to stretch the steel out so there will be way too much steel here, but it is better to have more that not enough.

A vice is necessary for hammering the bend but also moving the metal around for the area that will hold the trigger bar into the stock.

[M Tornichio]

The next steps are to stretch out the metal in each direction. These pictures give you a pretty good idea of how much the metal can stretch out when being hammered out to length.


This picture is of a guard that was based of the jacob young rifle and it kind of give you an idea of where I am heading. I clearly have too much steel at the moment, but I am continually refining the style with each hammer blow. It helps to have a pattern to compare with.

[rich pierce]

I like "Psuedo" a lot.  Keep it coming if you have time.

[M Tornichio]

This picture shows the bow after it is formed. compared with a finishe guard and also a traditional east tennessee style bow also.

This is after the front and back half have been brazed together in the forge.

I am sorry that I don't have any pictures of the back half/ grip rail being made. I will post another series of pictures that show the grip rail being made for another style.
This is what the final product looks like.
The grip rail is much narrow than the pictures show. The trigger bar below is making it look wider than it really is.



I am out of time for the moment, but will continue with this post showing how to do the more traditional east tennessee style guard.
I hope you guys find it usefull.
Marc

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

This is a super series...thanks for showing us how you do it.

[Larry Luck]

Marc,

Thank you for showing that series.  Great tutorial and great looking guard.

Larry Luck

[M Tornichio]

I am glad you guys have found it usefull.
ok here is the second half of the series.







The second guard was finished and found a new home with Taylor.
I don't have a picture of the finished guard though.
Marc

[smylee grouch]

Great stuff Marc, that first one is very much like the one I will need for my little 40 so this Psuedo tutorial will help me alot, thanks for the tips and sharing your tecniques.   Smylee

[Tim Crosby]

 Nice work Mark. Thanks for taking the time to put it all together.

 Tim C.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Marc, thanks for posting pictures of the building process of my guard...enjoyed them a lot.
I drew a couple of pictures of the butt plate and guard that I wanted Marc to make for me, scanned them, and sent them off to Marc.  When they arrived, I laid them over the plan, and they are perfect.  Here's some pics of the finished trigger guard, and one of the pair together.

[shortbarrel]

Good Pictures for builders to go to if they have a forge. My question is how is the front tab that the pin goes through put on the trigger guard in the forging process.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

On a Southern Mountain Rifle usually screws hold the guard to the stock - 'fore and aft'.  If you were going to secure the guard with a pin through a vertical lug, you could make a lug with two pegs that fit into corresponding holes in the forward and rear extensions, and rivet them.

[smylee grouch]

Marc: When you strech out the metal from the 90 degree bend, do you strech from bend to end or from end to bend or maybe it doesnt matter.   Smylee

[M Tornichio]

Thanks Taylor for posting the finished pictures. I thought for sure that I had them saved somewhere, but had trouble finding them.

Shortbarrel, Taylor is correct in that they can be riveted. This one in particular was silver soldered with real silver. I think it melts a 1400 degrees or so. I think you could also forge weld one on if you were good at forge welding.

Smylee, I would recomend stretching out the metal from the bend out to the end. I think you will find that it will work much better for you.

[J.D.]

Dang good pseudo. Good enough that we get the idea.

Thanks much for posting your way of making these guards.

God bless.

[smylee grouch]

Thanks Marc. I wonder if the knife makers do it the same way as in from tang to tip or tip to tang.   Smylee

[Dave Waters]

This is great!

Just a thought: what would it take for this to be placed in the tutorial section of the forum. That way it would be preserved for the future and be easier to find.

Dave

[dannybb55]

Sweet! I forged mine out of 1/4 in round to reduce filing but the hammer brings anything down to size.
 Danny

[shortbarrel]

Thanks for your time and effort in posting this series on trigger guard forging, not many gun builders would go to this time and effort to help others in the fraternity. You have got me thinking about the tabs on SM rifles. Have seen some tabs on these trigger guards. not brazed, but forged or welded. I work in wrought iron and may be  I'll figger  it out and post on ALR.

[eagle24]

Great tutorial Marc.  Wish I had seen this a few days ago, it probably would have saved me some time.

[alyce-james]

Marc; Very helpful picture tutorial. I'll be trying a trigger guard from this presentation soon. Thanks Turkeyfooter.

[Mark Elliott]

Thanks for posting Marc.   I learned something.   I always hammered out the entire bow and front extension leaving the bend area a little thick and then bent and upset it.   Your way is easier.   Did you figure that out yourself or did someone show you?   

Also do you forge weld your grip rail spur on a traditional guard or do it another way.    Also,  do you ever forge weld the grip rail to the bow.   I always forge weld my rear extension and grip rail but I have been  too afraid to even try welding the grip rail to the bow.   All the original iron guards I have seen were fully forge welded.    The reason I have never tried it is that Hershel House told me that he never forge welds the bow and grip rail any more because he would ruin half that he tried.   If Hershel ruins half,  I hate to think how many it would take me to get it right.

Mark E.

[KNeilson]

Marc, thx for the demo. This is something I would like to try.      Kerry

[M Tornichio]

Hi Mark,
Thanks for asking the questions.
To answer some of them. I did not have anyone show me how to forge the extra meat in the front of the bow. I had asked several people and they explained their way to me and I kind of had a difficult time undertstanding exactly how they did it. I tried many attempts doing what you describe in trying to forge thickness into that area. I found that there is really so much that I was able to do. I experimented around alot and this is what I came up with. The only thing I would recomend doing differently is using something smaller than 1" squre. It is what I had on hand and was way oversized, but it still worked out ok.

I do forge weld the grip rail spur. I just make the loop and forge it back onto its self. I have a gas forge that I mostly work with here in the city and then I have a coal forge that was built by my father in-law. I usually use the coal forge out in the country for welding the grip rails and then finish them later in the city. Seems to work pretty well so far.

As far as attaching the guard to the grip rail. I have been brazing them on with copper or brass. I have not tried the forge welding, since I can not forge weld with my gas forge. I do plan on doing some experimenting with forge welding the pieces together. I plan on making a guard that pretty much will need to be forge welded. When I make it, I will be sure to take plenty of pictures.

Another interesting point, I have seen some that were brazed, but what I have found, is each maker seemed to do their own thing. There really seemed to be quite a variety. I have noticed that a lot of guards are all mostly 1 piece. meaning the bow flows right into the grip rail in what appears to be all 1 piece then an extra piece of iron is brazed onto the back of the bow to finish it. I have seen quite a few done that way. I wonder why? seems difficult to do. The georgia rifle that is really nice with the patch box by richard allen may have been made this way. the small piece that finishes off the bow was broken off though.

Finally the last thing I wanted to mention if anyone gets up to the log cabin shop musuem there is a guard that is 4 or 5 seperate pieces all rivited together. It was never finished and all the pieces are in a straight line and flat. They had not been forge welded yet and formed. I don't have a picture of it though. It is really interesting to see how it was done in the middle of the process left unfinished.

Marc