Well.... here it is, finally! When Patrick Hallam finished his book I bought it, ingested it, thought about it and then tried to make sense of what I read. Funny thing is, at this same time I had begun my research into European pistols for what became my new line-up at MBS. I called Pat to let him know what I had found and he was as excited as I was. We talked about getting together. Then he passed away.
You cannot discount this proportion and here is why: the Europeans were anal about its usage to assist them in all design. Its usage goes all the way back to the design of the pyramids in Egypt. Michelangelow called it the "Golden Proportion." What is the common mistake today is we have bastardized the calculation. Its not really 3:5 as we are told. Thats just close. But its not close enough for a European! Who were our original masters in gun building? Europeans. The 3:5 proportion is good enough for the art world and general aestheticaly pleasing representation, but this discrepency made me look deeper because I build. What I found changed everything I do. They did use it, and I can prove it. "They," being our first masters who were taught the trade in Europe then came here. (Basically, I figured out how the "discrepency" led us down this argumentative path). I have been teaching this in my school and putting on seminars at Friendship about it. But it is definitely real, it was indeed used, and has become my task to teach how they did it.
If you know your customers measurements, the firearm was then individually designed. The trigger pull, cast-off, drop to heal, drop to comb, combined with the barrel and lock on hand in the makers shop. A gunmaker usually had the barrel and lock, and his "school" of mountings he preferred, whether he used castings or forged them himself. The barrel and the lock combination were the initial starting point. If the contract was for military arms, then I believe they used a pattern to make duplicate arms; but not for an individual order.
I have made dividers (now available in my shop) built to exact GM which are a size that make it easy to lay out a longrifle. When you use these, and start checking out all the firearms in Rifles of Colonial America, Volumes 1 & 2 which focus on the earliest arms, you will be in for a shocking 98% exact layout. That folks, is proof. But please remember this; barry Bonet is right about one thing. In his frustration with people being too perfect minded he recently told folks to throw the dividers away and please look at the art of the object. Well, do remember that, but also remember that dividers are an aid to us to make it look good. Not everyone can "see" it. But the Masters became Masters because they were anal about perfection. Other makers never got to be as good. Why? because they settled for less!
I'm going to put on a school on this guys. It can make a good builder a master, and any maker much better. Why not learn it?
Susie
