longrifle chest

[lew wetzel]

on mark silvers website there is a few pics and description of a long rifle chest that can hold up to 5 rifles with 50in barrels.plus drawers for pistols and accoutrements.very nice indeed!!!has anyone on this forum made such a chest or have seen one...i would love to build something like this...

[Kermit]

 
Link?

[lew wetzel]

heres the link....http://www.msilverartisan.com/pages/forsale.html

[G. Elsenbeck]

Lew, I will have to look through my woodworking book collection (I have many) for something resembling that period sideboard.  Hopefully I can find something similar with that has a blueprint.  Of course, if I do, the dimensions would have to be modified to accomodate the longrifles, etc.  Being a chest on frame construction it's basically a two piece construction project.
Mark, if you're listening, great job on the project.  It definitely looks period and would obviously befit an 18th century gentleman wanting to keep his prize possessions safe and secure.  I'll bet this took awhile to complet and finish.  Your time and effort were well spent.

[Tanselman]

There is one fine Kentucky rifle chest known, and as far as I know it's the only one, owned by a fellow KRA member. Fortunately, it is llustrated in the recent picture book, "Steel Canvas (The Art of American Arms)," by R. L. Wilson that was in book stores a year or two ago. If you can find a copy, the rifle chest is pictured twice  on pages 50 (open) and 74 (closed). Unfortunately, you have to look past all the "junk" they piled on top of it!  Shelby Gallien

[Karl Kunkel]

Wasn't Eric VonA working on one awhile back?

[Kermit]

Holymoley!!! In my younger days I built some clavichords and harpsichords, but never anything like this. It looks a lot like many of the spinets and clavichords of the period. I'd take on a project like this, but SWMBO wouldn't find a place for it in the house, and it's a little much for a shop piece, I expect. It DOES gove me ideas for a vertical cabinet, however...

[Brian]

Talk to Eric Von A.  I believe he built that chest, or one very similar to it.

[LynnC]

Check the archives - I know Eric V. was working on the design, don't know if he got a chance to build it.  A good bit of discussion about it.......................Lynn

[lew wetzel]

fellas,i went back into the archives and looked at the posts on "chests".but nobody ever posted pics....this could make a very worth while winter project.

[Brian]

Lew,

Try to contact Eric Von A.  I don't know if he had the time to build the chest as yet, but I know he was working on a set of very detailed plans and he intended/intends to build it.  Eric is a stickler for detail and getting things "exactly right" so he has likely covered all the angles.  He's off at college right now chasing all those pretty young ladies around, but you could e-mail him.  He might be able to tell you where to get some good pictures of what you want to build.

[keweenaw]

Here are a couple more photos of the chest Mark Silver built showing the inside.

[Tim Crosby]

 Here is a link, not much info but Eric had started on plans. There are some good thoughts throughout the post.

Tim C.

  http://americanlongrifles.org/old_board/index.php?topic=11231.0

PS: Thanks for the pics Tom.

[mr. no gold]

There may have been several types of guns chests built and used way back then. I know of one that was made in Kentucky in the very early 1800s of walnut. It was an upright amoire type of chest on legs, that had three doors on the front. The middle opened to reveal shelves for storage of shooting equipment while the side doors opened to show the actual gun cabinets. The rifles were stacked upright and had separators to keep them in place. Sad to say that I never was able to see it and get photos or drawings. One of the original rifles was said to be still in it, with the others having apparently been passed out to other family members down through the years.
Best-Dick

[lew wetzel]

tim,thanks for the link....would really like to see some more detailed photos of marks chest...

[jim meili]

Lew, here is a photo of the chest in the RL Wilson book. Also two photos of a blanket chest that I got off the internet. Don't know the maker. Nothing near as fancy or complicated as the one on Mark's site but still nice and should not be to hard to make.







Jim

[FlintRock Rob]

Man that would be a great project to build! The issue for me would be, where to put it when done, oh yeah, and filling it with rifles. 

[lew wetzel]

jim,thanks for posting the pics of the chest.very nice indeed...can you give some dimensions.....

[jim meili]

I drew up plans once to built this box but never got to it and can't find the sketches. I think I planned on the inside of it being 72" long and about 16" front to back. I found some balls for the feet on the net and I remember the most expensive item was those strap hinges for the top. Horton Brasses had them and inside locks for the top and the drawer. The sides were just 1 x 12 clear pine and I was planning on painting it like a lot of the furniture was painted here in Wisconsin. The canvas was available locally at a tent and awning shop. My wife gave the go ahead as it would fit right in to out family room but i just haven't gotten to it yet.
Google for Horton Brass and check out their website. A lot of neat things.

[Dave B]

Nice chest,
I think that would go perfect right at the end of the bed. I would put a few more top renforcments on the lid so I could sit on the thing to put my boots on. I know that I would like to build one of those. Thanks for sharing with us.

[FlintRock Rob]

Dave,

That's funny, I was thinking the same thing, make it into a bench about the width of a queen sized bed. I've stayed at a number of hotels that have a bench at the foot of the bed, but they didn't open up to hold long rifles - I checked