Possible Bodenheimer

[LBOYLE]

When I first acquired this maple fullstock squirrel rifle I thought it was a product of William Bodenheimer of Lancaster, Ohio. And it still may be as it does have his distinctive curled cheekpiece. However it also has some features that I'm not sure he ever employed. It is brass, nickle silver and silver mounted with hidden barrel pins and double ramrod pipes. Unfortunately the moniker stamped on the silver inlay on the barrel flat is probably that of an owner as that name ("D. Borman") doesn't seem to appear in anyone's list of known makers.

Straight Barrel: 36.5" / .89" across / .32 cal.
Total Length: 52"
Pull: 13"
Drop at heel: 3.3"
Butt: 4"
Weight: 7.11 lbs
Lock Marked "Henry Parker / Warranted"
Mountsare as follows:
Brass: Buttplate, Toeplate, Triggerguard, Sideplate (Probably a repair necessitated replacement)
Nickle Silver: Patchbox, Nosecap, Wear Plate, Barrel Flat Inlay, several other decorative inlays
Silver: Most decorative inlays (including those hiding the barrel pins,) Ramrod entry and pipes.

Thanks for looking and any comments would be appreciated.














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[greybeard]

To my eye I think the lock bolt side plate could be a replacement.  I just love those guns with "blind Hooks" retaining the barrel   Bob

[smokinbuck]

Iboyle,
I would agree that the cheek piece does look like a Bodenheimer but I also have to say that I have never seen a Bodenheimer that had so many different pieces and parts. The mix of silver and brass and the double ram rod pipes just don't work and the cut of the butt from trigger gaurd to butt plate doesn't look like mine, or others I've seen.  I question the origin.
Mark

[Hurricane ( of Virginia)]

I am wondering whether you have identified a previously unrecognized maker. I have been told that to make a "block" stamp was significant work in the 1800s. If true , would one make a "stamp" for an occasional buyer???
Hurricane
 

[LBOYLE]

Hurricane -- A few weeks back I was really hoping that the name would show up on some list of makers and that the mystery would indeed be solved. If "D. Borman" is indeed the smith then one would have to wonder why he has been previously unidentified. (Do such things still happen?) I've always thought that whoever made this rifle would seem to have possessed a fairly high level of skill and as such I would think he would have had to have produced quite a few others in his time. This was a fairly expensive rifle when it was built. All that silver didn't come cheap. I also thought that this was an Ohio/Midwestern piece but I have read recently where double pipes and that style of box are more Virginia. Is that true or possible?

Thanks again all for your thoughts. Very much appreciated.
lboyle

[Hurricane ( of Virginia)]

Not to add to your confusion but to challenge your curiosity,  I own the only known signed signed "John Stoudenour" and it is a gun equal to those attributed to Jacob ( though most of those attributed to Jacob are signed "J.S.", and thus could be John as well. Amongst many "JS" guns I have studied there are 2 distinctive decorative styles). All are incidentally signed in script. Perhaps John worked briefly with Jacob or Jacob made and signed the gun John indicating that it was Johns. Or lastly, one style was Jacobs' and one Johns'. Though reported to exist, I have not located amongst the 20 or so I have seen, only one ( John's ) with a full barrel signature.
Hurricane

[BGC]

There are still a few gunsmiths out there that haven't been discovered yet. Looking through census records, etc can be tedious work and sometimes names are overlooked or occupations are not mentioned.

[T*O*F]

There are still a few gunsmiths out there that haven't been discovered yet.

Do we automatically assume that all guns were made by gunsmiths, or someone "in the business?"  As today, parts were readily available.  Were there not a percentage of individuals who were handy and chose to make their owns guns just like guys do today?  If so, and they never signed their guns, they will never be known.

[mkeen]

There are still a few gunsmiths out there that haven't been discovered yet. Looking through census records, etc can be tedious work and sometimes names are overlooked or occupations are not mentioned.

I would agree there are gunsmiths that are unknown or very little is known about them. Many of the earlier gunsmiths have no guns attributed to them. I'm preparing an article on a Lancaster County, PA gunsmith that is mentioned in some lists but does not appear in Wood & Whisker's book on Lancaster County gunsmiths. He is only identified on one public record as a gunsmith, yet had at least a forty year career of building guns and there is nothing  attributed to him. He could write his name so that is not a reason for not signing a gun. He doesn't even appear on any tax list where I believe he lived or where he owned land.

Mart Keen

[Buck]

Iboyle,
I spoke to a gentleman who is a noted author of multiple volumes on long rifles. I gave him the name that was on your rifle, he has over 24,000 names of gunmakers and people who worked in the gun trade in one form or another. He did not find a match for D Borman, that's not to say he wasn't the maker. Anyway you have a nice rifle there, be proud to have it in your collection.
Buck   

[roamer]

TOF good point

[LBOYLE]

Have any of those out there who have studied such things in depth ever come across a reference anywhere of a gifted amateur building his own rifle back when these guns were in everyday use?

I think it is likely that there were hardly any of what we would now call hobbiest gun makers in the late eighteenth through the late nineteenth centuries. The vast majority of Americans were poor rural farmers or even poorer urban factory workers. They simply didn't have the money or the time to pursue such interests. Most of us today can hardly imagine how much work it took to keep oneself and one's family fed back then or how rare disposable hard income was. Though many of the parts were certainly available in hardware stores by the late 1800's I believe they were mostly there for replacement and repair purposes. It would have taken a number of specialized gunmaking tools to build a complete long rifle even if you had a bunch of those parts laying in front of you. And tools of all sorts were expensive and prized possessions. Much like a good rifle, tools were often listed in wills to be passed down generation after generation.

Certainly a great many, maybe even most, of the gunmakers whose works we now possess would have considered themselves a combination farmer/blacksmith/gunsmith. They may well have enjoyed it and taken enormous pride in their work but they pursued gunsmithing primarily as a means of generating extra income.

Of course I could be completely wrong. The older I get the less I find myself knowing

Thanks again to all who have responded to my posting of this rifle. This is a great forum on a great site.

[AeroE]

An 18th Century cabinet maker would have no problem at all.  He would possess all the tools and skills to make a longrifle, including one with a metal patchbox cover.