Hackberry

[Gaeckle]

Finished up a hackberry rifle build......
















Haven't shot it, need to do that.....43 caliber, hand rifled barrel, has a gain twist, 46 1/2 inches long, 13/16's across the flats.....

[Jack Hubbard]

Like what you are doing....

[Dan'l 1946]

 Me too! Looks like a woods runner's dream come true!

[bgf]

All it lacks is a double set trigger -- otherwise looks good.  One the most thorough and yet convincing aging jobs I've ever seen, also.

[Dennis Glazener]

All it lacks is a double set trigger -- otherwise looks good.  One the most thorough and yet convincing aging jobs I've ever seen, also.

BGF your statement has my curiosity up. Why would this rifle need a double set trigger?
Really great looking southern style rifle.
Dennis

[Jack Hubbard]

I was wondering about the 2 trigger thing myself....I like the single trigger, but thats just what I like....I know some folks that only want the double set....Either would be good on this gun I'm thinkin'

[Gaeckle]

I put the single trigger in because I like them, I can easily make them from steel scraps at work (as is the case here) and I can somewhat customize the placement of them. It is pinned through the stock and is a tad bit higher than the where the sear pivots at.......doesn't take much to trip the lock....

Besides, my tooling consist of a bandsaw, hand tools, rasp, scrapers, chisels and a drill press and I haven't tried making my own double triggers yet....but I'm ramping up to that..........

Glad you guys like the looks of it........wasn't really sure if this hackberry thing was going to work out.....

[bonron]

  John, you just keep getting better. You should be very proud of,, and happy with your efforts. The rifle is outstanding. The only problem I have is what the he-- is hackberry?   Ron

[54ball]

 I see Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw or Creek warriors circa 1814 when I look at your rifle.

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

John, Where did you get the Hackberrry blank?? How was it to work with??  What else can you tell us about it?  What did you use to finish it?

[bgf]

All it lacks is a double set trigger -- otherwise looks good.  One the most thorough and yet convincing aging jobs I've ever seen, also.

BGF your statement has my curiosity up. Why would this rifle need a double set trigger?
Really great looking southern style rifle.
Dennis

Dennis,
Mainly because I like DS triggers .  I do think that a rifle with that style lock and furniture would probably have a DS trigger, but it doesn't really bother me to see a simple trigger and there are a few.  Guess my delivery has been "off" lately.  Just to be clear, I really love the look of the rifle and the finish techniques.  Now I wish I had kept the root flare log of a big hackberry we cut a few years ago!

[Dennis Glazener]

Mainly because I like DS triggers Smiley.  I do think that a rifle with that style lock and furniture would probably have a DS trigger, but it doesn't really bother me to see a simple trigger and there are a few.  Guess my delivery has been "off" lately.  Just to be clear, I really love the look of the rifle and the finish techniques.  Now I wish I had kept the root flare log of a big hackberry we cut a few years ago!

Thanks, I guess I fall the other way, I assumed an early southern rifle like that would have had a single trigger. Since I normally build Gillespie mountain rifles and its mandatory that they have double set triggers I look for chances to use single triggers.I am working on a southern rifle of similiar period to this and had planned to use a single trigger. Like I said, just curious.
Dennis
 

[bgf]

Dennis,
I could be wrong; it is an interesting question.  My almost (i.e. far from) scholarly opinion is based on things like the "bear rifle" in Nobles vol. 1, where the only furniture is two thimbles and a triggerguard, but it still has DS triggers.  I think the Old Holston has single trigger, but it appears to be pre-historic relative to the later forged style furnished rifles.  With the v-pan and roller frizzen and TG style on this one, I was assuming a date closer to or past 1820.  Your "Roanoke" rifle (which you know I love) with the musket-like guard, however, may be more typical than we know of early Southern rifles with single triggers.  One problem with single trigger in typical Bean guard is that the bow is extremely large, but this one is made to fit (nice job, also).  The only drawback to that approach is that it could conceivably lengthen the raised rail enough that the overall guard to bow proportions are inverse to what is regularly (?) seen/expected, i.e. length of bow is either larger or roughly equal to length of rail, but I think this rifle (and also in a similar fashion, the "whale rifle" marked BHC) manage a pleasing appearance all the same.   Just my ramblings -- sure you've been over it all and more in your head already.

[Stophel]

Cool rifle!

How was the Hackberry to work?  How would it compare to sugar maple?  Hard to see, but it looks like it has more visible grain.

I'm always interested in more unusual types of woods.

[K. Moyer]

A gun like that could convince me to shoot right handed! Very nice work.

[marcusb]

I am intrested to know the properties of hackberry, in my area it has no commercial value and theres tons of it on the farm

[coutios]

 I'll leave the builder reply as to how the wood works.. I had a chance to shoulder the rifle this past Saturday.. It comes right up and points well.. Has a good "hang" to it and should shoot right where she's pointed.. Would have found out but ran out of time.. It looks like a 150 year old rifle that has had it's share of use.. His rifles just keep getting better...

Regards
Dave

[Don Getz]

Im with bonron on this one.   What the heck is "Hackberry"?  I've never heard of it.   Usually berries are found on bushes,
this one had to come from a tree...............Don

[Stophel]

It's a fairly common tree around here (but nobody knows anything about it!     )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtis_occidentalis

[MarkEngraver]

I know Hackberry as a Bow wood ,but the stuff in Arizona is  pretty gnarly and twisted. Never could find a stave tree I thought was worth cutting down.
Never thought you could use it as a gun stock.
It is similar to Ash so I guess why not !

Mark

[Stophel]

http://www.woodmagazine.com/materials-guide/lumber/wood-species-2/hackberry/?page=2

[Collector]

Here's a link to this wood and some of it's uses.  My reading has been very cursory, but it's reported to be a very heavy and dense wood, suitable for furniture and turnings.  It has the same characteristics and is often mistaken for ash and is sometimes referred to as the "Poor Man's Oak."  

http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/hackberry.htm

I love learning about new stuff!!

[Curt J]

There are lots of hackberry trees here in north central Illinois.  I never gave much thought to what the wood might look like or be used for.  Interesting!

[Gaeckle]

John, Where did you get the Hackberrry blank?? How was it to work with??  What else can you tell us about it?  What did you use to finish it?

This blank was a gift from a very close and dear friend...a few years ago we had seen a smooth bore stocked in the stuff at Friendship. Dick Miller had a couple and he also had some pretty wild looking curly oak. Sometime later my friend Henry has this blank for me and it's hackberry.....he says he has some more.


This stuff was not real nice to work with. It's very tuff, but it's stringy....I found out as i was working it that it was neccesarry to do chisel work across the grain because it had a tendancy to peel off great amounts of wood. The cheekpiece was difficult for just this reason. Some parts of the stock cut clean and produced a very hard polished look, while other areas got just plain fuzzy....I could scrape in some spots, but not in others. Using a rasp was another thrill: sometimes great, sometimes not.

For color I pretty much used a smattering of all kinds of stuff. The wood is by nature a somewhat pale yellow. It is just plain ugly. When I first got the blank I leaned it up against the other blanks I have in my basement. The next day when I went downstairs I noticed that the other blanks had moved to the other side of the room...that's ugly.

For color I used dark brown leather dye, some lancaster maple, black shoe polish in some spots, black spray paint and black leather dye. I can't remember how i applied all this stuff, but I basically got the stock brown, added some dark here and there, steel wooled it back some, hit it with some spray paint, smeared that around ...there was no set standard I was just trying to get the thing to feel old and well used without being abused.

For finish I used both tru oil and a very quick wipe with amber shellac in certain spots. If I didn't like what i had  I simply knocked the finish down with steel wool and tried again.

In all truth, I just wasn't really sure I would be able to get this thing to work and there were quite a few times i felt like it was hopeless, but I kept at it and I had a lot of encuragement from my buddies.

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

Well, I think it definitely worked!!  It is a unique and interesting gun with very pleasing architecture to my eye.  I like it a lot and thanks for sharing it with us.