V shaped fore stocks ..... Gillespie Question

[54ball]

 I have a questions concerning architecture on a rifle with a v shaped fore stock.  I have researched this in books and on the board.  I understand the upper fore stock.  What I cannot get my mind around is the lower fore stock.

  Dennis says that the few Gillespie rifles with with V shaped fore stocks carried the V shape in the upper and lower fore stock.  My question is how was this achieved?  How sharp was the V at the bottom of the lower fore stock?  Did the lower fore stock blend to round as it approaches the lock panels?

  This may be very hard to describe.  Mr. Glazener says that it is impossible to tell between a V shaped Gillespie rifle and a round one by photos alone.

  Another question I have is would it be appropriate to carve a incised line down upper fore stock and simply terminating it at the ramrod entry?   If that were done would I also need to carve another moulding line from the toe to the trigger?  This rifle is a Mathew Gillespie being built with out a butt plate so would incised lines be appropriate on the butt stock or at all?        

[G-Man]

Whether or not Gillepsie rifles ever had them is a question for Dennis - I personally have not seen one but there may be some.

There are some nice southern rifles with forend moldings that just terminate at the entry thimble - Jacob Young used this technique and it can look nice  - he would generally shape the wood at this area so that when viewed from the side the transition from the lower to the the upper forearm is about perpendicular to the line of the barrel and the forend molding, if that makes sense - the link below is to photos of an iron mounted rifle by his hand.  The molding is almost worn off on the side shown on the photos but it is there if you look closely.  

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=12009.0



Guy

[Dennis Glazener]

  Dennis says that the few Gillespie rifles with with V shaped fore stocks carried the V shape in the upper and lower fore stock.  My question is how was this achieved?  How sharp was the V at the bottom of the lower fore stock?  Did the lower fore stock blend to round as it approaches the lock panels?

I am not sure but I may have not properly described the V shaped fore stocks that I have seen on several Gillespie's. Bear in mind its been sometime since I handled these rifles but here is what I was trying to describe. The top part of the fore stock from had a sort of inverted Vee  shape (/\) , not real sharp but not rounded. Then from the entry pipe forward to the end of the rr channel the bottom of the fore stock was vee shaped (V), again not real pronounced but not rounded. The bottom of the fore arm between the trigger and entry hole, if I remember correctly was rounded all the way and not vee shaped. Hope this answers your question.

Three of these vee forearm rifles were signed ( P*G) for Philip Gillespie. The other one is an unsigned rifle that is the Exact same profile as my Mathew Gillespie but for the vee shaped forearm and a similiar looking but very differently made trigger guard. I have always thought that rifle was probably made by one of Mathew's brothers or possibly old John Gillespie.

  Another question I have is would it be appropriate to carve a incised line down upper fore stock and simply terminating it at the ramrod entry?   If that were done would I also need to carve another moulding line from the toe to the trigger?  This rifle is a Mathew Gillespie being built with out a butt plate so would incised lines be appropriate on the butt stock or at all?   

  I have never seen a Gillespie with an incised line down the forearm. I have seen one unsigned Gillespie that has double incised line from the toe to just behind the trigger guard. This rifle had a butt plate and also had a hinged metal cover over the grease hole. The owner seemed to think that both the grease hole cover and the incised lines probably was added after the rifle was built. They may well have been.

If I were you and liked the incised lines and forestock moulding put them on, many owners didn't hesitate to "gussy" up their old rifles.

Hope this helps
Dennis

[54ball]

 Thanks Dennis,

  That really explains a lot and answers my question. 

 G-Man

  Thanks for the link it really helps also.