Queen Anne Flintlock Pistol finished

[E.vonAschwege]

Well - It's not American, nor is it a Longrifle, but it's a flintlock pistol that isn't often seen these days, so I'm sharing my latest project off the bench.

    This is a Queen Anne pistol built from The Rifle Shoppe castings that I picked up from Selinda Kennedy a few years ago.  There were two frames, one that had some work done to it, and a blank.  I started over with the blank frame castings and assembled this piece in a few weeks back before Dixon's.  The Rifle Shoppe castings for this project were "mid range" as far as how much cleanup and file work was involved to put the frame together.  A lot of precision hand machining is involved with a set of parts like this, especially considering the shrinkage involved when duplicating parts from an original pistol (I held my breath as I drilled through the pan bridal and frizzen in one move!).  The triggerguard slides forward to lock the tumbler when in half cock, then pops back by hand to put the gun into full cock.  Dave Rase helped me mill the barrel on his lathe - thanks again for all the help Dave, I'm sorry I couldn't make it up to the WHGG show this weekend!  Steve Colward also helped me a lot by sharing some photos of the inside of his original Queen Anne pistol.  

    The carving design is borrowed from an original silver-mounted pair of QA pistols I found on an auction site, but is unusual for a Queen Anne in that it's not the standard symmetrical English "shield" style carving.  I chose to go with a slightly longer barrel as well for this project -  It's 6.5" long and .54 smoothbore, and the frame is drilled for a fixed 20 grain charge.  The engraving is all of the original design, but most of it was recut since cleaning the castings removed most of the engraving.  The buttcap is a portrait of Acer  .  The frame and stock were finished with a slight patina.  I'm going to adjust the countersink and make the bolt anything but perpendicular to the barrel.

Lastly, I realized upon looking at this sideplate (and many original identical Queen Anne sideplates), that this casting was the same exact design and size as the sideplate on many original English pistols of the same period.  This one simply has the front bolt portion lopped off so it fits on the Queen Anne frame.  

As always, any constructive critique, comments, and questions are welcome.  

-Eric

[Vomitus]

 That is a thing of beauty! I love it. Great job of machining. Just WOW!

[Paddlefoot]

Fine looking pistol. And nice clear pictures of it too.

[Tim Crosby]

  Beautiful work Eric, the inlay work is top shelf and the Finnish looks just right. Very well done.

   Tim C. 

[Ed Wenger]

Eric, this is one you had at Dixon's, correct?  Beautifully crafted piece, and it looks even better in person.  I love the patina you've given the pistol, and the wood finish is very warm.  Craftmanship is outstanding, and the resemblance to Acer is uncanny.  Seriously, very nice work!  Thanks for posting the photos.

       Ed

[Acer Saccharum]

I didn't miss the unkind references, guys. 

Eric is someone who really does his homework. This pistol is evidence of that. He studies originals, and builds as close as he possibly can to the original. A fellow brought an original to Dixon's, and the two pistols were compared side by side. Eric is spot-on with his stock shaping and architecture. Outstanding work.

[Frank Barker]

Another work of art. Beautiful !

Regards  Frank

[James Rogers]

Nice work Eric. Although I much prefer the earlier tang carving styles with that thumbplate, yours looks very good. There are quite a few examples of tang area treatment such as this beginning in the 1760's. Nicely done.

[frogwalking]

Even though I probablly do not have the skill to make one of these, I love the gun so that I had to go to the Rifle Shop to check up on these castings.  I could find nothing like them.  Does anyone have any ideas about this?

[4ster]

Even though I probablly do not have the skill to make one of these, I love the gun so that I had to go to the Rifle Shop to check up on these castings.  I could find nothing like them.  Does anyone have any ideas about this?

Is it this one, the description seems to match:
http://www.therifleshoppe.com/catalog_pages/english_pistols/(635).htm

Thanks Eric for posting pictures, I have always liked the Queen Ann screwbarrels.

[pushboater]

Beautiful work. Outstanding!

[A.Merrill]

    Makes me want to call the law and have them arrest me for impersonating a gun builder      Al

[Dave B]

Well done Eric.  Dave Rase built one of theses and I believe a carbine using the same action for a guy back at the CLA a number of years ago. Very nice work.

This is the site link for this TRS  pistol project  http://therifleshoppe.com/catalog_pages/english_pistols/%28635%29.htm

[B Shipman]

Fearless as always.

[Long John]

Eric,

Absolutely correct in every detail and flawlessly executed.  Super work.  You are scary good at this stuff!

JMC

[Acer Saccharum]

Agreed, John. Everyone should buy their vonAschweges now, before he gets famous and charges the big bucks. 


(That's payback for the ugly mug comment)

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

Very beautiful work. something to be proud of.

The only fault I could find (in my view) is the blued screw in the middle of the mouth of the grotesque butt plate. It jumped out at me as looking funny. It's the only blued screw on the piece.

[frogwalking]

Thanks for the information.  I did not associate "screw barrel" with the Queen Anne last night, but it was late then.  I know it is like asking "how long is a stick", but just how difficult would it be for a fairly competent armature to assemble one of these things into a decent shooting gun.  I just love the looks of it.  I have no machine tools other than a drill press and grindstone.

[Rolf]

Beautiful and impressiv work. Does anyone know how the queen ann kit from Blackley compares to the kit from the rifle shop? http://www.blackleyandson.com/acatalog/Pistol_Kits.html

They look identical, but Blackley's orgianl was made by Gill, while the rifleshop is marked Harmon.

Best regards
Rolf

[Acer Saccharum]

For the screw threads in the end of the barrel and the threads on the action, you must have a lathe.

The threads that come with the casting sets are sometimes cast out-of-round and need to be trued up. Then corresponding threads in the end of the barrel need to be cut. It's pretty exacting business.

The action has a counterbored hole to take just the right charge, then the ball sits on the end of the hole. The barrel is placed on top of that, and action gets screwed together. Pretty cool system.

[E.vonAschwege]

Hey Folks,
   Thanks for all the kind words on my work - Acer, I never called the buttcap UGLY did I  !! 

This is the #635 Harmon Screwbarrel set.  I would say that a lathe would be needed to set this up properly.  If not for the tumbler, then definitely for the barrel/breech setup.  The threads are cast as Acer mentioned, and need to be cleaned up carefully.  I don't know what the barrel supplied with the set looks like, but Dave Rase and I milled this one for a very tight fit over the threads.  He has a set of castings as well that he's building a Carbine out of, and oddly enough his has 13.5 threads per inch, while mine and his older one have 12 tpi.  Go figure!  Dave had a handy guide he made from brass that fit over the threads and allowed us to drill the breech accurately. 

I haven't handled a Blackley parts set, but have heard good things about them.  From photos it appears that they might have more of the machining done to them, particularly if the barrel is already fit to the frame. 

Here's a couple photos of the insides:  The Trigger acts as the sear, directly engaging the tumbler.  The little U spring pops into a hole in the frame and acts as the sear spring.  Below the mainspring you can see the triggerguard sliding safety mechanism and flat spring. 

[Steve Collward]

Eric:
  Thanks for the information and photos of the completed Queen Anne.  It looked good at Dixon's and even better now completed. Glad to hear you were able to make it with the sliding trigger guard safety. Very elegant piece.  If you did not know, John Harman's shop was in London and two sources I referred to state that he worked from 1720-1750.
  Are you sure you didn't work in Mr. Harman's shop in a previous life??
 

[dogcreek]

That's a beautiful pistol that anyone would be proud to own. Congratulations on a job well done! And thanks for sharing.