Trade gun thumb piece

[Curtis]

I made a thumb piece for the same trade gun that the trigger guard was made for.  Not nearly as interesting as a trigger guard, but I thought maybe posting it will still help spark the imagination for folks who need a part they can't get from the parts bin to make one themselves.

I found a picture of one I liked in Jim Gordon's Great Gunmakers for the Early West Vol.1 and decided to make something similar.  It looks like a cast piece, but I don't have any casting equipment so I started out with some .80 thousandth sheet brass.  I would not normally use brass that thick but there will be a fair amount of sculpting involved to make it look more three dimensional.  I didn't completely finish it here as the piece will likely have to be filed to fit the wrist after it is inlay-ed and then be engraved on the gun.  Well, here goes it!

Sketched out on spray painted brass scrap:



Cutting out with my trusty jeweler's saw:





I then cleaned up the outline with files.

Beating it convex on a rusty pipe and my home-made swage:







Close enough for now:



I then hot glued it to a piece of pipe with a hot glue stick and my heat gun, which holds the brass securely and let me get to it better with my tools.

Making some cuts with the jeweler's saw... this step could be done with a file but I felt the saw helped with accuracy:



Using a three corner file with one side ground safe:



Here I am using a chisel or really large round graver made from a rusty old quarter inch round file I found:



I cut a lot more than this before I was satisfied, but the photo shows how the rounded cut looks:



I needed to make the finial somewhat concave and wasn't able to do it satisfactorily with files so I used a scraper I had made for another project from a heavy, hard piece of scrap.  It did the trick!:



I sculpted it some more then cleaned it up with files and emery cloth, then used a little "Alumna Black" to help accent the recesses. I use the alumina black or G96 blue to darken brass parts, either works quite well.

Here is it is next to the picture that I used for inspiration.  As mentioned before, it will be further refined and engraved after it is on the gun:



Thanks for looking at another of my long winded posts!

Curtis

[BOB HILL]

Thanks for another very helpful post, Curtis,
Bob

[elk killer]

Curtis, I for one am really enjoying your posts on this,
great job, looks good

[wattlebuster]

Looks good and informative. Great post

[Pete G.]

Nice going.
You keep this up and you will soon be making your own barrels.

[alyce-james]

Curtis; Sir, thanks for sharing. This well presented post and good pictures only left me wanting more, more. Very well done. I enjoyed the post. AJ.

[dlubbesmeyer]

It IS inspirational, thanks

[pushboater]

Very helpful Curtis, and thanks for posting it.

Capt. David

[Mike Brooks]

The inspiration gun you're using is called a "Cypher Gun". It was ordered specifically to feature the King's cypher on the thumbpiece.

[Curtis]

I appreciate your comments guys, I'm glad to hear the posting may be helpful to someone.  It was kinda fun to make.

Mike, you are a wealth of information about old guns!  If you have more to pass on about "Cypher Guns" and what special circumstances one might have been ordered for I would love to hear it.  Also I can't really tell what the engraving is above the "GR" from the photo in the book, do you have any idea where I could see more pictures of one?

Curtis

[Mike Brooks]

I appreciate your comments guys, I'm glad to hear the posting may be helpful to someone.  It was kinda fun to make.

Mike, you are a wealth of information about old guns!  If you have more to pass on about "Cypher Guns" and what special circumstances one might have been ordered for I would love to hear it.  Also I can't really tell what the engraving is above the "GR" from the photo in the book, do you have any idea where I could see more pictures of one?

Curtis

Let me dig through my papers.....