Hawken stuff

[JB2]

Haven't been on here much, and what do I find just in time for my 'building season'? 

Taylor, thanks for such a detailed "Non-Tutorial"    I'll have to break out the files on my hammer, since 'Ohhh, now I get it!'.

All great stuff!

I'll try to not ask too many questions and just sit here quietly and watch. 

[PPatch]

Very interesting how you did the snail Taylor, good information and thank you. Yes, creating a thread like this probably seems too much and some trouble but there is nothing like it in the ALR archive or on the web about Hawken builds. It is very valuable and will be a great addition to the tutorials section.

Thank you again.

dave

[Dphariss]

Nice work Taylor.
Your work is always impressive.
Dan

[Daryl]

Nice as usual. BUT - this building thing interferes with the shooting thing.

[Fred Hembree]

I have enjoyed the pictures and seeing the process you go through...thanks its been educational to say the least!

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Thanks for all the great feedback fellas! 

Like a lot of you, I like to prepare the metal parts ready for finish, before I inlet them.  Then there are no surprises.  But it means a considerable amount of metal work all at once.  Such is the case of the trigger guard and trigger assembly.  The first image is the "as received" picture.  The triggers themselves could be used as received, but I like to dress the steel for a more pleasing finish and function first.  And the guard has casting gates and flaws that need filing to make them serviceable.

So the process is to first cut away the casting gates, and then file the guard down to a uniform plane and thickness, paying attention to the very edges - you don't want a knife edge or a wavy edge.  I use a fairly aggressive rasp and then a finer file to do this rough work.  Following that, 80 grit, then 120 grit, then 180 grit abrasive cloth.  At that point I am happy with the shape, and can fit the guard to the trigger plate.  So here's a few pics of that sequence...





















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The guard has a stud on the front of the bow that threads into a corresponding threaded hole in the trigger plate.  This is a shameless copy by the Hawken boys of the English method of attaching a guard to a trigger plate, as is the guard itself.  In this case, the stud is cast with a 1/4" x 28 thread - in other examples, the stud has no threads and must be cut yourself.  But before you cut those threads, the stud needs truing and where it joins the guard is usually a flare and at a screwy angle to the guard.  To remedy that, I made a cutter from a piece of 3/8" drill rod.  I drilled a 1/4" hole into the end, about 1/2" deep, made a series of cuts with a hack saw across the diameter, and then files some rake into those little segments, to make a cutting tool.  I hardened and tempered the end and it cuts a wonderfully smooth shank with a perfect base, that will mate nicely with the trigger plate.  Here's some images of that...




The cutter makes a base that is square with the stud, and leaves metal around it that needs to be dressed down to the bottom of your cut.  But you end up with a flat square plane that fits solidly against the plate.  To true the stud, and not get it crooked, I simply set the stud into the jaws of my drill press (gently) then brought the whole guard down with the quill into my drill press vise, and clamped it solidly.  Now I could loosen the jaws and release the guard, and replace it with the cutter which is now perfectly aligned with the stud.  The drill press vise MUST be solidly clamped to the drill press table, or you are inviting disaster.  Picture the vise, when things go sideways, and the vise is trying to rotate at 500 rpm!!!  Locked down, you avoid that adventure.
Now you can put the guard into your bench vise, and run a 1/4" X 28 tpi die down the stud to clean up and bottom the threads.  Incidentally, you can make cutters like this to do several jobs:  cutting the pivot tit on a fly (detent), making small lock screws with only a drill press and without a lathe, etc.




You can see in this image, despite the fact that I'm not holding the camera square with the world, that the base of the stud at the guard is not square with the stud at all.  If you drill and thread the plate to receive the guard without correcting this, there will always be a hideous gap at the junction.

The triggers themselves, as they arrive at your door, are usable as is, but they are received as cast.  They have been heat treated for wear, but can be filed and polished and reshaped where needed with red heat.  The trouble with this is that you necessarily have to remove metal from the trigger, which make for a less than perfect fit in the plate.  But with a gentle hand the fit isn't too bad, and the make-over is worth the effort.  Filing and polishing removes the mold lines and discrepancies that cannot be tolerated.  ..Just makes you more satisfied with the rifle.

[T*O*F]

The cutter makes a base that is square with the stud,

Thanks for the reminder.  I'll have to make one of those because I always forget about them when doing English rifles and fiddle around filing the stud round.  That's not a problem, but getting the base flat so the guard can be clocked correctly is.  Your cutter solves that problem.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Dave, it makes life so much easier.

You may be able to see in this shot, that I have changed the angle of the tip of the trigger where it mates with the front trigger.  As received, this angle does not match the front trigger, and is rough - needs shaping and polishing.  Polish the hook to 600 grit.







Now, where to drill for the stud?  SET the triggers, and lay the guard on top of the plate in the position they will be when assembled.  With the triggers set, you can align the back end of the guard's bow with the curve of the rear trigger, allowing as much room as possible in the front of the bow for the front trigger and your finger.  I use a FINE tipped marking pen to make a mark on each side of the stud against the side of the plate.  Then I divide that by two, mark the centre, and transfer that to the plate.  Centre punch the centre of your mark - deep!!
Now drill a 1/8" hole through the plate and square with the tangent of the curve of the plate.  This is easy to do by just resting the plate on a level piece of wood on the drill press table, bring the drill down to your centre punch mark, and drill through.  I don't use a vise for this job, but I should.  If the trigger plate rocks and the drill grabs, it'll pull the long trigger plate out of your hand and rotate at 500 rpm.  You WILL get hurt!  So hold the trigger plate in your drill press vise.  Once the 1/8" pilot drill has done its job, replace it with a # 3 drill bit, and repeat.  I also cut a shallow counter sink at this time, as the threads on the stud will contact the plate before the guard bottoms for sure...just a shallow one!  I start the tap using the drill press so that it is perfectly square with the plate, and finish it in my bench vise, as this image shows.





When you turn the guard onto the plate, you may find that the guard has some bends that interfere with the guard turning all the way around.  No two of these guards are ever the same as the last...they are castings that are almost always warped and bent out of true.  Usually, the front end of the bow needs to be bent out, increasing the radius of that curve.  I do this bending cold with a 1 1/4" piece of pipe and my bench vise.  I protect the guard with a brass plate, insert the pipe, and turn the handle, gently moving the bow open a little.  Trial and fit (not error) will tell you when it is enough.




When you turn the guard onto the plate you are likely going to find that it will bottom, but it won't align with the plate...it needs to go a little more.  Don't force it!  Take it apart, and remove a little from the trigger plate, again trial and fit, until it comes all the way around and aligns lengthwise.  Now it's time to drill and tap for the machine scrtew that holds the back end of the guard to the plate.  I use a #6 x 40 tpi screw for this job.  Mark the position of the screw hole so that the screw will pass down into the scroll curl of the guard nicely, centre punch, drill the hole with the tap drill through the PLATE.  Set the guard/plate assembly into your drill press vise with the top of the plate square with the drill.  Make sure the plate is centred over the guard, and drill through both into the guard, and through.  Replace the tap drill with the clearance drill bit, rotate the guard out of the way, and drill the clearance hole for the machine screw.  Now swing it all back together again, replace the clearance drill bit with the 6 x 40 (or whatever) tap and start the tap using the drill press.  Finish tapping in your bench vise...'least that's how I do it.









There, now I can take it all apart again, and inlet the trigger plate into the wood.

I just noticed something interesting...my camera thinks it's Jan. 1 2005!!!  Wudzupwitdat?  I did the work yesterday.

[smylee grouch]

Thanks for that tip Taylor. I have done several of those kinds of trigger guard's in the past and fitting every thing square by eye was always a challenge for me. Thanks for sharing and please keep it up.

[Bob Roller]

The bonehead award is given when the guard is installed without checking the position of the rear trigger.
Been there,done that MANY years ago.

Bob Roller

[Joe S.]

Thanks for the totorial on installing the guard to the trigger plate.Very informative about the guards without threads on the stud already,will be needing that info.Again thanks for the pics you sent me.

[Ed Wenger]

Really nice work, Taylor, as usual!


       Ed

[Bill Ladd]

This thread will definitely be my go-to whenever i decide to tackle a Hawken-style rifle.

[Cory Joe Stewart]

I have a Hawken build I am working on now.  It is pretty intimidating and this thread does help a lot.

Coryjoe

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I'm delighted that some of you are finding this useful.

Today I'll inlet that trigger set.

[crankshaft]

 Another Thank You.

When I did my first one  years ago I was on my own.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

That is how I started too CS.  But experience is perhaps the best teacher.  When Hawken rifles were so popular in the seventies and eighties, I was hired by a local gunsmith, having made several of these rifles on my own, to create a prototype rifle.  From that one, we created a pattern stock, ordered barrels and parts, and began to produce what we called the Fraser River Hawken.  The price was about double what you had to pay for a T/C "Hawken", and after several years, he decided to throw in the towel.  But we made nearly two hundred of them and they have remained a desirable rifle to this day.  That job gave me a lot of experience and practice at performing all of these small tasks that taken together, make up into a nice rifle.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

This next bit is pretty routine.  Again, there are lots of videos by far better craftsmen than I, describing the inletting process.  And there is nothing here that is particularly Hawken specific.  But there are some things that are essential, and I'll talk about those.

As with any inlay, layout is first and is crucial.  On the side of the stock, and here I use the lock side, lay out the bottom line of the barrel channel, the web you are shooting for, the ramrod hole, and the wood remaining at the bottom of it all.  Here I see that I must inlet the trigger guard about 1/8" below the wood's surface to bring it to the level I want.  On the underside of the stock you have a centre line that goes all the way around the stock end to end.  I have marked the position of the sear bar by drilling a hole up into the lock inlet so I can actuate the sear when I'm inletting the lock.  The trigger must be placed so that both the front and rear triggers will contact the sear bar.  Coincidentally, that spot on the trigger plate, is where the adjustment screw is.  So lay the trigger plate, minus all the parts, on the centre line, aligning the adjustment screw hole with your mark indicating the sear bar, and with a sharp pencil, draw around the trigger plate until you arrive at the part on the forward end where the plate does not contact the wood....about 2 1/2" from the forward end.

I use a 3/8" wide chisel and stab using a medium sized rawhide mallet just inside the pencil line.  This L & R trigger plate has draft cast and ground into it which ensures that as you sink it into the wood, it will become tighter and tighter, requiring you to take wood away to let it go down.  This is good.  Without it, it is unlikely that I could inlet the plate without gaps.  I drive the chisel into the wood all along my drawn lines, about 3/32".  I used curved sweeps and gouges to cut the line around the tail end finial, again, just inside the drawn lines.  Then with the 3/8" chisel, I cut toward that incised line and remove a strip of maple the length of the drawn line.  Now it's simply a matter of taking away the wood inside the lines, setting the plate in the inlet with some transfer pigment, and little by little, down she goes.  I start at the tail end with these long plates - others start at the other end.  But either way, know that you are inletting over a concave curve, and as you go down, unless you are aware of this, you will get a gap at the end you inlet last.  Both ends of this trigger plate have exaggerated 'draft', likely to assist with this phenomenon.

So here's a few images ...

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Once the plate is in where it needs to be, it's time to inlet for the trigger parts themselves.  A combination of drill bits and chisels makes short work of that.

Now the triggers are in, but they interfere with the lock's sear.  Depending u[on whose lock you have used, more or less of the tops of the triggers will have to be dressed off, either by filing or grinding.  I grind mine on a 6 x 48" belt grinder.  I duk the unit in water frequently to avoid changing the hardness/temper.  Eventually, everything works fine.  Take your time with this...it's easier to take it off than put it on.

Now, the butt plate....but first, more pictures.

[Joe S.]

You make it look so easy,nice clean lines,nice indeed

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Joe, you've touched on something, perhaps without realizing it.  Remember I had to set the trigger assembly 1/8" or so below the wood's surface.  Once that was accomplished, and before I took the picture, I dressed off the stock down to the steel.  When you do this, you take away a collection of spots where a chisel edge has damaged the edge of your inlet, or you took out a few thou too much wood.  the beauty of the draft angle is that as you set the part deeper into the wood, the top closes up and the booboo's become less apparent.

So, inlet just below the surface, and dress the wood off to the metal, for a nice clean edge.

[Joe S.]

Started to notiçe stuff like that around tight or small areas where I tried to make a cut and the chisel would ding the side of the inlet.The tear drops on the lock bolt side of the rifle for example.plenty of wood to sink them down like you said.Very interested to see how you handle the butt plate,as with others this seems to be a problem area of the build where so much is going on.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I inlet the second trigger set into the second stock this afternoon.  What a nice thing to be able to do on Christmas eve!!  I'm working on two Hawken rifles at the same time, completing one step on both before I proceed to the next.  So this one is the full stocked .50 cal with the 1" parallel barrel x 36" long.  This stock is red maple, and reminds me more of working with hard walnut than maple..but I like it.  Chisels have to be super sharp or it's super hard work...the sharper, the better.
It occurred to me as I was fitting the triggers to the lock, that in a number of threads, guys have asked questions about how to go about getting the triggers to work best, and not interfere with the sear arm.  In both these rifles currently on the bench, the triggers are from L & R, and they include both style of Hawken triggers that L & R sells, not that it makes any difference in the working of the pieces. As received the triggers are 'as cast' apart from being drilled and fitted to the plates.  I filed them smooth and polished them to 180 grit before inletting.  I also cleaned up the trigger contacts and improved the angles of engagement.  A new file just cuts them.  I also changed the curve of both of the front triggers, though I am not sure I like this one I was working on today.
Anyhoo, after inletting, the triggers protrude way up inside the lock inlet and interfere with the sear arm.  They have to be filed or ground down and in my case, I used my 6 x 48" belt grinder to make quick work of the extra steel.  You have to go slowly and try them often in the inlet to make sure you aren't taking away more steel than you have to...that would create ano0ther problem in which you would have to add steel to the trigger.  Here's a couple of pics to help describe what I'm attempting to say.

Here's the triggers as received, and you can see inside the sear hole that they won't let the lock sit in the inlet.





Here they are laying on the butt stock, and I have not cut them down yet...next picture shows them ground so they will not interfere with the working of the lock but rather trip the sear set or unset very nicely.






While I'm at this stage, I will also say that how the triggers interact with the sear is also very dependent upon how hard you turn down the triggers mainspring screw.  It only requires enough power to consistently trip the sear, so go easy there.  The minimal tension on this screw also allows the rear trigger to 'float' so that it isn't continuously hard against the sear bar...very important.

So here's a shot of the lock and triggers happy together.



Here are both rifles at the same stage, more or less.



And finally, both rifles on the table.  I got the butt plates reversed in this shot.  They'll go on next, to avoid damage to those delicate toes.

[smylee grouch]

Thats a nice looking flintlock Taylor, who made the lock?

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

It's an L & R 900 (Ashmore) flintlock with the double throated cock.  I did some filing on the plate, and a little engraving.  This lock started life on a Don Stith fullstocked rifle that burnt to death in a trailer fire.  Strangely enough, the springs were not affected, but the frizzen needs rehardening and tempering.  The lock now has an interesting 'patina' that I rather like, and I may just leave it as is.