Building an English Fowler FINALLY FINISHED

[Justin Urbantas]

thanks Dave. I always learn something here.

[smart dog]

Thanks for the note , Richard.  A take-down stock like my silver mounted gun by Heylin is also an option.

dave

[smart dog]

Hi,
The lock is fully inlet.  I really like Chambers round-faced and early Ketland locks (they have the same internals) because they are easy to inlet.  There are not a lot of parts at different layers of depth.  A good mortice with as little wood removed as necessary will show the bridle and screw heads in the bridle, the sear hole, and the mainspring outline.  The mainspring is deepest at its bend and gets a little shallower toward the tumbler. The sear spring also is inlet deepest at the bend.  If you tilt the lock to lower the tail a smidge as I did, you will just break into the barrel channel with the mainspring or have an onion skin thickness of wood left. You can grind the mainspring thinner (it has plenty of extra strength) or just not worry about it as many British makers did.       


The photos below show lock mortices for two original 1760s London-made fowlers.  I think I did OK.


Permit me to make a little plug here.  The Chambers round-faced English and early Ketland locks are superb.  They are equal to any original locks made during the period they represent.  My little English rifle with a Chambers round-faced English lock has now fired more than 550 rounds without a hang fire or misfire, even when the flints were worn to nubs, shooting occurred during high humidity, and with normal routine maintenance while shooting (wiping the flint, pan, and frizzen, and picking the vent).  I believe the key is they make a long hard scrape on the tall frizzen face, which grinds its way through fouling and dull flints.  It then deposits those incendiary shards right into the pan. 

 Next up is the trigger.  I am using a cast steel trigger from TOW (#TR-Fowl-MH-T).  Forget the trigger plate associated with it because it is too short, but the trigger is a superb and historically accurate design.  I forged a copy of that trigger for my English rifle because they were back ordered.  When they became available again, I purchased a bunch to have in stock.  Note it is pinned very high giving good leverage.  I install it so it is angled backward in a graceful sweep within the trigger guard.  Triggers on most British guns of the period were installed right of center. That moved the trigger bar closer to the lock plate, reducing any spongy feeling in the trigger pull and helped make sure the trigger finger cleared the stock.  I marked the location of the trigger to the right of center and then drilled a series of holes the width and depth of the trigger bar.  After the holes are drilled, I use my Dremel tool with a small router bit to cut the slot between the holes.  It takes about 10 minutes.  I won't pin the trigger until I have made and inlet the trigger plate.  That comes tomorrow.

dave     

[Jim Chambers]

Dave,
Thank you very much for the plug on our locks.  We try to build as much precision and quality into them as is possible while holding the price as low as possible.  We have looked into reproducing some of the later really high quality English locks, but to build one of them up to the English standards, we'd have to charge at least four or five hundred per lock.  There's just not enough of a market to pay for all the tooling.
You're doing a credible job on the English fowler.  I have built a couple of them, and had I not had an original here to study, I would have missed the architecture by a mile.  They are so much more sophisticated than American work.  My original was made by William Bennett and is dated 1762.
Jim Chambers

[smart dog]

Hi Jim,
Thank you for the note and also thank you and Barbie for your locks and other products.  I understand the tight economics of making traditional muzzleloading components.  Your round-faced English and early Ketland locks really do match the originals of the period to the point where I can almost substitute your round-faced lock for the original lock on one of the fowlers that I own.  The photos below show a comparison with your lock on top and the original in the middle.



Thanks again for commenting.

dave
 

[Hemo]

Lovely lock inletting, Dave!

Compared to the original London inlets, I'd say you "did okay" too. It looks like the masters of the shops put their recently hired apprentice beavers to work on those inlets. Sort of amazing how meticulous the final visible shaping and finishing on these pieces is, and how crude the hidden work was allowed.

Gregg

[Justin Urbantas]

Lovely lock inletting, Dave!

Compared to the original London inlets, I'd say you "did okay" too. It looks like the masters of the shops put their recently hired apprentice beavers to work on those inlets. Sort of amazing how meticulous the final visible shaping and finishing on these pieces is, and how crude the hidden work was allowed.

Gregg

I was always curious at how much effort was put in inletting lock internals and  the barrel channel where it isn't seen. I wouldn't expect frontier gun builders to spend much time on it, because it doesn't really matter as far as function. I would expect English guns to have nice lock inlets, especially on one of the late half stock fowlers that is stored in the case with the lock removed.

[smart dog]

Hi Justin and Gregg,
The British makers needed to make money too and time is money.  Keep in mind, the upper photo of an original is the Heylin gun, which was top end in the 1760s.  However, British fashions and practices changed over time just like in America, and when high-end guns were cased with the locks removed, perfect lock mortices became the fashion.  That also became more important when fashion changed to one lock bolt.  On a flint gun, to assure the pan is tight against the barrel with one lock bolt, the inletting has to be very good.

dave

[David Price]

smart dog,
I have been watching this project from the beginning . I was going to wait until the gun was finished to make a comment, but I can't wait any longer.  What a great project, and the craftsmanship is beyond words.  To your credit, you are certainly not taking the easy way out on some of this.  You certainly are getting a lot of compliments and you deserve every one of them.  I am looking forward to handling this gun when it is finished.

DAVID PRICE

[smart dog]

Hi David P. and friends,
Thank you all.  Your compliments, Dave, are really appreciated and I hope to deserve them all the way to the end of this project.  I do want to say that I am not doing this for a pat on the back.  I observe the kinds of questions, issues, and guns shared on this site and occasionally identify a topic that seems to need addressing.  British style guns are very popular with our membership but I don't think anyone extensively discussed the details and nuances of those great firearms. Certainly, folks have posted and discussed great original and contemporary-made British guns but never as a comprehensive essay on some period of British gun making like we often have for long rifles.  Clearly, British style is popular and considering the number of views of this thread, I think I am addressing a need.  These are not easy guns to make and as Jim Chambers said, they are much more sophisticated than American production in the 18th century.  I will muddle along and I am grateful for your interest and I do enjoy the challenge.  Hopefully, I won't screw it up.

dave   

[smart dog]

Hi,
The trigger plate is made and trigger installed.  The plate is about 3 3/4" long, 13/32" wide at the front and just under 5/16" at the rear.  It is made from 3/16" thick mild steel.  Originals usually had a round boss at the front that the tang bolt screwed into but the steel plate is sufficiently thick to have plenty of threads for the bolt.  Also, the tang bolt of a standing breech is rarely unscrewed so wear is not an issue.

The trigger I am using does not require a large slot in the plate so the trigger assembly looks very tidy and professional. The plate is inlet below the surface of the wood so the front of the trigger guard bow that rests on it can be inlet into the stock and so the rear extension of the guard can conceal the rear of the trigger plate.  When the guard is fitted, the middle lug on the guard will fit into a slot in the trigger plate behind the trigger. It will either be pinned through the stock or the lug will be shaped into a hook that hooks on the trigger plate to hold the guard in place.  There will be a counter sunk hole at rear of the trigger plate to catch the head of the bolt that goes through the wrist and screws into a boss on the back of the silver wrist escutcheon plate.

I drilled the tang bolt through the standing breech, stock, and trigger plate.  I am using an 8-32 tang oval head bolt from TOW.  I counter bored the hole in the tang so there is a vertical shoulder in the hole that the screw fits down into rather just an angled depression created by a counter sink. I did that by drilling a hole partly through the tang using a drill the diameter of the bolt head, then inserted a smaller counter sink into the hole to cut the angle on the bottom to match the angle under the bolt head. The head of the bolt was slightly oversized so I turned it down on the lathe to the right size, which gave it a little shoulder matching the shoulder in the counter bored hole. The originals were done similar to this and it allows you a lot of flexibility to file and shape the head of the bolt to match the tang.


Next after installing the bolt and tightening it down, I pinned the trigger.  I used a 5/64" drill for the same diameter spring steel pin.  The trigger is pinned very high and hangs gracefully below the stock.  It is a really nice complement to the gracefulness of the stock.  I included photos showing the state of the butt stock and with one side wet to show the figure.




Next up, trimming the fore stock to final dimensions, shaping the lock panels, and then making the silver side plate and wrist escutcheon.

dave

[Telgan]

Stunning piece of English

[Pukka Bundook]

It is going to be a very bonny gun, Dave!

[BOB HILL]

Nice.  Very nice.
Bob

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

What a gun!

[smylee grouch]

I second the stunning comment. Great thread to follow.

[smart dog]

Hi Friends,
Thanks for your interest and comments in this thread.  Please do not hesitate to offer suggestions and information that may help my process and others, particularly if you are familiar with these British guns.  If I miss something or you can shed light on period variations employed by British makers, please contribute to the discussion.  I want this to be a learning opportunity for all of us.  I had a good day getting wood off the fore stock.  In my previous post I should have written "trimming the fore stock to almost the final dimensions".  The stock will ultimately be very thin and I want to leave some excess on it until I am almost ready for finish so that I don't risk damaging the fragile wood in the process.  Based on the original fowlers I own, I devised this procedure for shaping the forestock.  First, I mark a line not quite half way down the stock from the edge of the barrel wall.  That marks the thickest point of the fore stock.

Then using an old Stanley low angle smoothing plane that was my great grandfather's, I plane a facet in the stock along the top of the barrel channel and down to that line.  Then I do the same for the lower section down to the ramrod groove. Next, I plane off the peak of the angle.



Then I use my pattern maker's rasp and a coarse file to round the fore stock. Finally, I use a flat scraper to smooth the surface.  The walls of the ramrod channel taper toward the muzzle such that about 3/4s of the forward ramrod pipe is exposed, 2/3s of the middle pipe is exposed, and 1/2 of the rear pipe in exposed above the ramrod channel. This gives the fore stock an incredibly slim profile.  I also shaved down the wood at the rear ramrod pipe, which require a bit more shaping, and I rounded the fore stock rear of the last pipe.



The photos below show how slim the fore stock is getting.  It will be slimmer when finished.


Next up is shaping the lock panels but only partially.  I have to make the side plate before I finalize the shape of the lock panels.

More to come,

dave       

[Curtis]

Very clear instructions on shaping the forestock, Dave.  Also I must mention I imagine your Great Grandfather would be proud to know you are taking care of and using his plane in the manner of a true craftsman!

Curtis

[smart dog]

Hi,
It is nice to finally get to the really fun stuff.  I am copying the side plate I put on my English rifle.  I cannot cast the intricate plate in one pour using my Delft clay casting system so I opted to cast my original in 3 parts (like I did the original) and solder the pieces together.  The plate is heavily inspired by the work of James Freeman, a great London maker during the first half of the 18th century.  You can see the plate that inspired me on plate 523 in Neal and Back's "Great British Gunmakers 1740-1790".  It is my own design created to fit the spaces I required on my guns.  I really wanted to incorporate a weeping heart motif and the first letter of my last name in the negative spaces surrounding the silver.  The plate is cast in fine silver, not sterling, which means it will not tarnish as quickly because of the lower copper content.  My purpose at this point is to construct the side plate and screw it to the stock so I can see the flat area that I must preserve when I am shaping the lock panels.  The first photo shows the rough cast pieces on the stock.  The second shows them assembled with the lock bolts in place.


Notice that as assembled, the main volute forward of the rear lock bolt and the leaves curling back from the forward lock bolt are very high up in the flat space.  That makes shaping the lock panel along the barrel and around the standing breech somewhat awkward.  To resolve that, I made a small silver insert that extended the connection between the forward and middle sections of the side plate allowing me to lower the volute and curled leaves.  That gives me more options for shaping the lock panels. Once I had everything oriented as I wanted, I simply soldered the pieces together with low temperature Hi-Force 44 solder which is silver bearing.  It came out well.  I have blobs of solder to clean up and then I clean up and polish the plate using die sinker's chisels, gravers, and stones.  That will come later and I will document my process.  For now, I have the plate attached and can mark the borders of the flat panel for the side plate.

This is what it will look like when finished.

I intend to copy the wrist plate from my Heylin gun.  The sterling silver plate was made by Jonathan King, one of the greatest London silversmiths catering to the gun trade.  I will cast it using the Delft clay system and then chisel the details and polish it.  I will share that process with you for better or worse.

More to come,

dave     

[davec2]

David,

Magnificent work.....as usual.  And I noted your comment about fine silver vs sterling and the fact that fine silver doesn't not tarnish as quickly.  I thought I would mention that if you want to use a silver that never tarnishes at all, cast your parts out of beryllium silver.  A nearly fine silver alloy of 99.1 to 99.6% silver alloyed with 0.9 to 0.4% beryllium will not be subject to any oxidation especially by the sulfur that results in the black silver sulfide tarnish that afflicts all other silver alloys. 

Just one of the many tidbits of almost completely useless knowledge I have acquired along life's path... 

[Pukka Bundook]

Lovely work Dave, and yes, the sideplate does look better with your alteration.

Are you using a fillet in the trigger-guard? (like on your other fine gun show)

Before you  started this build, I had one I thought I'd get 'fairly' right.   Now I need to hide it!  LOL.
I started it in Ron Ehlert's class, in 2003.  Put my effort into copying the (Griffin) buttstock, and never got at the fore-end, so I missed quite a lot.

Thanks again for this thread.
R.

[smart dog]

Hi,
Thanks for the notes Dave and Richard.  Dave, that is great info on silver alloys.  I've used Argentium silver, which strongly resists tarnishing but does eventually.  Do you have a supplier of the beryllium alloy?  You know, Dave, I always believed never trust anyone who has a clean desk or an uncluttered "black and white" mind.

dave

[smart dog]

Hi,
I did quite of bit of shaping around the lock panels and butt stock today.  Everything is getting closer to the final dimensions.   On most British guns of this period, the lock panels are usually parallel rather than flaring out toward the read following the taper of the barrel.  Mine have a slight flare but almost unnoticeable. The stock at the breech should be tapered or rounded down to meet the standing breech and barrel with no abrupt step.  On this gun, I wanted the side plate panel to swoop down along the barrel channel in a continuous line with no step.  Notice that the bottom is very slightly domed.  There is more shaping to come and a fair amount of wood to still remove.  Next up is the trigger guard.
dave 

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Ooooooooweeee! I'm likin' this!

[smallpatch]

Dave,
One word....AMAZING, as usual.
Ok that's 3 words.