Thank you very much for posting this here Dennis! This is turning out to be a pretty amazing project, I hope everybody who is interested in checking it out can go have a look. It's a public page so there may be a way to see it without signing up as a member but I'm not sure, have only been on facebook for a short time and don't totally know my way around it yet.
The project is a set of items being made for the 2018 CLA auction. As of now, there are twelve artists working on the various parts of it. Here is an excerpt from the facebook page describing the project -
A Warrior's Clutch ... the title of this collective creation may conjure images of a proud hero bearing the hard won trophies of warfare, the objects yet carrying the power of previous owners now gone from this world. The challenge has been accepted by a group of a dozen artisans - Brad Emig, Eric Ewing, Matt Fennewald, Alec Fourman, Tad Frei, Ken Gahagan, Jeanne McDonald, Ian Pratt, David Rase, Joe Seabolt, Shawn Webster, and Josh Wrightsman - to develop this concept and together give it flesh and breath.
Our goal is to create a vibrant, visually striking set of items that will reflect the theme of possessions carried by a warrior in the mid 18th century. Although we imagine a general Great Lakes Region as our warrior's home, his identity remains unknown.
The gun will be an early composite piece utilizing the barrel, lock and ramrod pipes from an early to mid 18th century English trade gun. The buttplate and guard represent parts taken from a French gun of the same period. Not too tough to imagine a couple scenarios which could result in these groups of parts being available - in our example, we might surmise that the French gun suffered a major breech blowout which also damaged the lock. You are left with some usable parts to the butt end of the gun, and some repairable parts in the other direction. And our English gun may have suffered any one of a number of catastrophic acts that may have smashed, burned or otherwise removed the buttstock , and perhaps later on all that was recovered would be everything from the wrist forward.
The gun is currently in Dave Rase's shop being worked on. From there it will be shipped to Ken Gahagan who will finish shaping the stock and do some detail work. When Ken is done with his part , the buttplate and trigger guard (which were forged by Josh Wrightsman) are going to Brad Emig for engraving, and the rest comes to me for finish work The stock will be painted as if the maker had perhaps intended to mimic the painted decoration they had seen on the remnants of the English stock that the barrel and lock were robbed from. Some of the design components will be reminiscent of the vine decoration on the Bumford trade gun in the Williamsburg collection, while other parts will be new and unusual. I have a pretty bold design sketched out, will be done in black over an oxide red background.
We are using a barrel that Ed Rayl made using the pattern from a mid 18th century English trade gun. The lock we are using is a slightly re - modified version of one of Chris Evrard' already modified locks which he posts about here on ALR. Other than that, all parts will be made by hand.
