Photos from the NMLRA Gunsmithing Seminar at WKU

[Curtis]

I am a bit late in getting these posted... It was another great seminar this year, we had some new faces and some great classes.  The picnic/shoot at Terry Leaper's and the picnic at Herschel House's were a great time as well!

Now for a smattering of photos...





























































Thanks for looking,
Curtis

[P.Bigham]

Thanks for posting. I recognize the back porch of Hershel's

[Davemuzz]

Great pics!!  The matchlock in progress is pretty neat. Also, the flint firing with flash coming from the front barrel was great timing!!

[Mike Brooks]

I would excel in Gusler's class. Shootin' the bull is one of my specialties.

[jerrywh]

Who did that great sideplate.  As usual no names on the photos.

[Curtis]

Jerry, I am afraid I would get too many names wrong or just half right so I didn't include any. 

That wonderful sideplate in question was being sculpted by Hank Elwood, who I believe goes by "helwood" on this forum.  He is the one wearing the Optivisor on the right:



The wheelock is some excellent work of Joe Valentin.  It will have tons of silver wire and inlays when finished. A few more pics:











And while I'm at it, posting these for Mike Brooks, some of Wallace's furniture carving that he brought along to share:











And this is the Henry Albright rifle I am worked on in Jack Brook's class.  The buttplate and trigger guard are from Mike Brooks castings, which are very nice soft brass and a real pleasure to work with.  I am currently making some set triggers for the gun and will post a thread on them when they are finished.
















Curtis

[SteveMKentucky]

Thanks for posting these Curtis.  Great photos and great meeting you at the seminar.

Steve Minning

[Ed Wenger]

Great photos, Curtis.  Sure was a good time!



            Ed

[jerrywh]

Curtis. Thanks for the photos. I would have known that was Wallace's furniture carving. I have been wondering what Ed Wenger looked like. That is a great side plate. Do you know if Hank Elwood cut it out and sculpted it or how it was produced?

[helwood]

Curtis thanks much for posting the Photos.  It's fun to see the other classes. 
Hi Jerry this is Hank Elwood we met a couple of years ago at Ron Scotts gathering.  I did a talk on the Lukens and Girardoni Air Rifles I made and the Spanish Miquellet Brace of Pistols  and Escopeta.  This is my first attempt to move this much metal.   The Sideplate I was working on is for a Muellerbusche/Sporting Jaeger Wheellock  that I am currently making.  The design is inspired from Master French Gunsmiths' Designs--- (Simonin plate 74).  The original was for a French lock with x2 side nails.  My Wheellock has x3 side nails so I had to go with a little Artistic License to accommodate.  I started out using .095" flat sheet brass. Then Jewelers saw and trying all methods to achieve the end result.  So I started with Thermo-Loc under my scope with hand piece for sculpting, then I went to Die Sinker's Chisels and Chasing Hammer.   From there I studied classic Chasing tech. and made about two dozen Chasing tools to Chase the surface with Hammer.  I also moved to a pitch bowl and Red German Pitch.       My thought was, if there is going to be any place that I might find help with this technique it would be in Bowling Green KY at the NMLRA Classes.  Thanks to Ron Scott for letting my bring my off the wall projects to our European Style Firearms Class.  When you are at class you have access to all these resource people, both Students and Instructors. Now that I am back at home I am trying out all the suggestions I received.  Some worked, some didn't but I keep notes on all of them for the future.    Curtis I must thank you for posting all the photos so everyone can see what a wonderful learning experience it is.  BTW your English Sporting Rifle is just the cat's meow, most excellent.    Hank   

[Pukka Bundook]

Great pictures, and a wonderful reminder of the one and only time I ever got down there.  Is was a great highlight for me!   Fantastic!
I recognise some of the faces in these photos still!

Helwood Hank,

Are you from CA?    I met a Hank when I was down.   Great bloke and I was from Canada. You won't remember me but I remember you and Ed M.  from over on the left coast!  (If you're the same Hank that is, LOL!)   
That was back in 2003.

[helwood]

Pukka---Yes, I am from Southern California.  Very glad you were able to come in from Canada and had a good time.  This was my 28th Seminar I'm a slow learner, LOL.
Mike S.---I received your pm.  I hope my response came through.
                             Hank

[rich pierce]

Cool stuff. Interesting to see different approaches to certain tasks. There are cases I’m seeing here where chisels are being used, where I’d be using planes. Once one gets handy with whatever tool, that’s the one to use. I do most of my buttstock hogging work with a scrub plane now. I had to open the throat some but it’s very fast cutting.

[Curtis]

Good to hear from you Hank!  I'm glad you saw this and were able to reply, it is always much better for folks to get information directly from the source.  I'm glad you enjoyed the English Sporting gun!  Hopefully you will share some photos of that sideplate when you are finished.  Truly a work of inspiration and perseverance!

Jerry, Ed is the guy in the red hat standing with the fellow in the green apron in the first set of photos, just a couple of pics above Hank's sideplate.

Rich,  on the other side of my rifle I started hogging off the excess with a scrub plane, but went back to using a #9-20 gouge across the grain as it was considerably faster.  I shaped the fore-end with a spokeshave, as well as the butt after the bulk of the wood was taken off with the #9 gouge and then leveled with a rasp.

Steve, it was great meeting you thee a Bowling Green as well!

Curtis