This was an interesting project. I was given a pile of parts and a price ceiling and told to make what ever I wanted and here it is. I know this fellow to be very fond of Antes architecture so I went with that for a foundation which lead me to using mainly Christian's Spring decorative features which I enjoy plus a lot of Brooksisms thrown into the mix. The cheek carving is right off an Antes rifle, the carving at the tang you see on many early Germanic styled guns. The lock panels are very Christian's Springs. The raised panel around the box is taken from an Oerter gun, Oerter's was in wire but this is done in relief. The wire Moravian Star on the cheek is also CS inspired. The volutes and related carving at the rear pipe is another Antes inspiration as is the thumbnail finial on the rear pipe, the buttplate and the trigger guard. The sideplate is right off an Antes rifle. All the circle punching is a Christians Springs peculiarity that I used liberally through out the decoration to create a textured effect. The wavy gravy buttstock and forestock moldings are Brooksisms , created to give the gun a look of movement and speed.The engraving is pretty near all Brooksism. The logo on the back of the buttplate is taken off English trade guns, most often seen on the tail of the lock. And , what would a Hog Hammer be with out hogs and dogs running down the barrel? You may notice it has red paint on it. This is a continuation of experimenting with color that began on a Lehigh rifle I did last spring/summer. There is still some more paint in me in the future, Haven't quite finished taking paint every where I want to go with it yet.
The specs: Rifled 41" Rice swamped "EDL" barrel in .60, Chambers early Ketland lock, L&R triggers. Castings are all done locally. Has a very fine piece of Harrison wood, sort of 1/4 sawn in some areas, must have come out of a sort of twisted stump. It worked very well for the most part, got some interesting washboard effect from cleaning up with scrapers...pretty authentic look close up. It has sling swivels fore and aft, but I didn't put them on for the pics. Stained with Kibler's iron nitrate followed by Klien's brownish red which took it WAY too dark. I had to rub the bejessus out of it to get it back to this color. I'll be diluting that brownish red before I ever use it again.
This gun has really morphed and evolved as I worked on it. I was always going with this basic architecture and mounts. The carving was originally going to be all in relief with silver wire edges. I have used this technique before and it's a real eye catcher but leaves a very harsh edge to the carving, not very warm. And, for the most part the paint would have covered the wire edge. So, no wire edges.
I encourage any comment, critique , discussion or speculation on my sanity. And that is all I got to say about that....
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