1770s British Rifled Officer's Fusil FINISHED

[Marcruger]

Going to be an interesting gun.  A neat choice for a build. 

[Daryl]

Another slim gun, Dave. Looks like a fowler for sure.

[smart dog]

Hi,
Major pivot today.  I had to put the fusil aside to work on a Brown Bess for a while.  During that time I mulled over the discussion we had on ALR about officer's fusils.  Several really knowledgeable folks contributed and I began to rethink this project.  What was I making, a sporting gun or an officer's fusil?  I really respect Joe Puleo's opinions and I agree with his basic identifiers for a true officer's fusil, a full-sized bayonet mount and sling swivels.  Much else could be up for grabs because there was no formal pattern, just what the private contractors were asked to make for their clients, which could include bulk orders of some standard design or a one-off gun of essentially sporting gun design adapted for military use.  I think the beautiful fusil shown in the thread below is a good example of that.
https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=46406.msg456207#msg456207

I decided against using the short bayonet and the butt plate with the trap door for it.  Instead, I fitted a typical fowler butt plate from Jim Chambers and will mount a carbine-style bayonet and sling swivels on the gun.
 I inletted the butt plate.  I've done so many of these my procedure is routine.  I trim the stock with a band saw close to the profile of the butt plate and then rasp and file in a shoulder to begin fitting the tang. 


These plates usually have a lug under the tang for a cross pin.  The inlet for that lug does not have to be tight and it will need excess space forward so the butt plate can be moved forward during inletting.


I always want a little curvature to the face of the plate and do not like those that are straight.  Inletting that curvature is a little more challenging but if you use inletting black and go slow, it comes out fine.  The inletting came out well, nice and tight.


Next I had to deal with the trigger guard.  I really like the design of the guard from TRS.  The acorn is just right and the bow has the perfect "egg" shape and raised borders.  But the casting had a serious flaw where the bow joined the front finial.  The slightest pressure to bend the casting broke it.


What to do.  The commercially available castings from Track and others with the acorn finial are garbage.  The skinny acorn is some misshapen design from who knows what and the bows are much too large.  I can make a proper acorn guard from the urn guard sold by Chambers but I determined that I had an opportunity to use the TRS guard given that I wanted to mount a lug for a sling swivel.  That gave me an idea.  I created a group of parts to assemble the guard from its broken pieces.  I made a boss for the swivel hole and gave it a threaded post that extends through the front final anchoring the forward lug on the inside of the guard.  Then I cut brass sheet to make a spline connecting the finial to the broken bow.


I fitted that all together and soldered it in place using low temp silver bearing solder.  Then I drilled and installed a brass rivet between the spline and the forward curl of the bow and another rivet between the upper part of the swivel boss and the trigger guard bow.  After riveting, I heated all the solder joints to flow around the rivets and fill in any spaces.  It worked.  I now have a beautiful British fowler trigger guard complete with swivel boss much like the gun shown in the link above.  The assembly should be very strong.

dave     

[TommyG]

Dave, Awesome, you took what would have been a bad day for most of us and turned it into something better than what you started with.

[Ed Wenger]

That IS a nice guard, Dave.  Great job!   Best,


         Ed

[rich pierce]

Nice fabrication. Looks stylish.

[Craig Wilcox]

For your trigger guard work - WOW!

Are you going to make the sideplate similar to the one you referenced?  that is truly an awesome side plate.

[smart dog]

Thanks for looking folks and commenting.  Craig, it will be a stand of arms.  I have to carve it first and then I will cast it in brass.  I am not sure what I will do for the wrist because it will be checkered in the early coarse fashion with dots in the centers of the diamonds. 

dave

[Justin Urbantas]

I am looking forward to seeing how you do your checkering. My current project will need some early style checkering.
This is my inspiration gun. I don't plan on the forend checkering. Only the wrist.

[smart dog]

Hi Justin,
The checkering I'll be doing is coarse and is cut in close to 90 degrees and will be about 6 lines per inch.  It may not have any border either, just let the lines run out. 

dave

[smart dog]

Hi,
I got a lot done these past 2 days.  I am having a lot of fun with this project.  I prepared and inlet the trigger guard.  I've written about this in previous threads, but these long fowler guards are best inlet starting with the front finial.  Inlet it fully and then clamp it in place before outlining the rear extension.  For the rear extension, work back toward the rear inletting and fitting as you go.  As the guard sinks into the inlet, it tends to move forward.  Make sure the slots for the lugs can accommodate that forward movement. It is that shifting that causes a lot of inexperienced builders to end up with gaps at the end of the rear extension.  Before inletting the rear extension, make sure the bottom of it is filed nice and flat and in most cases, thin it a bit.  It does not need to have much thickness and the springiness caused by that  mass will make inletting difficult particularly with cast steel guards.  Another area many have trouble is inletting the guard down into the stock but running into the front of the trigger plate.  Every guard and trigger plate combination is a little different but the problem can be addressed two-fold.  File a step in the bottom of the forward curl of the trigger guard so it can be set lower on top of the trigger plate.  Another trick is to inlet the forward part of the trigger plate so it is below the surface of the wood.  Just make sure you file the wood flush with the rest of the plate beyond where the trigger guard overlaps.  I usually do a combination of the two.







I had to deepen the inlet for the trigger plate to fit the guard and I also had to reduce the height of the trigger so it would fit within the bow of the guard.  I like my triggers to have a nice graceful slant to the rear and barely sufficient clearance within the trigger guard bow.  Note the "egg shape" to the bow.  That maximizes clearance for your finger forward of the trigger without making the bow too big, something the Frenchies never learned. 


After installing the trigger guard, I reshaped and pinned the trigger.  The fusil will have a LOP of about 13 11/16ths ". The stock fits so well and the English "baluster wrist" architecture is really well designed.  This rifle will be a real shooter.  I shaped the butt stock a bit more and then removed and shaped the fore stock to the final dimensions.  This will be a very slim gun.  I will cut back the front of the stock a little more to fit a standard bayonet and also a brass muzzle band.  In the end, this should be a very fine rifle.

dave     

[Pukka Bundook]

Dave,

Very fine work!

But, Me being English, please send it to me (When finish'd of course) so I can "Feel" if you got it right;
Feel is a very important thing.

I will 0nly have to "feel" it for maybe 10-20 years, then I will return it.  (Honest)

To get the baluster looking right is no mean feat, and you have done  a grand job!  It all Looks Right .

Best,
R.

[smart dog]

Hi,
Lots of stuff got done in the shop today on several projects.  I think listening to my favorite pandemic songs; John Prine's "Please Don't Bury Me" and Harry Nilsson's "I'd Rather Be Dead Than Wet My Bed" really helped motivate me. I added the swivel mount on the trigger guard, which means I need a fore stock swivel.  Contrary to most reproduction Brown Besses, mainly by those who speak Italian, Japanese, and Hindi, the forward swivel should have a supporting lug on the barrel.  I ran out of good lugs for round barrels and I like the loop to be at least 1/8" thick.  I had to make it.  I found a chunk of octagon barrel that I had sawed off and realized it would be ideal for the lug.  The bore provides the curve of the base and there was enough thickness to make a lug tall enough and wide.  A few hacksaw cuts and then a little filing was all it took. 




The forward swivel must always be located just in front of a ramrod pipe so the sling and swivel never block the ramrod channel.  They lay against the pipe.  I soldered on the lug and inlet it in the wood.  Then drilled for the swivel pin. 





My next job was to make and install the sheet brass nose band.  This gun does not have a muzzle cap, rather a simple band of thin brass sheet wrapped around the stock to reinforce the muzzle end of the stock.  The band was made for 0.032" brass annealed brass sheet.  I cut and file in the groove for the band in the stock, then make a paper pattern to measure the length of the brass sheet.  Then I cut out the brass, bend over one end and attach it to the side of the stock.  The soft brass bends easily around the mortice and I pinch the other side on to the stock with pliers.  I will eventually rivet it with a brass rivet.  It came out nicely.




More to come.

dave

[Mick C]

This piece is really looking great.  Thanks for letting us follow along.

[Pukka Bundook]

It's an important point Dave, to have the sling just in front of the pipe so it doesn't foul the rammer.
Very good you mentioned this!

Tidy as always, Very good idea about the octagonal barrel for a lug!

[smart dog]

Hi,
Well, more got done today.  I resolved some lock issues.  The lock is a series 569 from TRS copied from an original fusil by John Twigg made in the early 1770s. It had pretty good geometry, and the internals were nice but the flintcock did not work quite right.  I don't think the square tumble hole in the cast part was positioned correctly.  Anyway, I eventually found that the flintcock from a Chambers early Ketland lock worked.  It just had to be trimmed a little smaller and some details added.  I fitted it and in terms of geometry, it worked very well but it just was too massive and a little taller than fit the proportions of the lock as a whole.  So, I went back to the original flintcock and filled the tumbler hole with weld and then cut a new one that positioned the cock better.  It came out great.  I had another problem. The cast tumbler bridle was very fragile.  Likely because of some shrinkage during casting and then more loss of metal after cleaning up the cast part, it was not very robust. I hardened and tempered it but it eventually broke at a predictably weak spot.  I ordered a replacement from TRS but that was long ago and with all that is going on, I decided to make a more robust replacement.  I discovered that the bridle from an L&R Queen Anne lock would work well with a few minor changes.  I have one of those locks, which I bought because it is the right sized round-raced lock for an early Peter Berry rifle I intend to build soon.  However, after buying it I decided it needed too much work to be acceptable and decided I will use just the plate, flint cock, and frizzen (after filing off the stupid lug on the bottom of the pan cover)  for the Berry but fill all the holes and install better internal parts and create a much better lock.  As a result, I have some internal lock parts that can be salvaged for other projects.  This is one of those. I just needed to weld over the sear screw hole and move it a little.  I then filed the bridle to give it a nicer look but with a bit more excess metal for strength.  It worked and is much stronger than the bridle that came with the parts set.








I will eventually polish, engrave and then case harden the lock plate, frizzen, and flintcock.  The new bridle will also be hardened and tempered.  I am also going to sole the frizzen with a hardened sheet of high carbon steel.  The case hardened frizzen will produce abundant sparks but the face is very thin. That is likely the result of making a mold from a worn original and not compensating for that wear and then shrinkage.  I want to add some mass to it so will attach a hardened sole.   

More to come.

dave   

[B.Barker]

You are doing another great job. I really like what you did with that trigger guard.

[smart dog]

Hi Guys,
Spring cleanup and other projects including a Brown Bess diverted me away from the rifled officer's fusil.  I needed to make a side plate and found a design that I liked in Neal's "Great British Gunmakers 1740-1790".  It was the product of a provincial maker in Bristol, England but the open style was also used by Ketland and others.  I modified the design to suit my decorative objectives and cut it out from sheet brass.


 I filed it to shape and then created wells for the bolt heads by soldering brass sheet on the back.  I've done this before and it is a slick way to avoid cutting the whole side plate from thick brass.







Next up was inletting it and it was no problem.  The fact that so little wood has to be removed makes it go really fast especially when you have tiny chisels that fit the design.  The solid area under the rear lock bolt will be engraved with the looped ropes forming the border of a shield.  On the shield will be engraved a lion rampant or an armored bent arm holding a sword.  Both are designs linked to honorable military service.



I trimmed the stock to almost final dimensions.  I still need to  final shape the lock and side plate panels and then final shape the stock.  It will be ready for stain very soon but I have to checker the wrist first. 








dave

[Ed Wenger]

Great work on the side plate, Dave.  Looking forward to seeing it with the engraving, along with the finished piece! 


            Ed

[Keb]

That gun would almost make me want to enlist in the British army.

[bama]

Very fine craftsmanship and a very beautiful looking gun. Thanks for sharing your work.

[Kingsburyarms]

I like the side plate!!! - Very Clean!!! -

Jon

[Daryl]

Oh boy! Now isn't that special!
Very nice indeed.

[Jim Kibler]

I've always admired that sideplate.  Beautiful work, Dave!

Jim

[smart dog]

Hi, and thanks for looking and commenting.  I appreciate the encouragement.  Jim, thanks for your note and I do like the side plate design as well.  I've always wanted to try it and I just did not want to make the generic solid plate that you see on so many contemporary-made  English fowlers nor the common stand of arms style.  Both would be appropriate but since these guns did not follow a standard pattern, I  decided to do something different.  The original in GBR that I based it on does not have the solid center.  I am not 100% sure that I like it but I have a plan if I decide to eliminate it and copy the open loops of the original.  I'll cut away the shield and file the full open loops and then glue a piece of English walnut into the space I cut away.  It will be surrounded by brass and if I do a decent job matching the grain, you won't be able to tell it is a replacement.  I think I will engrave the shield and see how I like it before deciding to keep or discard it.
Hopefully, today I'll carve the shell around the standing breech. 

dave