This is an important historical rifle, and an attempt to copy the art and finish techniques used almost 250 years ago. The old pics are of a rifle Christian Oerter of Christian’s Spring, Pennsylvania made in 1774 for Aaron Hankinson of New Jersey, and shown in
Moravian Gunmaking II. If you don’t have that book, here is a plug for the Kentucky Rifle Foundation, who publishes books and photo CD’s illustrating and describing historical arms, with many details valuable to contemporary builders. Their website is
http://kentuckyriflefoundation.org/. If you send them some of your hard earned dollars, feel good, as this will fund additional research and publications for all of us. Hankinson was 39 years old when the rifle was stocked for him. As a young man, he had ranged between the forts put up during the French & Indian War, and as the Rev War approached in 1774, he would soon be made a Major in the New Jersey Militia.
I was fortunate to handle this rifle. The family who owned it had been encouraged to clean up the old rifle, and they asked my advice. At some point, the stock was scraped with a bladed instrument which left a few scratches in the wood, and then the entire rifle was shellacked, giving it a sort of orange color. Some of the shellac has bubbled or wrinkled, and some areas of the silver and brass have seen air, so they are colored differently. If one removed the shellac, the wood, silver and brass would have blotchy variations in color, so would that then have to be evened out? Then some finish applied again to the scraped stock? It is hard to know when to stop - so I suggested the owners keep it as is. Better to make a new copy of a rare and historic old rifle, than to mess with the original, in my view.
I had started an Oerter rifle several years ago. I used a barrel copied from the Oerter griffin rifle, mounts from that rifle and # 43 in Shumway’s
RCA Vol I, and the Davis Colonial lock. But when I handled the Oerter rifle for Hankinson, I decided to follow my own advice, and copy the art and finish of this rifle as closely as possible. A recent health issue slowed me down, and Jack Brooks played a large part in completing the rifle. I carefully copied the wire inlay from the original, stained the stock, while Jack did the remaining physical work, engraving and finish. The “sparkle” is his work.
It is quite a contrast to see a new made version of this rifle with the old one. It would be great to display the old and new together, where we could handle them. Many contemporary gunstockers prefer to age a new rifle for a mellow appearance, but I wanted to understand how this rifle looked when new.
From careful study of Oerter's rifles, they appear to have a butterscotch color in the wood from Aquafortis (included in the Christian’s Spring gunshop inventories), and a shiny built up varnish finish on top of the wood, with a strong red tint mixed into that finish. Where the finish is worn away, the red is gone, leaving the yellow in the wood. It is difficult to photograph the new rifle, and Mtn Meek took these photos. Reflection from the shiny finish, silver star and bright lock and barrel cause the wood to appear dark, and hide the fine curl. Viewed in sunlight, the color and curly maple show, along with the decoration. Imagine Major Hankinson standing with his troops, holding his new rifle. He fought at Brandywine and Germantown, but for many years he and his militia units were stationed along the Delaware, fighting the Native Americans in hit and run fashion, where a rifle would have been desirable.
This old rifle is in its original flint configuration, and note the use of an English lock. Some have offered on this website and elsewhere that Pennsylvania rifles should have German styled locks, and Southern rifles should have English locks. In Oerter’s case, and with other early rifles, the gunstockers used import locks of both styles. The forestock on this rifle is spliced, overlapped carefully, as they made use of a good, but short piece of curly maple. The barrel has a fast twist, maybe 1:35 or so, which is common in German rifles and carried over to early colonial rifles, including # 42 and # 43 in Shumway’s
RCA Vol I. The lock and lower buttstock mouldings were done in brass wire - quite a bit of the brass wire has fallen out, while all the other designs are in silver - which seems to remain in the stock more readily!
I've often heard of brass on a rifle described as "a poor man's gold". Filed smooth and burnished, it does look like gold, and the silver is striking in contrast to the dark stock. After a little use and carry in the field, this would mellow. Jack would rather have mellowed the look, but that was not the intent this time. Did the owner of such a rifle allow it to mellow in 1774, or did he rub and polish his fine new rifle to keep it bright? We see finish worn away around the inlays on these old rifles - but was that constant over time, or recent work?
Changing to an common German styled lock on the copy did not concern me, as it was Christian Oerter's stocking and design that I was curious to replicate. The goal was to copy the art and finish from the old rifle. This copy is as close as we can get to what 27 year old Christian Oerter delivered to Mr. Hankinson in 1774. I found this whole project to be quite educational. Today we often value the old or aged look, but a rifle like this would have been quite a calling card for Oerter, back in the day. Bob
