Refinish a T\C long rifle in patina

[Steeltrap]

Ok..So I've had this TC Hawken since the late 70's. The best thing I ever did to it was put a GM "drop in" barrel as that increased accuracy and reloading ease by 1,000%.

The rifle has the "new" style TC lock and it works just fine for hunting. What I was considering is to refinish the current blued barrel to a patina. I don't know how a patina TC looks...but I think I may like it.

The existing TC lock is the standard TC heat treat and I don't know if it's possible to change that to a patina finish or not.

Any input would be much appreciated.

[Daryl]

IIRC the TC lock was colour case hardened. Good luck with that, but you could, perhaps with the use of acids (muriatic maybe) 'take' off the surface shine and colours.
Draw-sanding the barrel will remove the blue, then you could use Ajax or some other 'cleanser' to roughen up the outside of the barrel. Don't get any inside & don't let it work too long.
Course, upon removing the blueing, you could leave it bright and let nature patina it.

[Scota4570]

I'd leave it alone.  TC's were functional and reliable.  They were not authentic to any original guns or made like any any originals.  Adding patina makes a modern gun that looks like it was not taken care of. 

[Steeltrap]

Well....maybe not patina so much as to change the look of it some.

Of course, It's always a possibility to simply take the GM barrel and build a "real" Hawken around that.

[Not English]

Steeltrap, I did a refinish job on a a TC Green mountain barrel a number of years ago for a good friends father. All I did was plug up any holes into the barrel and wipe it down with hydrochloric/muriatic acid (?). I'm not sure which it was, but it's the same stuff you can buy at the hardware store for etching cement. All I did was quite literally wipe the barrel down after degreasing the metal and then using a natural fiber rag and wiping it down. What was left was a gray finish that was perfect  for cold browning with no further prep needed. I would not mess with the lock if it is color case hardened. All the rest of the furniture can be treated the same as the barrel. On a side note, my friends father was a retired Wi. game warden, the deal was a supply of bear grease for a browned barrel. I'm still using the bear grease he gave me. Just a suggestion regarding your TC, It looks like a decent piece of maple. Why not just reshape the stock as needed to mimic a Hawken. Nobody other than a fellow gunmaker and you will notice the difference.

[Steeltrap]

Thank you all for your replies. It's "just" a hunting firearm that I want to change from the "factory pipeline" look. I have lots of time on my hands to do this.

[Daryl]

That's an amazing piece of wood for a TC. 
It must be a re-stock. I'd just leave it & build a new rifle
in a style I wanted, like a Kibler Colonial in about .58 cal.

[flinchrocket]

I don't think that stock came from T/C.

[Steeltrap]

That T\C pic is not mine. That pic was taken from an individual who wrote an article about changing your T\C so it doesn't look like a "paper punched" rifle.

I know the article is online somewhere.

[Phil Neal]

I dropped in a GM barrel a couple years ago and then replaced with a Pecatonica maple stock, about the only thing left of the T/C is the tang and trigger, and lock.  However you can remove the blueing with Naval Jelly, real easy.  I did mine and then used Kiblers patina solution and rubbed it back to the desired effect.

[Steeltrap]

Phil, any chance you can post a pic?

What got me thinking of changing this is...I'm retired and right now....I got time!!  I don't have the desire to do a build from scratch, but a re-do of this TC is well within my ability. 

In my "stash of parts" I have a Hawken double set trigger, trigger guard, & butt plate for a Hawken. These parts are all steel (which I prefer) and I've compared the parts to the existing stock and it's very do-able to replace the TC parts with 'em. I purchased these parts at least 5+ years ago with the intent of doing a new build....and that never happened.

[dstock]

As you get older you realize how little time you really have left. The rifle is yours and I like your attitude about making the rifle to look more desirous in your eyes. You don't need to feel bad about wanting to make a production line rifle to look a little bit custom.
Now! Get started, the clock is ticking, post some before and after pictures. Yes and in-process pics also.
GOD Bless
Doug B

[Daryl]

Spot-on, Doug.
 In the early 70's, changing a TC "Hawken" was the first step for me. Actually the first step taken was barrels, then the stock. I got a few barrels from
ol' Les Hawkes on Walcot Road, then more from Bauska in '75 - and did a whack of shooting various calibres, all from that original, but, but then, altered
 stock.  I guess it was sometime after 77, that I tried my hand at a rifle, in .44 smoothbore, with an octagonal seamless tubing blank. It looked good, at
the time and shot very well with ball and shot, after I lapped in a jug choke.

[Eric Krewson]

Fred here gave me some nice advice on reshaping a TC Hawken stock, I followed his lead on this kit gun for dropping the comb and making a more graceful looking cheekpiece than the standard TC clunker.

[Steeltrap]

Eric, that's a very nice job you did on that TC stock. Appears you lengthened the wrist a few inches and dropped the comb accordingly.

I would think that would make the butt plate some what shorter as well, which is no big deal.

I'm curious though, if you had a factory cut patchbox hole, how did you deal with that?

[Steeltrap]

Did some searching on the TC lock "case coloring".  Apparently the TC case coloring is not a case hardening and is easy to remove using a scotch-brite type of pad. No heating or chemicals needed. I may try this on the back side of the lock to see how that comes out.

I have a patina solution (I can't recall which gun supply I bought it from) that I used on my flint pistol build...and then rebuild.

I know there is some work involved to do what I'm thinking. I also know from building a pistol and then a rifle what it takes to build a gun. I have the utmost respect for those who can make their works of art.

Doing a make over of a factory TC (I built this from the TC kit rifles in 1980 or so) is no where near the work of a scratch build. Still needs time...but not the man hours of one from a blank.

[Eric Krewson]

I dropped the stock and broke a small piece out of the toe, my patch looked awful so I shortened the buttplate a little and put on a toe plate to hide the break.

The TC patchbox was already in place so that is what I went with.




Finished;

[Steeltrap]

The T\C lock "case hardening" came off with not much effort. A green scotch bright pad and a little work. It's off very easy.  I don't want to bring the flats down to "nice and shiny finish" as this lock is 40 years old and used every flintlock season....with a few shoots in the offseason. Here's a pic of half the color coming off.  The sides of the pan still have the metal cast pock marks. I don't really want to clean those up for sake of "old".

[Steeltrap]

In looking at the cheekpiece of an original Hawken, I've inserted a few black dissection lines in order to get an idea of where the original cheek piece was located.

[Steeltrap]

Started a little reshaping. Just a beginning.

[flehto]

My first MLer was a TC Hawken from a kit in 1975 and was my main MLer hunting rifle for many years and still have it even though I no longer hunt.  It's a .50 cal. and it's first use was on squirrels w/ a  PRB and the accuracy was impressive and  because  I wanted to realize some meat from the squirrels, all were head hits

The next use for this rifle was deer hunting also w/ a PRB but w/ much "bigger" powder charges it performed  well on deer and shot a few. It was w/ this load that I felt my cheek being punished   so  removed a lot of wood from   the comb and cheekpiece  until it no longer was a pain to shoot.

The next use was for elk using a 410 gr Buffalo Bullet and it killed a couple of elk w/o any complications and  my cheek felt fine.

The only other change was a brown job on the bbl. Later on I made a Pecatonica Hawken  in .54  and this rifle was my elk gun for many years using a PRB and the TC Hawken was always used  by a my son  on elk using the Buffalo Bullet load.  He actually killed more elk w/ it than I did.

Eric.....you did a fine job of "civilizing" the TC buttstock. 

Because of its "hybrid" Hawken design. many don't like it, but it surely was my all around  hunting rifle for many years........Fred

[Steeltrap]

Flehto, thanks for your post. I can see you changed the cheek piece. I've removed some wood from the cheek, and a some "fat" from under the cheek and have done some removal of the cheek grove\contour.

And like you, this was my first flintlock for hunting. It's not a historical style from the 1800's, but I have to give credit to T\C in they likely introduced more people to flintlock firearms and perhaps made a big contribution to the crowd that now enjoy's the old replication's....enjoy's building, and enjoy's collecting the old style firearms.

The T\C Hawken may not be 1800's "period correct"....but it is "1970's" period correct!!

[Steeltrap]

Since I've had this Hawken double set trigger and trigger plate hanging out in a box for several years, I decided to install\replace the original T\C trigger. I also have the Hawken Plains rifle trigger guard that I will install. Yes, it's not brass...nor is the trigger guard, but with the patina finish on the steel and what I plan on doing with the brass furniture, I think it wlll look good. Not PC.....but what T\C is?

The original T\C opening was a tad wider than the longer Hawken TP. My plan is to either glue a sliver of wood in the space.....or more likely mix up a little Acraglas, tint it brown, and fill in the space with that. I'm still thinking on that one. The stock will be refinished so I think whatever I do, it will not be "stick out" noticeable.

[Steeltrap]

I think the arrows show the changes....plus the rounding of the top of the wrist. The T\C tang isn't "flat" in width across the top....and from what I can tell in looking at original Hawken's, those rifles tangs were fashioned in a similar manner.

[duca]

Cool, can't wait to see it when it's done

Anthony