Author Topic: Happiness is.... WKU Gunsmithing Seminar!  (Read 2571 times)

Offline Chowmi

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Happiness is.... WKU Gunsmithing Seminar!
« on: June 07, 2021, 06:02:42 AM »
Anyone at WKU please post pictures of what you are doing.
Curtis, if you see this please post your photos!  Except the ones of me! 

 I’m starting an Oerter rifle, not a copy, but maybe “one of the ones that is lost” or, the next one he would have done if he didn’t die young.

Barrel is in, courtesy of David Rase (super hard quarter sawn blank also from David Rase).  Buttplate is in as of today as well.




Lots of good work going on at WKU, please add your progress

Norm.

picture url
Cheers,
Chowmi

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Offline RJD-VT

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Re: Happiness is.... WKU Gunsmithing Seminar!
« Reply #1 on: June 07, 2021, 03:24:06 PM »
Yes, please…more pichers. ;D

Offline coopersdad

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Re: Happiness is.... WKU Gunsmithing Seminar!
« Reply #2 on: June 07, 2021, 04:48:07 PM »
Looking good Norm!  Yes, please post photos! 
Mike Westcott

Offline Chowmi

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Re: Happiness is.... WKU Gunsmithing Seminar!
« Reply #3 on: June 08, 2021, 03:50:56 AM »
Looking good Norm!  Yes, please post photos!

Mike, where are you?  We miss you, brother! 

Norm.
Cheers,
Chowmi

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Offline coopersdad

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Re: Happiness is.... WKU Gunsmithing Seminar!
« Reply #4 on: June 08, 2021, 05:17:31 AM »
Life interfered,  couldn't make it.  Hate missing it, post photos so I can pretend I'm there!! 
Mike Westcott

Offline Chowmi

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Re: Happiness is.... WKU Gunsmithing Seminar!
« Reply #5 on: June 09, 2021, 04:46:43 AM »
Life interfered,  couldn't make it.  Hate missing it, post photos so I can pretend I'm there!!

Sorry you couldn’t make it Mike. We have had a lot of “life” going on and I nearly didn’t make it either.

Here’s some pictures, I hope they help you pretend! 

Got my lock nails in and tapped. Rear one is blind tapped. Of course I broke the tap in the the rear hole. Fortunately there was enough sticking out the back to grip in a vise.



I want to get help with shaping that funky cheek rest and the comb, so I’m skipping some steps and moving on to shaping the buttstock.
Got it trimmed in the square and will start making chips and sawdust tomorrow! 






Anyone else wanna post? 
Crickets? 
Cheers,
Chowmi

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Offline Daryl

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Re: Happiness is.... WKU Gunsmithing Seminar!
« Reply #6 on: June 09, 2021, 05:38:40 AM »
Very nice, so far Norm. Following along as best I can.
Daryl

"a gun without hammers is like a spaniel without ears" King George V

Offline elkhorne

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Re: Happiness is.... WKU Gunsmithing Seminar!
« Reply #7 on: June 14, 2021, 05:41:08 PM »
Norm,
How did WKU wind up? Did you get a lot done on your rifle? How was everyone? Figured if Curtis was there, he would be posting a bunch of pictures of projects everyone was working on. I thought some old friends would be there this year but to pandemic might have messed them up as well. Hope all is well and you have made it home safely by now. cheers!
elkhorne

Offline Chowmi

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Re: Happiness is.... WKU Gunsmithing Seminar!
« Reply #8 on: June 14, 2021, 08:40:32 PM »
Norm,
How did WKU wind up? Did you get a lot done on your rifle? How was everyone? Figured if Curtis was there, he would be posting a bunch of pictures of projects everyone was working on. I thought some old friends would be there this year but to pandemic might have messed them up as well. Hope all is well and you have made it home safely by now. cheers!
elkhorne

Elkhorne,
WKU was great!   I suspect there were a few less people than usual, but it went very well.  There was a lot of really good work going on.  Curtis brought his Henry sporting rifle, which was a real treat to look at.  Better in person than in pictures.

I got about as much work as I expected done.  My butt stock is really close to shape.  I wanted to concentrate on that area since it is so funky on Oerter guns, especially around the cheek piece.  I'll post some photos. 
Home safe, after a long drive,

Cheers,
Norm
Cheers,
Chowmi

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Offline Curtis

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Re: Happiness is.... WKU Gunsmithing Seminar!
« Reply #9 on: June 16, 2021, 07:09:26 AM »
Looking good Norm!  It was great to see you.

Gary, the motel I was staying at had very poor WiFi (way bad) and after class at Hershel's I headed for Friendship. Just got home and I will try to get some photos posted soon.  I managed to get a buttplate and a trigger guard forged, file up the BP, inlet it and get my rifle  rough shaped.  Also filed up and inlet my lockplate from a kit lock, and made a side plate from one of Hershel's patterns.

Curtis
Curtis Allinson
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Sometimes, late at night when I am alone in the inner sanctum of my workshop and no one else can see, I sand things using only my fingers for backing

Offline Curtis

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Re: Happiness is.... WKU Gunsmithing Seminar!
« Reply #10 on: June 17, 2021, 07:32:28 AM »
Here are a couple pics for starters.

Norm and Jack Brooks at Doc Leeper's picnic:



Doc Leeper looking at my Alexander Henry and some guys shooting:











John House demonstrating the forging of a buttplate:





















A little guy hanging around my workbench:





More to come soon!

Curtis
Curtis Allinson
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Sometimes, late at night when I am alone in the inner sanctum of my workshop and no one else can see, I sand things using only my fingers for backing

Offline WestBranchSusquehanna

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Re: Happiness is.... WKU Gunsmithing Seminar!
« Reply #11 on: June 17, 2021, 03:54:28 PM »

This year, I was in George Suiters inlay class.  Learned a lot about inlaying metal into wood and metal into metal.  As well as wire inlay both flat and round.  Also made a lot of tools for such. 
Note:  At the end of the first day, I called home and told the wife how things went.  I explained that I learned how to make nails out of the material of what I was going to inlay.  Ream out the hole, put in the nail at a slight angle, peen it over and file flat and it disappears.  I guess she only heard a little part because her comment was:  "SO, you drove over 700 miles, spent all that money for class and gone for 11 days.........just to make nails?!"  "And you can't even see them?"












Cheers, Michael Kuriga

Offline Curtis

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Re: Happiness is.... WKU Gunsmithing Seminar!
« Reply #12 on: June 19, 2021, 07:05:08 AM »
Great pics Mike!  Here are a few more form Hershel's class:








































Curtis
« Last Edit: June 19, 2021, 07:08:29 AM by Curtis »
Curtis Allinson
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Sometimes, late at night when I am alone in the inner sanctum of my workshop and no one else can see, I sand things using only my fingers for backing

Offline Tim Crosby

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Re: Happiness is.... WKU Gunsmithing Seminar!
« Reply #13 on: June 19, 2021, 11:23:30 AM »
 Great Pix guys, Thanks for posting them.

    Tim

Offline WestBranchSusquehanna

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Re: Happiness is.... WKU Gunsmithing Seminar!
« Reply #14 on: June 19, 2021, 04:40:37 PM »
A big thank you goes to Terry for organizing this school for close if not 40 years.  Next year there will be new leadership and maybe a few different classes.  Possibly knife forging. 
This was my second course and just one day of learning makes the whole trip worthwhile.  I am already looking forward to future classes.


George Suiters toolbox.  Either he or the folks in the blacksmith shop at Colonial Williamsburg made most of the tools.  Just seeing these tools can teach you a lot about gun making.
Cheers, Michael Kuriga

Offline elkhorne

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Re: Happiness is.... WKU Gunsmithing Seminar!
« Reply #15 on: June 20, 2021, 06:25:21 AM »
Great seeing pictures of all the fun at WKU this year but all our friends and members at Friendship need our prayers tonight from all the photos that got posted on social media this afternoon. Looks as though the always dreaded flood hit Friendship at the end of the Spring Nationals and it looked a real mess. I’m sure some of our members that are there will post pictures and a first hand explanation of what happened and has been taking place. Again as I said, prayers for all those folks at Friendship and trying to get out of there to go home.
elkhorne

Offline Mike Brooks

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Re: Happiness is.... WKU Gunsmithing Seminar!
« Reply #16 on: June 20, 2021, 04:07:55 PM »
Great seeing pictures of all the fun at WKU this year but all our friends and members at Friendship need our prayers tonight from all the photos that got posted on social media this afternoon. Looks as though the always dreaded flood hit Friendship at the end of the Spring Nationals and it looked a real mess. I’m sure some of our members that are there will post pictures and a first hand explanation of what happened and has been taking place. Again as I said, prayers for all those folks at Friendship and trying to get out of there to go home.
elkhorne
I have enjoyed several of Friendships famous floods. I hope the Smallmouth Bass are OK..... ???
NEW WEBSITE! www.mikebrooksflintlocks.com
Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'?

Offline Bob Roller

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Re: Happiness is.... WKU Gunsmithing Seminar!
« Reply #17 on: June 20, 2021, 06:45:47 PM »
Great seeing pictures of all the fun at WKU this year but all our friends and members at Friendship need our prayers tonight from all the photos that got posted on social media this afternoon. Looks as though the always dreaded flood hit Friendship at the end of the Spring Nationals and it looked a real mess. I’m sure some of our members that are there will post pictures and a first hand explanation of what happened and has been taking place. Again as I said, prayers for all those folks at Friendship and trying to get out of there to go home.
elkhorne
I have enjoyed several of Friendships famous floods. I hope the Smallmouth Bass are OK..... ???

The Spring Shoot of 2019 was when we almost got our feet wet but managed to escape.Does anyone know how deep it has been in the past?I remember a fatality when someone put up a tent in Ceasar creek and a flash flood that night drowned at least one person,a kid if memory is working right.
Bob Roller

Offline Mike Brooks

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Re: Happiness is.... WKU Gunsmithing Seminar!
« Reply #18 on: June 20, 2021, 10:00:32 PM »
I have seen it up to the bottom of the bridge.
NEW WEBSITE! www.mikebrooksflintlocks.com
Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'?