Brown Bess Kit that was given to me ( pictures added )

[mountainman]

So a couple years ago I received this Brown Bess Kit, (and I wasn't at home when it came), I have no idea who made it, there was a shipping label that said North Star Enterprise, Dayton, Ohio. I had tried looking it up, but I had no results, does anybody have an idea who would have made this kit? Preshaped and and Lock mortise already cut out, in fact everything was pre inletted a little roughly, it seems like this kit has been around for awhile already.
Sometimes ago somebody tried to do some work on it, but gave up, as the forestock had a bad warp, they tried to solder some lugs close together, In hopes to straighten it out, but then the solder came apart from the barrel, and it's seems like that's where they gave up.
So now it's in my hands, the quality of the metal seems to be high quality, the barrel after getting it cleaned up came out super nice a harder steel I believe, it stamped with LONDON on top, and there's an awesome lock that came with the kit as well that's says BARNETT on the tail, and has an England Crown.
When I tried to straighten the warp in forestock, I heard It crack, and it appeared in the web between the ramrod channel and the barrel mortise at the muzzle end, you see a fine crack only when it's under pressure. Now the question is what to do with it? My mind went different options, do I get the barrel inletted in to another piece of wood, or do I cut the fore end off, and glue another walnut wood on it, or do I salvaged the parts and use it for replacement on rifles, as they did in the old days, like a military Lock on a Kentucky rifle, didn't know if that would look like a repair or not? Anyways do you guys have any ideas.
1. If I would know who made it, and if they are still in business, would they have a replaceable stock?
2. Can the warp be fixed? Either by cutting off and glueing another piece of walnut on it, or inletting the barrel in another piece of wood?
3. Or salvage the parts for other projects?
I'll see if get some pictures. Later

[rick/pa]

Sounds like one of Curly Gostomski's kits for a North West Trade gun. They were pretty good, I have one I picked up at Friendship around 1978. IIRC correctly he sourced parts such as locks from a variety of places, same with barrels and might have made some of his own. Don't know if he made a Bess kit, the old ad folder I have doesn't have one listed.  I'll see if I can dig it out and post it.

Other than that I'll leave the advice on what to do with it to others with more know how.  Good luck with it.

[mountainman]

[rick/pa]

[rich pierce]

It needs to be heated and bent then clamped and glued. Look on YouTube for stream or dry heat bending of wooden bows and such.

[mountainman]

WOW VERY INTERESTING!!!! How the prices have changed $40 for a lock? Wowee thats almost like looking  in a history book of early America. I seen your last post had a date of January 1980 that's like 41 or 42 years ago. Anybody know what happened are they still in business?

[mountainman]

It needs to be heated and bent then clamped and glued. Look on YouTube for stream or dry heat bending of wooden bows and such.

Thanks I'll have to look that up!

[mountainman]

Here is the label I found

[foxm2015]

Sir,
You have British Officers Model Musket that is currently in production by the Mold and Gun Shop.  Would reccommend that you contact Larry Zornes of the Mold and Gun Shop, 6493 S.R. 139, Jackson, OH 45640 if interested in a replacement stock or try to salvage what you have.

Additional history on your parts, from Mr. Zornes catalog last year:

"British Officers Model, round face lock, 16 gauge smoothbore, walnut stock, brass mountings with sling swivels.   Formerly belonging to North Star West".

This modern model was developed by Curly Gostomski of North Star Enterprises, went to North Star West with Matt Denison, and now resides with Mr. Zornes.

Mr Zornes has the lock listed seperately in his catalog also as "Rogers Rangers Round Face".

Mr. Zornes advertisements are in Muzzleloader Magazine also.

[heinz]

Rich Pierce has the best approach.  Just straighten the forearm out.  If you use the barrel as your mandrel for the bending you might want to reinforce it a bit with a filler in the bore.  I would just use an iron pipe as the mandrel. 
I knew Curly well, he made a nice trade gun. Fairly good quality lock that just needed a little polishing and tuning.

[mountainman]

Sir,
You have British Officers Model Musket that is currently in production by the Mold and Gun Shop.  Would reccommend that you contact Larry Zornes of the Mold and Gun Shop, 6493 S.R. 139, Jackson, OH 45640 if interested in a replacement stock or try to salvage what you have.


Additional history on your parts, from Mr. Zornes catalog last year:

"British Officers Model, round face lock, 16 gauge smoothbore, walnut stock, brass mountings with sling swivels.   Formerly belonging to North Star West".

This modern model was developed by Curly Gostomski of North Star Enterprises, went to North Star West with Matt Denison, and now resides with Mr. Zornes.

Mr Zornes has the lock listed seperately in his catalog also as "Rogers Rangers Round Face".

Mr. Zornes advertisements are in Muzzleloader Magazine also.

Thanks for the introduction of what I have, and also the history and the development of this business. I may have to order a catalog, in order to see his products, doesn't seem like Larry Zorne has a website.

[mountainman]

Rich Pierce has the best approach.  Just straighten the forearm out.  If you use the barrel as your mandrel for the bending you might want to reinforce it a bit with a filler in the bore.  I would just use an iron pipe as the mandrel. 
I knew Curly well, he made a nice trade gun. Fairly good quality lock that just needed a little polishing and tuning.

Thanks for that suggestion as well, after seeing what I have on hand I would agree with you as far as quality goes, it's great metal quality.

[Cory Joe Stewart]

I know the JE Brown mentioned on the label and he worked for North Star back in the day. 

Cory Joe

[rick/pa]

WOW VERY INTERESTING!!!! How the prices have changed $40 for a lock? Wowee thats almost like looking  in a history book of early America. I seen your last post had a date of January 1980 that's like 41 or 42 years ago. Anybody know what happened are they still in business?

Here is what I found in the posts on here.  I kinda lost touch with the M/L scene during the 80-90s while raising a family and didn't get back to Friendship until around 2002. By then everything had changed. We were one of the few that didn't have a "tin tee pee'  to camp in. Anyway heres what I got...........https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=41154.0

[mountainman]

I know the JE Brown mentioned on the label and he worked for North Star back in the day. 

Cory Joe
[/quote
Interesting!!]

[mountainman]

WOW VERY INTERESTING!!!! How the prices have changed $40 for a lock? Wowee thats almost like looking  in a history book of early America. I seen your last post had a date of January 1980 that's like 41 or 42 years ago. Anybody know what happened are they still in business?

Here is what I found in the posts on here.  I kinda lost touch with the M/L scene during the 80-90s while raising a family and didn't get back to Friendship until around 2002. By then everything had changed. We were one of the few that didn't have a "tin tee pee'  to camp in. Anyway heres what I got...........https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=41154.0

Thanks for that link, that was an interesting read!!

[Darkhorse]

I would try and fix that stock before I bought another one. Rich has given you good advice and a good starting point.
I had a longrifle stock that warped and twisted at the same time. I spent a lot of time on that stock, removing a little wood here and there, it has to be thin so you can bend it. And a lot of times you can cut the warp out of it. Finally I used the barrel to help remove the warp. I would wet the wood thouroughly then fit the barrel into it gently and tape it in place. I'd leave it that way to dry a couple of days then do it all over again. Until finally it was something i could live with.
Others on here have more knowledge than I have. Maybe the will chime in. Good luck.

[mikeyfirelock]

Maybe try steam bending the stock ?    ( I’ve never actually done it.. but minor bends with heat have worked out well)

[mountainman]

So I tried the steam bending and it seems like I got some satisfactory results, enough to live with it, and especially if I
work on removing some wood in some areas which I already have, so now I have it all clamped together, part of the reason why the wood cracked was because the round barrel was not properly fitted in the channel it was too tight, even though someone had tried to install under lugs, I was thinking it was in, so I re inletted the barrel, and removed more wood along the sides till it touched bottom, and then I resoldered all the underlugs except one, plus one for the sling swivel, so now I'm ready to repin the barrel, and I have reglued the crack.
Had a trigger plate missing, so I made one from brass, I traced the mortise, for the fit. Now that brings some questions, the shape of the trigger plate was unusual for most brown bess, this mortise had a tear drop shape, except it was rounded at both ends, and also the side plate does not seem to be a normal for brown bess, question is, Is the British officers musket different than normal for
brown bess, or should I try to correct the right hardware?

[Steve_Rose]

The Officer's Fusil is not an true Brown Bess, more of a privately acquired firearm for the well heeled officers, and as such the details could change based on the maker.

Here's mine, and some history on the style too https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/officers-model-brown-bess-%E2%80%93-north-star-north-star-west.115860/#post-1583565

[Daryl]

Looks great to me, Dave.  A little bedding around the breech, re-warping the stock and have at 'er.

[Hungry Horse]

 This is one of the rarest Northstar kits made. They are rough by todays standards, but they were cutting edge way back when. Don’t be surprised if the bore isn’t exactly the size everybody says it should be, Curly tended to work on the lose enough is close enough theory.

Hungry Horse

[mountainman]

This is one of the rarest Northstar kits made. They are rough by todays standards, but they were cutting edge way back when. Don’t be surprised if the bore isn’t exactly the size everybody says it should be, Curly tended to work on the lose enough is close enough theory.

Hungry Horse

According to my dial caliper the bore is exactly at .650 l don't what they were intended to be?

[Daryl]

Interesting size. The Gostomski NW Trade Gun I had back in the early 80's used a .715" ball. It weighed about 6 pounds and beat me to death - well, almost.

[mountainman]

Interesting size. The Gostomski NW Trade Gun I had back in the early 80's used a .715" ball. It weighed about 6 pounds and beat me to death - well, almost.

No kidding!!!!