Somebody is building from blanks

[Ed Wenger]

Great thread!  Lots of busy people doing great work!  Best,


        Ed

[David Rase]

I think I am good to go on plank builds for a while.
David

[mgbruch]

Borderdogs,

Thanks for the kind words.

I do make the hardware specifically for the particular gun.  As I stated, I like to have the butt plate and trigger guard about 90% before I lay out the gun.  It allows me to envision what the gun will be like.  I make the triggers first, then the trigger guard.  That way I know the trigger guard is the right size; both height and length. Don't know how long it takes, in hours to make the triggers.  Three days, but I don't put in any set number of hours.  And I don't have any milling equipment; drill press, grinder, hack saw... and a LOT of filing.

For a reference I use two things.  A completed set of triggers from a Davis kit, and a booklet entitled "Triggers" by "Pryor Mountain Bill" Newton.  Bought the booklet from Track several years ago.  The geometry and fitting of double set triggers is a learning curve not devoid of do-overs.

[Cory Joe Stewart]

My list of projects




Cory Joe

Optimism! Great 👍

One of those projects is already done, this photo is a few weeks old.  So I am ahead of my own curve!!!!

[Dave B]

You know they must breed in the shop when you turn out the shop lights. I cant seem to keep track of whats making all these projects  keep multiplying. I start down a path on one project and get sidetracked by another. I picked up a book on engraving and saw an engraving pattern for a pistol and started engraving the frame of a kit gun some one bailed out on and I picked up cheap. My problem is I finished one half  of the frame and cant get the other half done because I needed to fix a broken gun project that I couldnt pass up. The original lock that I got from Eric Kettenberg needs a mainspring and that coil spring I picked up along the freeway is perfect for the job. That Dave Rase is an enabler in that he keeps putting barrels into wood for me and I keep lining them up wondering when will I ever get them done. I love the journey of taking a blank laying out the design and as I told Rich. Let the chips fall where they may. I enjoy the shooting aspect of the fruit of our labor but the desert for me is the whacking out the block of wood into a meaningful functional work of art. I have to be carful in that I some times get too carried away with the decoration part.  I used too soft a piece of maple on one of my current projects and not sure the best way to go because carving on this wood would be a nightmare. Just say no to soft gunstock wood. Which brings up another point. Finishing the progect. I can start one at a drop of a hat but getting to close the deal on it and final finish is tough for me. Coudos to those that go from project start to finish then start the next.  Maybe I need to up my ADD meds??? Great thread Rich.

[Dphariss]

I have some metal work (percussion breeches) started on a pair of 62 cal Hawken pistols. Might get the standing breeches machined today, maybe.. Stocks sawn out. Just got in two 1/2 stock blanks for Hawken etc just need the buttplate and TG for the one I need to start soon and have a Armstrong I want to make and another fancy fl match rifle.  And have two Kibler colonials in various stages.  These are kinda fun.
And something like 15 service rifle matches I want to shoot this summer.  So…. Oh and body work and paint on a CUCV blazer I inherited from Dad taking up room in the shop.

[rsherman]

Am currently building from the stick a left handed . 58 cal
 With a 48" ed rayl barrel that i designed the breech, muzzle, and waist profile from the Edward marshall gun barrel measurements then stretched out to 48".  The stock is one of my last two pieces of 'slippery rock' wood.
I'm using an older caywood round faced lock that ive had fir many years.  I hand made the set triggers from an old horse
Shoe, some annealed tool steel and spring stock. The rest of the lock, tang, and wood screws have been forged from wrought iron  and hand filed for wood screws or run through
A die for machine screws. The butt plate, side plate, and thimbles are forged or formed from a wrought iron wagon wheel or hub bands from the same.
This is going be an early style contemporary rifle in the Woodbury tradition.

[rich pierce]

RSherman, that’s quite an undertaking! Nice wide buttplate there. Keep us posted.

[Bill Raby]

   My next two rifles are going to be Turkish walnut stocks. I love that wood. A nice piece really is amazing. But the price is pretty amazing also. I just spent $2000 for a half stock blank. Good chance that the next one will be much more expensive than that. Cool thing is that I can blow stupid amounts of money on guns now without getting in trouble. I am helping with getting the "Girl Workshop" set up now. Painting, crafts, and a small tattoo studio. The hobbies that she wants to do are every bit as important as the ones that I want to do. You would be surprised at how expensive good paintbrushes are. Her workshop is going to be twice the size of mine. There is going to be all sorts of fun stuff going on at my house!

[TommyG]

Bill, That's cool stuff having a partner in crafts.  My wife loves the sewing and knitting crafts and loves to collect vintage sewing machines.  She currently has two vintage Singers she uses, a 1591, and a Singer treadle machine.  I totally support her in these endeavors as she supports me in mine. 

[parve]

I'm working on a Southern Mountain rifle mostly inspired by rifle #7 from Randal Pierce's Kentucky Rifles of the Great Smoky Mountains. It's identified as a Soddy Daisy rifle although the maker is unknown, it shares a lot of characteristics as one of the Soddy-Daisys in the virtual library: https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=2302.0
Part of the reason I chose this rifle is I really like the profile, the other part is the tang seems like something I can replicate and inlet with my novice set of skills. This is my first build and will be my first muzzleloader, I've enjoyed learning about these early American rifles and I'd have to say building them might be even more fun. Here is what I'm building with:

Barrel: Rice .32 cal 3/4" straight octagon, 1-48" twist
Lock: Kibler Ketland
Stock: Grade 2 maple blank from Pecatonica (I know walnut would have been correct for a Soddy-Daisy replica but I remember breaking out in a huge rash working with the stuff in high school wood shop)
Buttplate: TOTW Southern Mountain style buttplate; steel
Trigger guard: TOTW Carolina Rifle Style; steel
Trigger: double lever double set triggers from TOTW
Patch box: TOTW Tennessee banana
Side plate: this I will try to make myself from 1/8" steel plate to match rifle #7. To best describe it, it looks like a lollipop sticking up from a long flat bar with the lock bolt centered in the head of the lollipop
Toe plate: simple ~1/16" thick rectangle steel plate
Ramrod pipes: 5/16" steel pipes from TOTW
Sights: I still have not decided on these, but I will probably try to buy something to best match the Soddy-Daisy linked above

For the past two months I've mostly been acquiring tools and working on those to get ready to work on this rifle, the only progress I've made on the rifle itself so far is fitting the breech plug to the barrel, squaring up the blank, drawing and erasing layout lines about a dozen times, and this week finally getting started on inletting the barrel. Once I'm confident this stock won't be destined for someone's firewood pile I'll start a thread with the progress pictures I've taken so far 

[rich pierce]

Brushy, cool project. If you have time, consider going wild and trying to construct a custom guard. I get a kick out of making and using custom parts. You have the bought one as a backup. Keep us posted. Those Soddy daisy rifles have racy lines. Can see why you picked that style.

[parve]

Brushy, cool project. If you have time, consider going wild and trying to construct a custom guard. I get a kick out of making and using custom parts. You have the bought one as a backup. Keep us posted. Those Soddy daisy rifles have racy lines. Can see why you picked that style.

I'm not sure if forging parts are quite in my scope of work yet, this is a kitchen table build if anything. But, I'm only in an apartment as long as it takes me to finish a dissertation; if things go according to plan after that I'll be headed back to my ancestral home and have plenty of room to set up a forge there. Quite the motivation to get out of my current living situation and start having some real fun with gun building!

[rich pierce]

Brushy, makes sense. My first 4 builds were done on a Black and Decker workmate plastic vise on our apartment floor.

[Dphariss]

Brushy, makes sense. My first 4 builds were done on a Black and Decker workmate plastic vise on our apartment floor.

Moms kitchen table. For the first couple. Forge was in the old machinery shed.

[smylee grouch]

This is such an encouraging topic because it shows to some extent that the sport/craft is still alive and hopefully growing. Hats off and a toast to all those old and new builders  from the blank/scrach builders. 

[Dwshotwell]

Working on my first from a blank, a Fowler based on the Roger Lewis gun in Sorts for Provincials.  Started with the help of Ian Pratt and Ken Gahagan at their class at the Southern Ohio Artisan Workshop. Still need to install ramrod pipes, trigger guard, and continue shaping.

[rich pierce]

Working on my first from a blank, a Fowler based on the Roger Lewis gun in Sorts for Provincials.  Started with the help of Ian Pratt and Ken Gahagan at their class at the Southern Ohio Artisan Workshop. Still need to install ramrod pipes, trigger guard, and continue shaping.

Looking good!  Cool project; keep us posted. What parts are you using and where did you source them? Doing that scoop at the comb front is kind of key for this build.

[Dwshotwell]

What parts are you using and where did you source them? Doing that scoop at the comb front is kind of key for this build.

Thanks Rich. Barrel is a Rice custom profile octagon to round 46" and .58. Lock is a Chambers Early Germanic. Butt plate and side plate were made in class. Trigger guard is a Mike Brook's casting, Dutch. Going to try my hand at making the ramrod pipes.

You're absolutely right the scoop on the comb makes this gun and I'm not quite there yet. I'll post progress as I go.

[rich pierce]

David, when I get my forge up and running I’m going to make some specialized tools for working on comb nose edges. I’ll take 2-3” pieces of rasps and coarse files, give them a shallow bend, and braze stout steel handles on them. I’ll use them to safely and efficiently clean up removal of wood in the scooped out areas like on this gun and early Hudson Valley fowlers.

[silky]

Good morning,

Here are a few pics of the rifle I've been working on this winter.  I decided to take the plunge and try my hand at a Lehigh style, in its plainest form.  My references are a combination of pictures of Allen Martin's and Nate McKenzie's schimmels, and the KRA disc... I've taken some creative liberties here and there but hope that, in the end, it might be mistaken for the rifle of an eastern Pennsylvania farmer!

Plain Sugar Maple stock
44" .54 smooth bore in B weight
Large Siler Lock re-used, and slightly re-shaped "just because,"  from an old build which I will NOT post here!
Homemade sheet brass trigger guard -- Rich, you have said that fabricating your own parts is very satisfying and I totally agree, even if it's something as simple as bending a basic trigger guard

The last pic is where it stood as of last night... still have some shaping and refinement to accomplish, and there are things I would do differently if given the opportunity, but thus far I'm happy with it.  My tool skills (inletting, shaping, etc) have finally matured in this build.

- Tom

[rich pierce]

Tom, that’s looking nice and swoopy!  Lehighs can be very sculptural.

[flinchrocket]

This is the only picture I have of a blank build in 2019. Patchbox is completely handmade from .040 sheet brass with rectangular latch button. I was in a hurry and didn’t have time to get photos.

[Daryl]

flinchrocket - that is an elegant patch box - REALLY nice.
As well as getting those parallel lines right, on the upper and lower rear of the box to match the inlays - nice.

[Robert Wolfe]

I'm working on this French style English trade gun.  It's a copy (more or less) of a beaded gun. I'm looking forward to the finishing part.