My Apprentice and Our English Fowler Project

[smart dog]

Hi,
Maria worked today on finishing her iron butt plate.  It was forged by Ian Pratt and we reshaped it a bit to look more like typical plates used on 18th century English fowlers. We also gave it a bit more crescent and rounded the bottom.  It still needs final finishing and a lug riveted and welded under the return for a cross pin. 









I had a lock plate and frizzen for another client's gun to case harden so I thought it a good time to introduce Maria to that process.  She packed the steel box and programmed the oven for the temperature regime (1550 degrees F for 90 minutes).  I typically set the ramp up heating rate to 1400 degrees/hr and bring the parts to 1520 degrees and hold them there for 5 minutes and then reduce the heating rate to 125 degrees/hr and raise the temperature to 1550. That way the fast initial rate of heating does not overshoot my ultimate target temperature. Before starting the oven, I had Maria practice grabbing the box at the right spot with heavy channel locks and remove it from the oven wearing heavily insulated gloves and face shield.  After warned her that the next time she opens that oven, everything inside will be glowing orange and throwing out a lot of heat. Anyway, it all went well and we quenched the pack in water.  Maria thought the whoosh of hot charcoal and metal hitting water was "epic".

dave

[Daryl]

What a wonderful and fulfilling education you are giving here, David. What an exciting blessing it must be for her.

[Bob Roller]

What a wonderful and fulfilling education you are giving here, David. What an exciting blessing it must be for her.

Yes indeed,an education not available in the systems we have now.My own lovely friend,Amanda has been
recognized in the NC systems "Girl Rising" and said all the odd and obscure info I gave her was a big help.
She is now married and teaches the 7th and 8th grades where she lives now.She wants to attend a CLA Show in Lexington so she and her sister can go shopping as well. .
Bob Roller

[smylee grouch]

Yes, an education for more than just Maria, but also for a lot of us watching along. Thanks to both participants for letting us follow this process.

[James Rogers]

David, tell Maria that there are a bunch of envious old guys that would love a chance to be getting that same hands on work experience. Thanks for sharing all this.  Its a job in itself i know trying to document the build. 

[smart dog]

Hi, and thanks for the votes of confidence and support.

We are on a roll now because the barrel came from Rice.  It is 20 gauge, 41" long, and it 1 1/32" wide at the breech. It weighs just over 2lbs and the barrel wall thickness at the muzzle is 1/16".  I believe it is made from 4140 steel.  So next week we start inletting the barrel and parts.  Today, Maria finished her butt plate by attaching a lug under the return for a cross pin.  She did this by cutting and filing a rectangular lug from 1/8" thick steel and filed one end into a round peg.  She then cut 8-32 threads into the peg.  Then the butt plate is drilled and tapped for an 8-32 thread.  The top of that hole is countersunk slightly.
 


The lug is theaded into the butt plate and adjusted so it tightens down when lined up properly.




Next she peened the excess peg down into the counter sink.  We love bashing stuff.



Then the peened mound of excess metal is heated and welded to the butt plate locking it all together.  We love burning and melting stuff.

 

Grind, file, and sand the return smooth and clean and we are done.







dave

[ed lundquist]

I don't know who is enjoying this more but I can say I am enjoying following along. Merry Christmas to you all, sharing is the best gift!

[Keith Zimmerman]

I am really enjoying this.  I have no idea how I missed this before.  Fantastic job all around.

[mikeyfirelock]

This is a real pleasure to read.  I have had a standing offer to help anyone who wanted to build and let them use my shop, references, and my meager experience.   One of my fellow Fort Tassinong members , a young guy, finally has taken me up on it and I am looking forward to this no end.  Hopefully this will provide a means to get some other younger shooters interested in our sport and it’s history.   

[bama]

What great work. Thanks to both of you for sharing this build, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

[Rawhide Rick]

I live less than an hour away from Sienna.  She’s a smart young lady to get a significant scholarship there.  It’s an expensive school, and not easy to get in to. 

It would be great if she continues her interest in muzzleloading.

[smart dog]

Hi and thanks again for all your kinds comments and support.  Maria had no idea she had such a big audience until yesterday. 

The Rice barrel is beautiful and will make a very light, well balanced bird gun.  It is of an earlier 1690s-1710s design but will work fine.  We may make a few minor profile changes.





Jason provided a hooked plug and standing breech, which were beautifully machined and very precisely fit. Unfortunately, the tang on the standing breech is only 1.6" long, which is way too short.  It needs to be about 2.25" long to be historically accurate for the gun and to be able to fit a tang screw that threads into a trigger plate at the right position on the stock for a Chambers round-faced English lock. With the short tang, the trigger plate would have to be too far forward or have a very long front extension. So, we are going to use a standing breech from TRS (which I have) and replace the hooked plug.  We will cut a hook from a standard breech plug fitted to the barrel.  Maria will learn to fit a breech plug and shape a hook, basic skills she should learn to be a competent muzzleloader gunsmith.  We will save Jason's hooked breech and eventually use it on a pistol for which it is ideal. She already removed the hooked plug provided and needed almost her entire weight on the wrench to move it at first.  But she did it without damaging the hook.

We were struggling a bit with designing the gun so it fit her but retained the architecture we wanted.  Maria needs about 3.25" of drop at heel but also needs a tall comb, and slight positive pitch.  These are suggestions James Rogers mentioned to me when fitting women and he is bang on.  Well James, Maria and I fussed with adjusting the design of the high end fowler I built and merging it a bit with the original fowler I bought from Jim Kibler.




We had what seemed a pretty good compromise but then Maria shouldered the silver mounted Heylin gun I bought from you.  It was almost a perfect fit. It just needed about 1/4" more drop at heel.



We went back to the drawing board and designed a new gun using the Heylin as our model.  We made it a little more robust given what her fowler is supposed to represent (a good but not 1st quality export fowler from London) and that she will use it for reenacting a member of Warner's Green Mountain Boys.  She fell in love with the Heylin and maybe she will try to make a copy in the future with silver mounts. I try to always urge her to shoot high and be fearless of failure.  Here is our final design.

 





This is going to be a beautiful and elegant gun.

dave

[smart dog]

Hi Rawhide Rick,
She received 2 major scholarships to Siena.  One was the President's Scholarship and another is the St. Francis Scholarship in history. They total about $35,000 per year.  She still has to secure more to fully fund her education and room and board there.

dave

[James Rogers]

Thank you for sharing the enthusiasm of both teacher and student with this project!
I'm so glad y'all have found a good fit for Maria.  It will make so much of a difference for her.  I would love to see her replicate that silver Heylin!
Best to both!
James

[flatsguide]

Dave, you are indeed fortunate to be able to pass on your knowledge to one so fortunate and willing to receive it. She sounds like a very lovely person who, in time, will pass on her learned knowledge to one yet not born.
Merry Christmas to all...
Cheers Richard

[Dave Marsh]

Hi Rawhide Rick,
She received 2 major scholarships to Siena.  One was the President's Scholarship and another is the St. Francis Scholarship in history. They total about $35,000 per year.  She still has to secure more to fully fund her education and room and board there.

dave

She will love Siena.  My granddaughter graduated from there a few years ago and loved it.  Really nice college. 

[Tom Currie]

Dave , I very much enjoying watching the progress of Maria's rifle. It must be wonderful to have an apprentice as engaged as Maria is. Well done.

[smart dog]

Hi folks and thanks again for your support and interest in this project,

Maria turned 18 today and her grandparents, mother, and brother came over to the shop to see her progress.  It was a very nice time and everyone in her family is behind her.  After her family left, Maria and I got busy preparing the stock for barrel inletting.  First, it needed to be squared up so sides were even and perpendicular.  So I got out my jack plane and taught Maria how to sharpen the blade. To sharpen, I use 3-M micro abrasive sheets placed on a flat polished granite tile from Home Depot. Final polish is achieved by stroking the tool on a leather strop coated with jeweler's rouge. My dad made me that strop almost 40 years ago. Anyway, Maria trued up the stock blank.
   






The photos demonstrate the value of a good wood working bench.  The wooden leg vices hold the stock securely and the height is just right to be able to get your weight over the work so the work of planing is transferred to your upper body and legs, and not your arms. A sharp plane and the right bench make this a physically active but pleasant task even with dense wood like English walnut.  Next we trimmed out the stock to our outline.  To transfer the outline to the wood, I trace the drawing on clear transparency sheet using a Magic Marker Sharpie, then place it on the stock blank.  The clear sheet allows us to see the wood grain relative to the outline of the gun. We adjust accordingly. Then we tape the transparency sheet to the stock and slip graphite paper underneath.  We then trace the lines and the graphite paper copies them to the wood. We then darken those lines with a Sharpie and cut out the stock on the bandsaw.
 


Here is the result showing perfect grain flow in the stock and some really nice figure.








Next we mount a dado blade on my table saw that will cut the minimum width of the barrel and cut a groove in the stock blank about 2/3s the depth of the barrel.

Then we inlet the breech of the barrel until it sets down into the stock enough to accurately trace its outline.













Once we have a good outline of the barrel on the stock, we will fully inlet it with chisels, gouges, and barrel floats.

dave

[ScottH]

Maria,
 Nice work! And that is going to be a very attractive stock. 

[smylee grouch]

It sure looks like things are progressing along quite nicely. Installing that lug on the front of the butt plate sure looks like a nice job. I too am enjoying the follow along. Thanks for sharing. 

[2 shots]

 loving this build. all the best to both of you.

[smart dog]

Hi,
Maria wanted to work on New Year's Day so we got going at about 1:30 PM.  This is where we started.



The octagonal breech section is the only place where serious tapering occurs so we focused ther to get the barrel down in the stock sufficient to trace and accurate outline. Maria checked depth of the bottom flat at various locations and then chiseled out enough wood to set the breech down in the stock quite a ways.  She also liked the way the visor enlarged her eyes kind of the way Soupy Sales and Ernie Kovacs did it.


Here she used an octagonal barrel float to shape the breech area.


Next, she cut the bottom of the groove made with the dado cutter to the muzzle with a gouge to begin forming it round to the right depth. That also allowed the barrel to sit down in the stock for accurate tracing.



After tracing the barrel, she continued to curve the barrel channel for the round section with a gouge and smooth it with a round barrel float.



Then it came time to let inletting black guide her.  I apply a thin coat of black with a tooth brush and then we set it in the stock.  Maria cut and scraped the marks until the barrel began to set down to final fit.






A little tedious work and we ended the afternoon with this.  Just a little more to do and the result is a nice precise barrel channel inlet with a few tiny gaps that will eventually disappear when finish is applied.








dave

[ed lundquist]

Well done!

[smart dog]

Hi,
Yesterday, Maria finished inletting the barrel. It came out very well with a few minor spots where the channel could be tighter.  The figure in the wood made the job a bit harder but Maria has learned to sharpen tools scary sharp. She is good at it.





In this image note the inletting black on her nose and face.  That's what happens when your glasses slide down your nose and you have to push them back up.



Finally, we coated the barrel channel with a thin coat of AcraGlas tinted accordingly, to strengthen the channel.  When we are done, her stock will be eggshell thin around the barrel and the AcraGlas really strengthens the wood. Hopefully, it will help preserve the gun during the rough and tumble of reenactments.

[smart dog]

Hi,
We had a good day making the ramrod groove and drilling the ramrod hole. The Rice Dolep barrel has a very steep taper over the first 2 inches from the breech.  Very steep.  Based on our plans, we wanted the web of wood between the barrel channel and ramrod to be about 1/8" under the barrel at the breech and 3/16" under the barrel at the muzzle. That means the ramrod is not parallel with the bore but closer to parallel with the bottom of the barrel.  This provides for a very slim gun, particularly for the fore stock but also good clearance for the forward lock bolt.  This is in keeping with the original English fowlers that I own.  So we marked a straight line on the sides of the stock that was 1/8" below the barrel at the breech and 3/16" below at the muzzle.  The ramrod groove and hole would be parallel to that line.  To achieve that, Maria had to plane the bottom of the stock blank to a line that was exactly parallel with our line for the bottom of the barrel. That surface then sat down on my router table and guided the depth of the routed groove in the stock blank. The ramrod groove and hole is to be 5/16" wide but my round 5/16" bit is a mess so we used a flat bottomed 5/16" bit and then a gouge to round the bottom of the groove.

   


Maria smoothed the groove with  a 5/16" rasp with a bent handle and coarse sandpaper wrapped around a round form.




The result was a nice clean groove. Then we used a 5/16" ramrod drill to make the hole.





We started the hole but realized quickly we needed a course correction. The groove cut by gouges at the beginning of the step by the rear ramrod pipe had a bump pushing the drill down.  We discovered this quickly and because that section of the hole would be replaced by the rear ramrod pipe, we simply cut it away, adjusted the groove at entry and started again.  This illustrates measures that I routinely make to prevent problems. I start my ramrod holes where the front of the rear pipe will be.  I then drill in 1/2" at a time until I am sure everything is lined up correctly. That gives me 2 increments of drilling that can be cut away and realigned if needed because they will be replaced by the rear pipe and provides a check that all is going to plan. After we realigned the groove, we started the hole again and it was on track.  I had Maria start the hole using the drill and hand powered brace-and-bit.


 That was to allow a slow start but also to give her experience with period tools.  Then once the hole was well established, I had her power the drill with an electric drill so she learned how to use that tool for this purpose.

All this time we were assisted by my other helper.



In the end, the hole was drilled successfully but it ended up about 1/32"-1/16" lower in the stock at the breech than we planned likely because the figured walnut had some really tough parts to drill through, deflecting the drill downward.  It was a great experience for Maria and the end result was just great.   
 








Next up is trimming the stock and inletting the lock.

dave