My Apprentice and Our English Fowler Project

[Daryl]

Happy gal, must be a happy teacher. Well done, Dave & Maria of course.

[Bob Roller]

A million$ smile from someone who is seeing success evolve before her eyes.If you enjoy it then it ain't work and keep it up.
Bob Roller

[smart dog]

Hi folks,
Maria and I thank you all for your encouragement.  This project is going well.  Today's lesson was fitting a standing or "break off" breech, which many of you call "hook breech and tang".  For those of you intending to build English fowlers this post contains a lot of information you will not find anywhere else other than my tutorials on English fowlers posted on the ALR site.

Rice provided a standing breech that was beautifully machined but the tang was way too short.  It is perfect for a pistol but not a long gun.  Maria will save the finely made breech for her eventual pistol.  I have cast standing breeches from TRS and a standard breech plug with tang that fit her barrel.  So our first job was to fit the new breech plug. This is a basic skill to learn and our new plug needed to turn 180 degrees further to seal against the shoulder in the barrel and line up with the top and bottom flats on the barrel.   So Maria had to file the bolster of the plug and face to make the fit.  We used Magic Marker on the face to test for fit to the shoulder.





Next, we cut off the tang and shape the bolster into the proper hook.  On original 18th century English guns, the hook is tapered such that it is a little narrower at the top than the bottom.  So is the slot in the standing breech. That is so the hook snugs tighter into the breech as it is fully engaged. No modern commercial makers of these breeches do this.   






After filing the sides of the hook so they fit the slot in the standing breech, we cleaned up the cast standing breech, made sure the face was filed true and flat and the slot clean and crisp. Then we started to shape the hook, working both top and bottom until it began to slide in place. When close, we installed the plug in the barrel and continued filing until the hook smoothly slid into place.  The result was a nice firm fit.

 









The standing breech is oversize and will be filed down flush with the barrel flats, except the top 3 flats. Those will have a step above the barrel as were the originals.  The standing breech has a hump and is exactly correct for the time period this gun is supposed to represent. Moreover, you can see the lug on the bottom of the standing breech.    That is for a cross pin to anchor the bottom of the breech.  Unless you buy castings from TRS or Blackley, you will never get that feature nor the hump.  The commercially made stuff is very deficient and historically inaccurate.

dave

[Daryl]

That is special, what a fit!!

[smart dog]

Hi,
We inlet the standing breech today.  It still needs a little tweaking but it is essentially done.  We solder the standing breech to the hook and barrel using Eutectic TIX solder.  I like solder not glue because it cleans up easily and you can pop the breech off by heating it to check the inletting fit of the standing breech without the barrel and then simply reheat the barrel and breech to solder it back together.



After soldering, Maria filed the bottom 5 flats of the breech flush with the barrel.  Then she inlet a space in the stock for the hook bolster.  Next she inlet the frame of the breech and the bottom lug.

 




The she started to fit the tang working slowly backward.







Finally, it all slips into place.







dave

[Bob Gerard]

Dave, as I mentioned in the 'other' forum, I think these tutorials would be ideal published material (book form) for a substantial, authoritative tome on historically accurate antique gun building. (Though I can't imagine the amount of work that would entail). We are really lucky to access these tutorials in a few internet places, but the broader antique gun building and appreciating world may not be so lucky.
Nonetheless, thanks again for all your updates on the progress of this fowler. Fascinating stuff, really.

[Bob Roller]

Finding someone that young that wants to learn the hand skills that few if any schools teach now is as rare as a football bat.
The "Cuter than a kitten" appearance does no harm either.She wants to learn an unusual skill and she obviously has the aptitude
for it and I hope some knucklehead doesn't try to discourage her.NONE of our 5 grandbrats have any interest in anything that I
do or have done.Our oldest son was an MP for 20 years and now works for the Post Office in Texas.His brother has a great job in
a factory here that is busy with a long term job making specialized fasteners for our submarines now being built and his son worked
there for a short time and quit and now works in a fast food shop . and seems to like it. He has seen my little machine shop and
asked no questions about anything in it and neither did his Texas cousins when they visited last Summer.
My advice to your young student is "Look,listen and LEARN".
Bob Roller
 
PS,I recently got a note from the young woman I helped with her "Masters"Degree in WW2 American History" that said,"I will be forever grateful for that day,July 8,2018 you stopped to make a purchase in the Aldi's store where I was working".
  She got married on 8 August of 2022 and is teaching in another town now at the 8th grade.
 

[smart dog]

Hi folks and thanks for your comments and support,

We are moving forward.  The standing breech is well fitted and works.  We filed a bit off the tang and vacuumed the dust but then I wet the wood and created that gray stain from the metal.  It easily scrapes off but I failed to clean it all up before  taking the photo.  In the second photo you can clearly see the mortise for the bottom lug on the standing breech.






Next up was to trim off excess wood, true the sides by planing, and rasp the rough blank close to the final profile.  Even still squared up, the blank shows the elegant lines and truth of the design as representing a mid-18th century English fowler.

 




















Maria mentioned that her aspiration to become a hand model is now ruined.



dave

[Bob Roller]

Her hands as shown can be presented as those of someone who is doing something and enjoyed every second of what she did.
They ARE washable....if you feel the need.
Bob Roller

[Dwshotwell]

After my first inletting attempt, there were blood stains and bandaids on a couple of fingers, so she’s doing something right.

[mikeyfirelock]

She’s doing work every bit as good as what I do ..( probably better)…..and I’ve been doing this off and on for 50 years.    Keep it up !!!!!!!

[smart dog]

Hi,
Lock inletting time.  Maria filed draft on the lock plate and we positioned it based on our plans.  Then she inlet the bolster first so she could lay the lock plate flat on the stock. 






Keep in mind, we trimmed off wood from the sides of the lock panel so we only had 1/16" extra above the final depth of the plate.  It is stupid to try and inlet a lock plate through a lot of excess wood.  You cannot see how well you are cutting  the mortise and you risk chipping out a lot of wood every time you remove the plate.  Once the plate was down on the stock, she traced the outline with a sharp carving knife.
 


Next, she stabbed the outline in deeper and back cut the edges to remove wood along the edges of the mortise.  Then she used shallow sweeps to remove wood from the center of the mortise.  The sweeps allow cutting with and across the grain to hog out wood. Eventually, she had the mortise cut for the lock plate with no gaps.
 






Then I had her inlet the internals one at a time by drilling holes for the bridle, sear, and sear spring holes to their proper depth and diameter and then using those holes to align and trace the individual parts.  Here is where she is at the end of the afternoon.
 





Tomorrow, we finish inletting the lock, make, install and inlet the barrel lugs and hopefully, inlet the barrel keys.  It may take 2 sessions to accomplish that.

dave

[Bob Roller]

It's obvious that she has the skill to be able to split a pencil line for inletting the lock.That was the only thing I was ever able to do when I built a rifle.Now a low level pain in the right shoulder and wrist stops me from trying it again.
Bob Roller

[Hank01]

Simply amazing! Maria is definitely gifted with natural talent. A knowledgeable mentor is important but unless the student has talent no amount of coaching will make the difference. It takes some people, myself included, years to reach the level of skill already expressed by her workmanship. looking forward to see her work finished.

Hank   

[smart dog]

Hi Hank,
Thank you.  Coming from you that means a lot.  She is going to fly.  My job is to teach her the basics and specifics and then get out of her way.

dave

[smart dog]

Hi,
The lock inlet is finished.  Here is a photo of Maria using the "Dremel Destroyer" to smooth out some of the lock mortise. 



Here is the almost finished mortise.  She will clean it up later but the work is excellent.  This is her first lock mortise.







Her inlet was too tight causing a chip to pull away when removing the lock.  You can see it on the bottom just in front of the hole for the sear. It is fine because the wood is higher then the plate so the chip will disappear.  However, it serves as a warning.

After inletting the lock, I wanted to let Maria do a task that will make her gun more realistic and less abstract so I had her start shaping the wrist.  I taught her to use half round pattern maker's rasps and files to begin the shaping.  It is important to learn where convex shapes blend into convex ones around the lock and side plate panels. She did very well and the result begins to reveal the look and feel of the final gun.









dave

[Daryl]

Absolutely amazing for a first gun. Sure must help to have a 1.2 decent teacher.

[smart dog]

Hi,
Kind of a grunt work session yesterday.  Maria wanted to decompress after her exams this week so she came over to work in the shop.  We installed and inlet the barrel lugs.  We used milled steel lugs from TOW rather than make them from scratch to save time.  I prefer the loops on lugs for barrel keys to be wider providing more metal surface for the key to slide over but these will do fine and are about 3/32" wide.  We positioned them to avoid the pipes so they ended up not evenly spaced on the barrel, which is fine.  I clean the bottom of the lug and barrel surface thoroughly, then flux the barrel and lug and wire it in place.
 


Then we tilt the barrel over on its side and place a little solder (Stay Bright or Hi-Force 44) on top of the the edge along one side of the lug base.  Heating from below on the other side of the lug then draws or sweats the solder through the joint.  No need to tin the surfaces and try to hold the lug in position as the solder melts on the tinned surface and the lug sits down into the soft solder. 

Once soldered in place, Maria ground the edges of the bases down a little to round them.



Next we drill 3 holes in a line to form the slot in the lug.  We used a 1/16" drill. After that, we cut out the metal between the holes with a jeweler's saw and file the slot with a flat needle file.  We are using cast steel barrel keys that are about 1/16" thick.  The slot can and should have a little extra length and width than needed to pass the key.  To inlet the lugs in the stock, Maria coated the bottoms of the loops with blacking, she placed the barrel in the stock and squeezed it marking the positions of the loops in the stock.  Then she drilled a series of 1/16" holes in the stock and cleared away the wood between holes with a little chisel made from a flat needle file and a bit of fret saw blade held in an X-acto knife handle.



A little filing with a needle file cleans things up and the barrel is placed in the stock with the lug bases blacked.  That marks them in the stock and using a 1/4" flat chisel, she cuts nice clean mortises for the bases.







I am not concerned about having the lugs pass through the stock into the ramrod groove and hole. I know some folks obsess about that but when building a correctly slim English fowler from this period, you cannot really avoid having the lugs show in the ramrod groove because the web of wood is thin.  You can see how thin the AcraGlas coating is in the barrel channel.  You can see the wood grain right through it. It is thin but it really strengthens the side walls of the barrel channel particularly when they may get as thin as this:







On both of those originals, the barrel side walls are very fragile and chipping off in spots.

Next will be installing the barrel keys.

dave

[James Rogers]

Dave,
Thanks for pointing out the width of the lugs on originals. That was a big eye opener for me in my early studies of English pieces. Every one I've seen has wide lugs as you pictured.

[smart dog]

Hi James,
Yes, and the advantage of those wide lugs is the substantial metal to metal contact rather than largely wood contact with the barrel key.  The wide metal surface makes it easier to adjust the fit of the key so it is firm but not too tight.  Over time the mostly wood fit becomes worn and sloppy.  Unless you make the loops, which is not hard, you can only get correct ones from TRS.

dave

[smylee grouch]

Really a splendid job on that tang. I have been Re-reading Col. Hawker's book and a lot of emphases is placed on the diameter of the breech. So many don't have a heavy enuf breech and they will/can shoot low because of that.  This project is progressing along very well. Thanks again for your efforts and posting.

[smart dog]

Hi Folks,
A milestone day; inletting the barrel keys.  This is a job that intimidates a lot of folks.  Maria and I will show how we do it.  The job is not hard but requires good measurements.  Moreover, trim away most of the excess wood along the fore stock and square it up.  It is foolish to try and do this task with more than 3/16" of wood left on the stock sides. The barrel lugs for the forward keys show in the ramrod channel.  That gives us a good handle on the positions of the lugs in the stock. We measure the depth to the bottom of the lug from the edge of the ramrod channel and transfer that to the side of the stock.  Then we measure the width of the loop above the bottom and draw that line on the stock.  We measure the length of the lug and determine the middle. Then we punch a hole with an awl marking the center of the slot in the loop and holes on either side delineating the width of the key. The key is accurate measurements. 
 


Then we drill small holes (less than the thickness of the keys) from both sides keeping the drill level.




With that done we begin to open up the slot. Here are the tools we use.

Working from both sides, we inlet an outline of the key using flat chisels.





Once the opening is defined, Maria uses a little saw made from a needle file to clear away the wood between the drilled holes creating the slot.








When that is done, we heat the barrel key blue hot ( the photo shows too much heat as Maria waited for me to snap the picture; it cooled before inserting) and burn the key in for a perfect final fit.
 





Here is the result.













Dave

[Bob Gerard]

Fantastic technique of burning the keyhole smooth. How did you even discover it?

[Jim Kibler]

Hi James,
Yes, and the advantage of those wide lugs is the substantial metal to metal contact rather than largely wood contact with the barrel key.  The wide metal surface makes it easier to adjust the fit of the key so it is firm but not too tight.  Over time the mostly wood fit becomes worn and sloppy.  Unless you make the loops, which is not hard, you can only get correct ones from TRS.

dave

Yes, and for strength given how thin the metal typically is above the slot.

[smylee grouch]

Another neat job on the keys. How thick are those keys and are the ones used to burn through the ones used in final assembly? I'm thinking that maybe burning through the wood might make the slots a little too loose and you might use a tinny bit thinner burn through key but maybe they don't burn that much wood.