Who here makes ribbed thimbles, and how?

[rich pierce]

Mike Lea makes very nice ribbed brass ramrod thimbles, but sometimes I wish for a particular design. I also know some nice ribbed thimbles are cast. Is there a relatively primitive way of doing this? I can do simple decorative ribs, but not yet, an end to end design incorporating bulbous ribs and shallow grooves.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Our late friend Tom Curran cast up a number of thimbles like those, Rich, for a Jaeger project...I miss him.

[rich pierce]

Yes, Taylor, I have a set of those. I couldn’t work at the bench for a while after his passing. We usually talked shop whenever we were building and I was missing that too much. Getting back into it now.

I’m fussing with making them from very thin sheet brass. If I need a set of dies, it will have to be using 18th century methods - I have no milling machine, welder etc. I think I could make a male die fairly easily by brazing round stock to a plate.

[Jim Kibler]

For thin sheet, they of course can be formed.  It wouldn't be absolutely easy, but I think a set  of dies could be filed without too much trouble. 

Higher quality guns had solid pipes that weren't formed from sheet, but either cast or forged to shaped.  You could form a pipe out of thick material and then just file them to shape as well.  I recall a gun I had where the ribs on the pipes were absolutely huge.  They basically just used thick iron, wrapped it around a form and then brazed the joint.  Interestingly enough there was enough meet just from the rolled tube to file a tab for the pin to go through.  Note, these ribs didn't generally extend to areas that couldn't be seen.

[Gaeckle]

Years ago, I'm not sure how long ago, Ian Pratt made a gun with ribbed thimbles. I think he made a form from a hard lead block and formed his thimbles that way. As I recall, he showed pictures of how he made them. Those pictures may be floating around here on this site. Could also PM him about this....just a thought

[rich pierce]

Years ago, I'm not sure how long ago, Ian Pratt made a gun with ribbed thimbles. I think he made a form from a hard lead block and formed his thimbles that way. As I recall, he showed pictures of how he made them. Those pictures may be floating around here on this site. Could also PM him about this....just a thought

Thanks, found it! https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=70931.25

[elk killer]

Clay Smith the grumpy gunsmith of williamsburg did a video on u tube on making those

[AMartin]

Here's a set of (ribbed) pipes that I built on a German Jager ...
Formed from 1/16" thick sheet brass and filed ... not too difficult ...

[rich pierce]

Very nice, Allen! Elk killer, I checked out the Clay Smith video - great video and as I expected, dies are the way to go for production. Ian Pratt’s method is about half the work with a great result. Guess I’ll be doing some filing of at least a half die.

[James Rogers]

I filed these out .062 stock like Allen Martin mentions above. I have a metal block with various cuts in it to make ribs in thinner stock like a trade gun would use but many of the pipes I would want to make for certain guns were of much thicker stock than those thin trade gun type pipes. I believe those were done in the ways described by Jim Kibler above.  I have some 12L14 stock that I plan to try one day by drilling out to graduated pipe sizes internally and turning the exterior shapes. I will then braze a tab. One day I want to try the method Jim Kibler mentioned. I do f course believe the means of making these varied by the metal used , be it brass, silver, iron, steel, etc.

[rich pierce]

Excellent work. I love to see folks going old school and making many of the parts they need. Also the customizing possibilities are endless.

[Jim Kibler]

James,

Those really look nice!

[Long Ears]

I built a couple of sets for 2 different fowlers I built for guys a few years ago. I ground me 3 different forming cutters and did it on the lathe. I then grooved the underside on the mill and soldered the tabs and tail for the entry pipe. I know, thats cheating. They sure looked good. I don't have any pictures that I can find anyway. I would like to make a nose cap someday however. The lathe won't work for that. Unless maybe a CNC? Nope not going there. Bob

[ajcraig]

I made a simple forming block from a piece of steel by using a hack saw and small round files to make two grooves in the steel. Note that the forming block is the same width as the thimble blank minus the two thimble tabs.  I use a chisel to make the indentations in the thimble blanks and then form the thimbles via the usual method. Here are some pics of the forming block, thimbles and my tidy workbench. Alex

[rich pierce]

Thanks, Alex, I do the same. My latest self-challenge is to make some like these - will be making dies like Clay Smith uses, I think, though his are for production work as he sells trade gun kits. A complicated die set would maybe be too big an investment for one or two guns. Guess I could sell thimbles!   See below the sort I’m looking to make. I think on some of these it’s a combination of forming and filing.

[Joe Stein]

Thanks, Alex, I do the same. My latest self-challenge is to make some like these - will be making dies like Clay Smith uses, I think, though his are for production work as he sells trade gun kits. A complicated die set would maybe be too big an investment for one or two guns. Guess I could sell thimbles!   See below the sort I’m looking to make. I think on some of these it’s a combination of forming and filing.
Making and selling thimbles might be less work than knapping flints, and more lucrative.