Painted Barn Gun

[Lloyd]

After posting this picture on the accouterments page concerning the boot pouch, I was asked to put some info concerning this rifle on this thread.


Well, here is the story on it.  A few years ago, I was doing quite a bit of trekking.  All of my guns were quite heavy and I being basically lazy decided that I needed a lighter gun to carry.  I had been looking at Erik Kittenburg's(sp) barn guns with the ink drawings on them and really liked them. 
At one of the Washington Historical Gunmakers Guild meetings, Ted Fellows had a couple of Green Mountain swamped barrels that were .45 caliber and with the "A" profile. (They no longer offer these) So I bought one of them.  Got the nice curly maple wood from Freddy Harrison.  The lock was a salvaged large Siler that went through my shop fire in 2003.  Triggerguard was a sandcast one from Track.  The rest of the hardware to include screws were made in my shop.
The barrel was inlet into the blank for me by Dave Rase.  I shaped it and scraped it, (no sandpaper was used anywhere on this gun to include the barrel and lock.)  Metal parts were filed and burnished. 
The stock was stained pretty dark with aqua fortis.  Then the stock was finished with Linseed Oil that I boiled myself adding lead for a hardner.  The barrel was darkened by first etching it overnight with brown German mustard and then hitting it lightly with an instant blue.  The lock was left bright and burnished.

Now we come to the painting on the stock...  I didn't want to copy Mr. Kittenburg (sp), so instead of using ink, I thought, what would a poor German farmer have to decorate a rifle.  My first thought was of the tole painting that most Pennsylvania Dutch households sport....  So, I painted the stock using tole painting methods.  The paint is a mixture of my stock finish with dry paint pigment.  I only used a light reddish brown, yellow and white.  After painting the stock, I put one more coat of finish over it all.

I hope that this answers your questions....

I am afraid that my Distlefink looks more like a turkey.
And my Christian Fish is a bit fat.


Thanks to everyone for your interest.

Lloyd

[Brian Jordan]

That is beautiful! I have never seen a painted rifle before.

Thanks for sharing!

[David G]

Cool,and I certainly see where the attraction lies. That's something that is fitting for a plainer style gun. Thanks for posting it.

[Ken G]

Lloyd,
Thanks for posting some better pics and the explaination.  I really like Erik Kettenburg's folk art guns and I think yours may be the first I have seen anyone else attempt it.  Beautiful work and I'm sure a gun that gets attention wherever you go.  Thanks for posting the pics and welcome to the board. 
Ken

[Acer Saccharum]

Here is something you don't see every day! This is pretty cool, Lloyd. I like the concept tremendously. There is a wide open field for subject matter like this, and certainly a ripe plum for those interested in folk art. Few builders would do something like this.  And, all on a nicely made barn gun, too. Cheers!

Thanks for sharing your work.

Tom

[gusd]

Nice Job Lloyd!! would love to try painting one, but i'm chicken!
Gus

[Licensed to kill]

If it's a "barn gun" shouldn't you be using "barn paint"? 

[Pete G.]

If it's a "barn gun" shouldn't you be using "barn paint"? 

 ::)Cody's back. 

[TPH]

Loyd, thanks for showing the rifle and your work, it is attractive and well done. Maybe we'll see more of these in the future.

[LynnC]

To be honest I was expecting a red or blue milk painted barn gun - What a surprise to see the nicely decorated rifle.  Very Cool......................Lynn

[northmn]

Nice work.  The barn guns have a certain fascination.

DP

[Nate McKenzie]

Lloyd, Thanks for posting and answering my question. Its so different- I love it.

[Tim Crosby]

 Most Excellent, I like it.

 Tim C.

[Joe S]

I hope that this answers your questions...

Almost.  Just what, exactly, is tole painting?  Are there particular PC pigments and techniques associated with early tole painting?  Inquiring minds want to know.

Questions aside, I rarely comment on the guns posted here, but I would like to say that this is the most interesting piece I’ve seen in quite some time.  Your gun has a warmth and human quality that I sometimes find lacking in perfectly executed replicas of golden age masterpieces.

[J.D.]

If it's a "barn gun" shouldn't you be using "barn paint"? 

I don't car who ya are, that there is funny. 


Nice work, I especially like the folk art.

God bless

[Lloyd]

I went on the web to get a definition of Tole Painting

Tole painting is the folk art of decorative painting on tin and wooden utensils, objects and furniture. Typical metal objects include utensils, coffee pots, and similar household items. Wooden objects include tables, chairs, and chests, including hope chests, toyboxes and jewelry boxes.

The practice began in 18th century New England, and was also extensively carried on among German immigrants in Pennsylvania.

I might add, the technique makes it tole painting also...  You double load the brush...(two colors on the same brush) and then paint your leaves/buds unfurling, or what ever with one stroke of the brush.

Originally, tole painting was accomplished using oil base paints (that is why I mixed my own using my linseed oil and dry pigments...  Lots of tole painting is quite bright using reds, blues, yellows, greens ect., but I wanted mine to be a bit subdued that is why I chose the colors that I did.

I learned how to do it watching my wife.  She use to belong to a group that did tole painting.

[Dave C]

That's not at all what I expected!
I was thinking just a brush painted gun but that is really nice. and something that I have never seen or even thought of before.
This is probably beyond me as I'm just not a good painter BUT I live near an Amish community and the Amish ladies do this kind of painting on these round folk art artsy things they put on their barns.
It's a very similar style.
I am sure they would be more than happy to paint a gun for me for a very fair price and do a great job.
The Amish men in my area tend to hunt with 270's and 30-06's but they really dig my flintlocks and could probably persuade the women to paint them just so they could get a chance to handle them for a few days.
It's got my wheels turning.
Nice job!

[Don Getz]

Darn it, that sure gave me some ideas for mine.   I'm not too good with posies, but, I've seen Berks county powder horns
with polka dots, how would they look?    Don

[Mark Elliott]

I really like it!  It is very creative.   At first glance, I thought it might be sulfur inlay, but that would have been too much work.

Mark E.

[Kermit]

Just bloody marvelous!

Milk paint doesn't like being applied over other finishes, and applied to raw wood, it's tenatious as can be. Fun stuff to work with. I've used it often through the years, mostly on simple pine reproductions of colonial pieces. Interesting to think of using it to decorate a barn gun! Thanks!