Upper East Tennessee Flintlock Longrifle

[Birddog6]

I just finished this Sunday morning & built it for a member on this board.   Quite a unique piece of walnut as it was fiddleback from tip to tip.  To this day it amazes me how you start with such a large blank & end up with such a slim rifle.    I look at it now & think "Dang, I should have gotten 2 rifles out of that big blank " !!  

Here are some photos of it, & hopefully he will be pleased with it.

Specs as follows:

Upper East Tennessee Longrifle.
Fiddleback Black Walnut Stock.
Rice .50 cal "B" weight Swamped Barrel x 44".
Modified Chambers Ketland Flintlock.
Chambers White Lightning Vent Liner.
Modified Davis Set Triggers.
Extended Over-the-Comb Tang.
Handmade Nosecap, RR pipes, Patchbox, Toeplate,
  Sideplate, & Triggerguard.
Toeplate & Buttplate Copper Riveted.
All iron is aged.

Weight  7.5#
LOP is  13 3/4"
Drop at Heel is  3 5/8"
LOP  13 3/4

























Thanks for looking .

Keith

[eagle24]

OH BOY!  Keith, that's a dandy.  I like this one best of all the Tennessee rifles you have built.  That is a beautifull piece of walnut, but your workmanship is outstanding.  Great job!

[Larry Pletcher]

Handsome rifle!  The aging you've done to the steel looks great with the figured walnut.  Quite a combination. 

Regards,
Pletch

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Crisp.  Really nicely done.  Your client will be pleased.

[Brian Jordan]

That is a beauty! I love those long over the comb tangs, really shows the talent of the builder.

[Robby]

Birddog6, That is a beauty. I really like all your hand forged parts, especially the t-guard and the tang. Yeow, it must have a job in-letting that, nicely done!! I am not familiar with eastern Tennessee Guns, is it typical to have such a long comb and cheek piece? Thanks!
Robby

[Mike R]

you make a lot prettier rifles than the originals I have seen--very nice!

[tallbear]

Keith
Nice!!!I really like the hardware.

Mitch

[Tim Crosby]

 Great looking rifle, Nice work.

 Tim C.

[Pvt. Lon Grifle]

That is another wonderful Birddog rifle, Keith. May your fine work continue for a long time.  Lon

[Jefferson58]

Absolutely beautiful rifle! Nice Southern guns like this will really put the hook in you. The only problem I can see is that it is not living at my house.

Great job!

Jeff

[P.W.Berkuta]

I'm not a big fan of that style but you made me change my mind --- VERY NICE!!

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

Most Excellent Keith!!  That is a beautiful gun!!  A feller could shoot that!!!

How did you finish the black walnut?   I have a highly figured piece with some curl I am working right now. 

[Mike Norin]

Wood & workmanship sure look good , nice job , and whoever gets it should be happy .

[Birddog6]

Birddog6, That is a beauty. I really like all your hand forged parts, especially the t-guard and the tang. Yeow, it must have a job in-letting that, nicely done!! I am not familiar with eastern Tennessee Guns, is it typical to have such a long comb and cheek piece? Thanks!
Robby

Well, I am by no way any expert on southern rifles....  Specific details of such I gather my info from some on here with Much more expertise in the southern field. Guys like Ian Pratt, Jerry noble, Bookie, Ken Guy, Dennis Glazener, etc. just to name a few of them.

When I build a rifle, I usually pick one I like & imulate it, with a few minor changes to make it not a copy.  I try to stay on the same style as not to build a fordiachevroletmoparopal.  Tthe biggest thing that opened my eyes to southern rifles was the CLA show. Man that sure was a awakening to me & opened my eyes to the fact there was ALLOT of dif. ways of building them, and they all don't have to look exactly like a Bean or a plain poorboy so to speak.

As for length of cheekpiece & length & height of comb, from what I have seen they are MANY variations.

Keith

[Birddog6]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the compliments.   

As for the finish on the walnut, it was of course rasped down & then sanded down to a 600 grit, then I took some old Birchwood Casey Walnut Grain Filler & I put that on wet & sanded the filler in wet making a slurry with 600 wet/dry paper til I had the entire stock sanded & filled. Then I rubbed it down with a piece of denim on a rubber sanding block cross grain, then very lightly with 0000 steel wool, then vacumed it all off well.  Finish is Tru-Oil on heavy at first, let it sit for 20 min or so until it would soak up no more , plus under all the trim soaked, then wiped off with a paper towel & let dry. Then 0000 steel wool, vacume, tack rag, hand rubbed finish each time til I was sure I had enough coats.  Last coat was rubbed down with 2000 paper, then 3 coats of wax til I had the low luster I was wanting.

All in all, it came out about the way I wanted it to & I felt pretty confident in it.  I hope the new owner likes it as much as I did, as I really hated to see it leave here.   

Keith

[Ken G]

Great looking rifle Keith.  I had the pleasure of handling it in person and the pictures do not do the wood justice.  It was beautiful and as usual the inletting is tight as a tick. 


I am not familiar with eastern Tennessee Guns, is it typical to have such a long comb and cheek piece?
It is common for rifles from the upper E. TN counties to have long tangs that come up and over the comb.  Some terminate just over the nose of the comb and some extend all the way to the buttplate. 
Cheek pieces are normal for this style rifle and in many variations. 

[Lloyd]

Keith,
Neat,,,,,. Bean nor Harris could have done near that good....

I have restored two nice E. Tenn rifles, (one a great big chunk gun) that had that Bean look...

Lloyd

[Tim Crosby]

Absolutely beautiful rifle! Nice Southern guns like this will really put the hook in you. The only problem I can see is that it is not living at my house.

Great job!

Jeff

 Hooked is Right!

 Tim C.

[Ky-Flinter]

Keith,

I think I saw you lugging that walnut plank around at Friendship.  If it's the one I'm thinking of, it was massive.  Turned up into one beautiful rifle.

-Ron

[Birddog6]

Well, no, this is not one of them, tho I hauled 10 home from Friendship. The Tenn I posted a month or so ago with the crotchwood walnut was from Friendship.  This blank came from Oregon & I bought it about 5-6 years ago.  I was saving it for something special & when Bill contacted me asking for something unusual, this came to mind.  I wanted something that would take a forestock & not have allot of embellishments to take away from the fiddleback grain it had. I went thru my blanks & found it.  Boy was it ever heavy.     The blank weighed 22#, course it was a BIG blank.. And it was really hard to work, a dang Microplane would just skate across it.  And when I slabbed off the sides of the forestock, the band saw blade smoked.     I have only had one walnut stock as hard as this one & it is in a Jaeger rifle I have not finished, the Never1 rifle......    But the end result of this work was well worth it, as I really enjoyed making it. 

[C. Cash]

That is quite a rifle Birddog!    I can only dream of owning something like that someday.

[Pvt. Lon Grifle]

Your patchbox design is very typical I think of what some of the smiths of the archive guns were trying to achieve but did not, in terms of appearance, fit and usefulness.  That is a great patchbox.  Lon

[Steve Bookout]

Birddog, that is one handsome piece of walnut.  You make this old codger envious.  That supra long tang is a tour de force if ever I saw one.  You have a neat hand and here's hoping we get to see more of your successes, so bring'em on.  Hows about me comin' over and you showing me a few tricks?  Cheers, Bookie

[Birddog6]

Ha ha ha !!      yea, right !  The only thing I could show you Bookie is how well I can screw things up !!  ha ha !  I would like to get up your way some day........  I know Ken sure enjoyed his visit with you & got to see allot of neat ways of doing things....  I really enjoy going to your site & looking at your work.