Steve Sells Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 a lot of skills to master and only 300 hours to build from start to finish. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJVz3T61trI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 Three Hundred Hours condensed down to fifty-eight minuets is a pretty good video. I have put together a couple of rifles and it sure took me more than length of time to it and mine weren't nearly that nice looking when I finished either. The National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association(I think that's the name) out of Friendship, IN used to put out a really fine magazine and there was a three part series on how to make a lock by a blacksmith that was a great lesson on the practice of lock smithing. I now wish I had kept all those magazines. Great fun that building locks and rifles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
781 Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 thanks for the link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K. Bryan Morgan Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 Wow Steve, what a craftsman. Thanks for that link. I enjoyed it very much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alec.S Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 Beautiful! Thank you for sharing! Now, to start my homework 58 minutes later than planned ;) ahaha! Great video! Beautiful craftsmanship! alec Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yesteryearforge Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 I fired two of Wallaces guns in 1969 Also had the Colonial Williamsburg gunsmith demo for us here and he hand forged a section of rifle barrel. and part of a lock and buttplate. Amazing stuff and gives you a whole lot of respect for what can be accomplished by hand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironwolfforgeca Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 NOW that was COOL :) ! THANKS now what was I going to do 58 min ago ?? LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chichi Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 Based on the video above and the article to which Bentiron referred to above, I have made a few locks(not as nice as Wallace's by a long shot but they spark) and have forged a barrel that needs a little more work.( I made another barrel but the bore was too small and my bits kept breaking). I took a break from this work but the video kind of gets me going again. If anyone else is interested in this work, PM me. I would be happy to share what I know as an advanced novice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maillemaker Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 Wow. I really can't say anything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Turley Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 As an old timer, I got the video version of Gusler in the 1970's. I think the original was on 16mm film.and the overvoice is David Brinkley. Remember Huntley and Brinkley newscasts in the long ago TV days? I was always impressed with the work and workmanship that went into Gusler's rifle, but I never attempted to do that sort of work, with one proviso. Turner Kirkland of Dixie Gun Works contacted me, and wanted a gun barrel to show the method of construction for his museum in Union City,Tennessee. He wanted the techniques to be shown all on one piece of wrought iron. Fortunately, I had a stock of quality, Swedish charcoal iron. I called my horseshoeing friend, Robert Holt, requesting that he come over to be my mandrel holder. As I recall, Kirkland wanted 6" at one end to show the flat, skelp portion. Immediately above that, we showed 6" of the rolled skelp touching, but unwelded. Following that, we had 6" of welded barrel in a rough round section, and then 6" of welded barrel rough forged to an octagonal section. The final 6" was drawfiled and sanded on the 8 flats. We didn't have a boring setup, so we pistol-drilled the hole for about 5" or so. I might mention that the weld is butted. The two meeting portions are not thinned into scarfs, or the possibility of getting shuts (seams) inside the barrel are heightened. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HWHII Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 Over the holidays I was in Richmond, Va and on my birthday I spent the hole day at Williamsburg. What a treat. The gunsmith shop was one of the last places I got to visit. I wanted to stay and talk to the simths,did not get but a chance to walk through as my friends were impatient to leave. :angry: It was late in the afternoon and they were not forging at the time but the Anderson Blacksmith shop was earlier and spent a good hour in there talking. The next time I go to visit, it will be a 5 day pass for Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown, and I will be going by myself. :lol: This is a great place, as there are so many forged items to look at everywhere you turn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshua.M Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 i think this has become one of my life goals.... thanks for sharing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Borntoolate Posted January 24, 2013 Share Posted January 24, 2013 I tell everyone that the blacksmiths of old made everything that was made of metal, at least the first one. Let's not even talk about all the tooling!!! Anything that was first time made was made by the blacksmith. So just wow. Many forget that we were the origonal Hardware stores. if you needed it, we had to make it for you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlbaker Posted January 24, 2013 Share Posted January 24, 2013 This is one of my alltime favorite videos!!!! I saw it somewhere decades ago and was so blown away with the craftsmanship that about twenty years back I ordered a video of it and I watch it every few months or so, it never ever gets old. It covers all the disciplines from A to Z. I wonder how many people over the years have been hooked on making things from scratch by this tape? I wish more kids could watch something like this instead of playing video games, could open up a whole new world for them. Personally I'll never forget the electric adrenaline type rush I experienced as a kid when I grabbed a hammer,torch and file and made something that I know was ungodly ugly but I created it with my own two hands, the endorphines were cranking on overdrive. Thanks for posting the video of this great craftsman who I'm sure has been an inspiration to many. Bob. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RJA72 Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 I just ordered this video the other day. I got hooked on muzzleloaders 5-6 years ago. That is why I got interested in blacksmithing. Not sure if I will ever forge, ream and rifle a barrel, but I do plan on building a lock and the mounts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pulsepushthepopulace Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 This was an amazing video. My father and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you for posting!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Buchanan Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 hey just an fyi... theres some good info on rifle building in the foxfire book's... esp some interesting rifling tools... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Furrer Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 Great video. I bought this from the Williamsburg store online last year. ....sad to see folk are posting copy-written material online. Why don't we all go through our video collections of smithing videos and do the same? I'm sure nobody will mind. Ric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josiah Peters Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 hey just an fyi... theres some good info on rifle building in the foxfire book's... esp some interesting rifling tools... Which book is that? I'll be interested in picking that up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dogsoldat Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 book 5 of the firefox series has all the blackpowder stuff in it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdennett Posted February 4, 2013 Share Posted February 4, 2013 Does anyone have a better description of the boring bits and reamer? Thanks, Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
basher Posted February 4, 2013 Share Posted February 4, 2013 what a wonderful clip, I very much enjoyed it. I have always wanted to undertake a project such as this and hope time will allow as the years pass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted February 4, 2013 Share Posted February 4, 2013 When I was really into the black powder gig I would buy a lot of old original items from Dixie Gun Works, it was a great place to do business with and they always had a fun catalog too. I bought a used Navy Arms Buffalo Hunter and it had this flimsy wood ramrod so I ordered a metal ram rod from Dixie that came off a Snyder rifle and took a die and cut some thread on the end for a worm from Dixie, then I made a ball puller from a drywall screw I brazed to the end of Dixie ball puller where their screw just wasn't sharp enough to bite into the lead and I had a real going out fit for that .58 caliber gun. For target practice I used 50 grains of FFG with a round ball and for hunting I used 100 grains of FFg with 500 grain Minnie ball. At 100 yards that ball would open up to over two times it diameter in a gel block and come out the other side of it. I had a Williams peep site on the rifle, great shooting gun. However I still like the pleasure of building up my own pistols and rifles best of all, somehow just more satisfying. Now they seem to think that adapting a break open single shot shotgun with a percussion nipple is just great or fitting up a gun with electronic ignition is roughing it somehow destroys the notion of black powder hunting. It's kind of like archery, I started shooting bow when I was in fourth grade and by the time I was in high school I could put all of my arrows in 4" square of paper at 35 yards and yet archery was considered a girls sport back then. By the time I got out of the Navy and college it had become a man's sport for hunting but they all had sights and such. Now they have these really fancy bows with pulleys, optical sights, string pullers, silencers, and such. Four years ago I went up to where some friends had camped and were showing me all their fancy stuff and I had my old Ben Pearson wood bow and they had some bales of straw set up at 35 yards. They shot their fancy stuff, 5 arrows each, each of them had 2 or 3 arrow in the paper plate. Then it was my turn, well they were all laughing at my "antique", I put 5 of my arrow in the paper plate, no big deal. If you want to be good with any rifle, shotgun, pistol or bow you just need to shoot it more than once a year. I guess it's the same with any skill, take for instance forge welding a rifle barrel, ain't going to do it right off the first time now are you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chichi Posted February 5, 2013 Share Posted February 5, 2013 rdennett, I have done some boring but not any reaming so my reamer description may be off a little (I made one a year ago and used it on a test piece but dont recall all of the details.) The boring bit is homemade. It is a piece of high carbon steel forged to a square taper about 3-4 in. long forge welded to a mild steel rod. The combined length has to be the length of the barrel plus stickout for the "chuck' of the boring tool.The bits are of increasingly larger diameter from about 4/16 to say 1/2 in. in 1/16 increments. The reamer is sq. high carbon steel with sharp corners held to a piece of wood which is a dowel cut in half lengthwise. The steel is held to the wood by two leather rings . A piece of paper is slipped between the steel and wood periodically to increase their combined diameter. Go to the "Toad Hall Rifle Shop" site. It has pictures and explanations which I used as a reference. The author is an expert who helps all who ask.A great gut-Steve Bookout.He also has books and vbideos which are very inexpensive and invaluable.PM me if you are interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Everything Mac Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 That was quite a fascinating watch. I rather enjoyed seeing the gun come together. I appreciate this was a "nicer than usual" gun but it is quite amazing how much work went into them. Never had the chance to shoot black powder - must get around to that at some point. Cheers for posting Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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