Heelerau

The unknown 13th apostle?

Apparently I will need the 12 apostles !

At 25 m it shoots pretty well to point of aim,  2 1/2 drams of FFg, with a thick greased patch and a .490 ball. 

Neat job of the cutoff,  I normally cut almost through, then put the piece  cut on the edge of the anvil and strike  off  the waste with the hammer. 

Will do,  have to make some slow match first !

Matchlock is now done and ready to try ! It has been a fun project, lots of learnings. Kit Ravenshears handbooks have been invaluable. Thank you all for shewing interest. 

I have a noisy parrot you can have, will even through in a years worth of parrot mix,  darn galah, is noisy as all get out. 

Thomas, one of the blokes at the Muzzle Loading Club I belong to makes it,  so may get a piece from him to start with.  I have been told Spotlight have nice braided cotton cord, so I will also make some myself.  I don't intend using this piece much,  it was mostly for the experience that I made it, plus I have not to this time got a match lock. I have mostly flint and percussion rifles, and smoothbores.  The match making looks like an interesting exercise, I have plenty of wood ash and saltpetre

Made from scratch the under barrel lugs, barrel is now pinned to the for end,  but plate is now screwed on,  ram rod thimble fitted . I made and fitted the flash shield today, so now just have to put the finish on the stock and proof her.  Photos to follow. 

To the moderator, is this font size ok please? 

Cheers 

Gordon

Gentlemen,

1 1/4 inch bore, 10z of Fg, ball just over 1/2 lb cast lead.  We have a terrace on the south side of the house with an embrasure for the gun, next to a flag pole.  That was a time shot hence the double image.  Weight of about 70 lbs, cast iron around a seamless steel bore with welded breech plug.  Cast in a local Perth boundary, a chap had a number of these made, my in-laws gave it to me as a 50th birthday present.

Something I have been working on for a while.  A mate forged the lock many years ago, and sent it to me recently. I have forged the pan out of a railway spike, drilled with my blacksmiths post drill, forged the pan cover, triggers, but plate. Still to forge the trigger guard,  and ram rod pipe.  Have to drill the ram rod hole in the fore end, finish shaping the stock, make a fore end cap. The barrel is smoothbore .50  made from carbon steel hollow bar,  a mate turned it for me as I have no lathe. Stock I cut from an old jarrah plank I had lying around with the bandsaw. Lock inletting is not the greatest as I need more practice !

I trust you are making it with a square bore for shooting non christians! That is a mighty project, will be interested in the finished result.  I love the Krupp pack cannons. I have a 3rd scale 32lb naval gun that mounts in the bed of my old pickup

50/50 acetone and auto trans oil, works a treat, just have to leave it for a week or two sealed up so the acetone does not evaporate.

I have been buying lump charcoal from Bunnings in Midland,  it mostly works fine in my Buffalo Forge.  I am located at Gidgegannup.  A local artisan smith  make his own charcoal,  I am yet to find time to do it. 

I have tent pegged on horseback with the British Army Pat 1908 cavalry sword, ver similar to Gen Pattons.  A horse at a full gallop flattens its stride and gets a bit lower to the ground, a most excillerating feeling at that sort of speed, its 95% horse and about 5% hand eye and timing !

Over the last couple of days I have been making hoof picks to sell at the local feed stores out of used horse shoes. You cannot buy a decent hoof pick so I think this is a nice little niche market. They also make great little practice pieces.  I should remember to grind off the toe clips first but often forget to so finish up with sometimes having to dress the picks with the flap wheel to make sure there are no sharp bits.  I mostly use the post drill to put a handy hole in the handles as well.  They pay for the charcoal and a bit of pocket money for black powder, caps and flints !I will do some more while it is cool during our Winter. 

I have been making hoof picks to sell at the local feed stores, good little practise pieces out of 3/4 horse shoe, which a farrier mate gives me rather than toss away.  I drill a hole in the end of the picks handle with my post drill, gives the shoulder a good work out. A little trefolex helps. 

I have not had that happen as yet to me, I have a counterweighted flap under my fire pot to drop ash and clinkers out, so imagine that would open if I had a gas explosion. 

Nice job,  I have an old 9mm pin fire revolver with some parts including the trigger guard missing,  I am thinking to do the same thing you have and make one from scratch.

Joel I commented on your Utube regarding this amazing shop you have built. A rare skill and a huge amount of drive and vision.  I see you are a relatively young bloke, and hope you have the chance to pass on your knowledge to some young apprentices.  As I mentioned on the tube, a late neighbour, Washington Parker built his own workshop in the early 1950s and he installed a line shaft, just a single one, driven by a lister petrol engine, driving a lathe, mill, drill, grinder and a reciprocating cut off saw. He like yourself was a ver multi skilled bloke and a ver good farmer. This little shop was just for his own farm maintenance. If ever I get over to the US again, I would like to visit with you. 

Kind regards 

Gordon

Neat little anvil!

You are right, it is an hour worth repeating and repeating from time to time. A real lesson on what man can do with a few simple tools and the knowledge of how to use  them. Thanks for posting the link

I just make up black powder cartridges for my old damascus barreled 12 bore britch loader. The bloke who had it originally used modern smokeless in it and it held fine. As it is only proofed for black, that is all I use in it now. Black powder as stated  has a softer pressure curve than smokeless. There are some good vidieos on utube of gun makers a the williamsburg gun shop forging barrels from old buggy tyres. Quite fascinating as these two blokes made every last screw and part for this rifle by hand using period equipment. The barrel forging process was quite fascinating. 

Shoe for heavy traction, maybe ice and snow.