Heelerau

Small world, this one does not have a false breech either, ver fast left hand twist, I use about 50 grains of FFg. Does hold nicely. You can see how the long rifles were fathered by these early European guns.

I am curious why it has a two piece stock, I assume upon reflection that it does not have a false breech? I have a mates .54 jaeger which I have got shooting, it is a cap lock conversion and the bore is really good. You did a nice job of sorting out the new for end.

Gentlemen I have been working up a mates little Baker Fusil, I actually suspect it is an English sporting rifle with a Baker Rifled barrel. It has a ver slow twist 1 in 110 .62. The bore is somewhat pitted so when I shot it the other day I used a greased hard felt wad over 2 1/2 drams of FFg goes, .61 ball and a heavy greased denim patch. 50 yards off had after the first 5 shots it settled down and put the last 6 nicely in the black. I did put over 30 rounds through and the greased felt wad did a great job of keeping the fouling in order and easy loading. But !! the ball and patch feels somewhat rough going down so I thought a trip to the smithy and a lead lapping would be the go. I used linotype which I melted over a kero primus, I keep lead away from my forge ! wrapped a cloth around a .303 cleaning rod at the join where the brass jag goes. I pre heated the muzzle on the lip of the pot , set the barrel vertical in the post vice ( lead slippers over the jaws) and poured the lap. I drove it half way out carefully and cut it a bit shorter then rubbed a little coarse valve grind paste on . I had to tap the lap up and down the barrel with a long rod and hammer a few times to and a little WD 40 to get the lap to the point where I could push it back and forth with the cleaning rod . I did not get rid of all the pitting but got rid of a rough constriction about half way down the bore. Before I replaced the breech plug I passed a patched ball down the bore and it feels nice and smooth inspite of the remaining pits. I will still use a greased felt over powder wad as the pits will still pick up to much fouling if I don't. I will see with interest next Sunday how the rifle goes at 50yds bench rested.

I would be happy with such failures !! Lovely patterns and knives .

A fascinating look at old time manufacture. What a pity it could not survive the modern economy, now days I bet there would be a market for these axes.

You are dead right about that piece of gear, we have a 110 year old timber house and I helped the tradesmen put up mini orb ( coated fine corrugated iron) up for a new ceiling and what a pig of a job that was by hand, and we have 13' ceilings.

I have ratted a couple more parts off my purchase, so has been well worth the cost, the pivot for the main pinion. Just swapped over the top threaded cylinder which the shoulder that takes all the upward thrust was all but gone, and also a grub screw to hold the top hand wheel on which has now been refitted and now sits on the top of the frame with out the large gap as seen in the above.

Thomas, borrowed my nieghbours pulley puller a little heat from a propane torch, and lo removed the hand wheel. Have now swapped out the threaded cylinder it was mounted on and have replaced it with one from a wrecked buffalo drill, and have remounted it with new grub screws. The shoulder underneath the old one was nearly gone, so this one has a good sized shoulder to take the upward thrust. Thanks for the suggestion.

I recently found an auto feed that was missing from my Buffalo mod 615 , I use it for drilling holes in hoof picks. Good excersize !

How did you get the handwheel off the threaded piece, it seems to be an interferance fit, there is a grub screw which I have taken out. My handwheel has partially slid up the threaded collar, it was like that when I aquired it. The piece below with the u shaped pin, I just used a pair of vice grips and tapped it out. be aware there is a retaining groove in the mainshaft where this pin should go when replaced. I have tried some heat on the wheel but maybe not enough.

I could have done that I suppose, did not occur to me. He would not have charged me.

I think ideally you are fairly short and heavy set, strong and have a good eye for angles. Stay calm when a horse is being difficult. You ask the owner to get you a glass of water !.

Jim, thanks for that, I did realise that you could change the ratios, but have chosen to leave it how it is. Thanks for the interest.

Gentlemen, found a part Buffalo mod 611 drill with the feed mechanism intact, took a punt and lo fits my mod 615 like it was made for it, feeds nicely. Guess a lot of parts are interchangeable with different mods for later models. Did cost me, but have never been able to source one off the net. Came from a chap who goes to farm clearing sales and has a pretty amazing collection of gear, you pay for it of course but sometimes you have little choice.

Handle is a bit of fruit tree, apricot. I cut a bunch of runes from this tree once. The couple of dings are from me using the ball peen to draw metal, I should not have used that as it has left marks, part of learning to make a good hammer finish. It sort of resembles a straight razor ! I use them, might make one at some time. Best get the herb knives worked out first !! I might add, beer was drunk .

Here it is apart from needing a touch on the oilstone. Heat treated in canola oil.

We will finish off the knife today, and shoe a horse on the front stoop to christen it ! Clear photos of the knife will be posted today !! Thanks for the interest, it will be another hot day and I suspect beer will be drunk !!

A couple of shots in the forge of myself working under instruction of my mate Gary. He is both a farrier and a second generation blacksmith. He had a day to kill as his work vehicle was being serviced. I have made a herb knife before, so this is my second go. Gary is just giving me a general tune up as I am largely self taught. I will add some photos of the the project over the next day, so just a couple of shots of us messing about taken by the Minister of War and Finance, bless her!!

Your conversion is coming along nicely !

Gents, the pizza will be interesting, that will get the clients in, then I can shoe their horses while they eat the pizza, my cunning plan ! I was donated an iron tank, which is now plumbed into the roof. Just have to make a cover for the top manway.

That is pretty neat !!

Gentlemen, finally got the front stoop floor concreted in yesterday, with enough left over to put in a pizza oven base. It has taken the grano worker 3 goes to get here with weather and bigger jobs getting in the way. I will have to wait a month before I put a horse under the stoop to shoe.

Great job, looks like you are located in a rather lovely spot, ver private and picturesque !!

Dale thanks for the link, have just emailed them, as I am only 40 minutes from the city center and the royal show grounds, I might see about dropping down and seeing them on a Wednesday. I have seen them at work during the Royal Show in the past and they have a nice little smithy with a power hammer. Cheers Gordon

Mate funnily enough I have been using the big bags of lump charcoal from Bunnings. When I first used it I though it was too big a lumps, funnily enough i breaks down in the forge into smaller pieces after awhile and seems to work quite well. A mate up the road has built me a retort, just have not had a chance to try it out. When we do I will post some photos. We have wood fires in both houses on our hobby farm, I save any charcoal from cleaning them out. I really would like to get a bulky bag of coke sent over from Qld but the cost at this stage in transport. I will go that way eventually when I have a few spare sponduliks !! Gidge would make excellent charcoal, would burn my stove out if not carefull !!