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Fowler build pics
- Thread starter mikemeteor
- Start date
Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:
I am working on the same butt stock shaping today on my fowler am am a little unsure about shaping the sides of the comb. If I hold a straight edge at the widest part of the upper butt plate should I have a straight shot to the nose of the comb, completely flat?
First fowler, second gun.
First fowler, second gun.
mikemeteor
45 Cal.
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2008
- Messages
- 660
- Reaction score
- 3
Eric - turns out I received feedback on exactly that issue in Lewisburg.
This is my first fowler, so your best bet is to have a seasoned fowler person weigh in here.
That said, my thoughts, in order:
1) follow the lines of the original gun you are emulating.
2) if not emulating a specific original (like me), look for examples in your general school, and look for trends.
3) look for what pleases your own eye.
All that said, my feedback at Lewisburg was:
1) no straight-on flat surface ahead of the buttplate - start the gentle taper to the nose of the comb immediately at the buttplate.
2) "completely flat" is generally to be avoided anywhere on the gun - gentle radius is more graceful.
3) there is also a curve from base of comb to top of comb.
One thing for sure, there's only one thing worse than building from pictures (as guidance) and that's building from words as guidance.
Hopefully some fowler vets will jump in here, altho most are probably not following my snail-like progress in this thread.
love to see some pics of your progress!
Mitch: thanks again and that Lancaster project of yours is even more graceful in the flesh.
/mike
This is my first fowler, so your best bet is to have a seasoned fowler person weigh in here.
That said, my thoughts, in order:
1) follow the lines of the original gun you are emulating.
2) if not emulating a specific original (like me), look for examples in your general school, and look for trends.
3) look for what pleases your own eye.
All that said, my feedback at Lewisburg was:
1) no straight-on flat surface ahead of the buttplate - start the gentle taper to the nose of the comb immediately at the buttplate.
2) "completely flat" is generally to be avoided anywhere on the gun - gentle radius is more graceful.
3) there is also a curve from base of comb to top of comb.
One thing for sure, there's only one thing worse than building from pictures (as guidance) and that's building from words as guidance.
Hopefully some fowler vets will jump in here, altho most are probably not following my snail-like progress in this thread.
love to see some pics of your progress!
Mitch: thanks again and that Lancaster project of yours is even more graceful in the flesh.
/mike
jdkerstetter
69 Cal.
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2012
- Messages
- 3,029
- Reaction score
- 7
Hey Mike, Certainly was nice meeting you.
You say you got a chance to talk to Ron Luckenbill. Did you happen to handle that original fowler he had on his table?
I should have mentioned it when we were talking.
That gun is really special. I've gotten to handle it a couple of times and was tempted, again, to buy it if for nothing more than using it as a guide to building one of my own. Really nice lines.
Enjoy, J.D.
You say you got a chance to talk to Ron Luckenbill. Did you happen to handle that original fowler he had on his table?
I should have mentioned it when we were talking.
That gun is really special. I've gotten to handle it a couple of times and was tempted, again, to buy it if for nothing more than using it as a guide to building one of my own. Really nice lines.
Enjoy, J.D.
Thanks a bunch, just the advice I needed to hear.
I stated tapering the wrist into the butt yesterday. Still have to go deeper but have a start on one side. Blurry picture, from an angle that makes the wrist look huge but it is 1 1/2" across.
I am working off the fowler plans from TOW but not following them too closely. I prefer your shaping to the shallow wrist transition as shown on my plans.
My shaping has been doubly difficult because I broke a drill bit off in each side the trigger guard lug hole you can see in the picture. My trigger guard isn't coming off(blind pinned with broken drill bits on each side) so I have to shape around it with a small chisel and sandpaper.
I stated tapering the wrist into the butt yesterday. Still have to go deeper but have a start on one side. Blurry picture, from an angle that makes the wrist look huge but it is 1 1/2" across.
I am working off the fowler plans from TOW but not following them too closely. I prefer your shaping to the shallow wrist transition as shown on my plans.
My shaping has been doubly difficult because I broke a drill bit off in each side the trigger guard lug hole you can see in the picture. My trigger guard isn't coming off(blind pinned with broken drill bits on each side) so I have to shape around it with a small chisel and sandpaper.
mikemeteor
45 Cal.
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2008
- Messages
- 660
- Reaction score
- 3
J.D. - didn't handle Ron's fowler, but i did gaze at it.
Eric - here's a set of pictures of a Pennsylvania fowler by Rich Dillon with some instructive shots of comb lines that I liked:
Dillon fowler
As an aside, altho none of my business, I bet if you presented your broken drill bit = blind pin problem to the group in a new thread, you'd get some nifty solutions for getting them out with minimal damage.
cheers //mike
Eric - here's a set of pictures of a Pennsylvania fowler by Rich Dillon with some instructive shots of comb lines that I liked:
Dillon fowler
As an aside, altho none of my business, I bet if you presented your broken drill bit = blind pin problem to the group in a new thread, you'd get some nifty solutions for getting them out with minimal damage.
cheers //mike
I did post on another thread, it was pretty much drill a bigger hole, extract the drill bits with pliers, plug the hole.
Fortunately I had my trigger plate in, with an offset trigger slot I was able to work the trigger in around the trigger guard.
The only thing that bugs me is I have a temporary Phillips head screw holding the trigger plate in. Although it completely covered up by the trigger guard and invisible, it will always be there.
Fortunately I had my trigger plate in, with an offset trigger slot I was able to work the trigger in around the trigger guard.
The only thing that bugs me is I have a temporary Phillips head screw holding the trigger plate in. Although it completely covered up by the trigger guard and invisible, it will always be there.
Nice going w/ drilling the bbl lugs...I do it a lot different, but you were successful and that's what counts. A suggestion...When you have the bbl and RR groove and hole done, specify that the top of the forestock be cut .03-.04 below bbl centerline and the bottom of the upper forestock .03-.04 below the RR groove centerline. Once done as above, these surfaces don't have to be touched again. Saves some time. Again, nice work.....Fred
mikemeteor
45 Cal.
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2008
- Messages
- 660
- Reaction score
- 3
I hit one of those walls we all hit every now and then.
Did a whole lot more blank staring at the piece then actually working on it.
Distracted myself by switching to making the tapered ramrod.
Used two utility knife blades in my vise to skinny down most of the 7/16” blank for my 3/8” pipes and RR hole.
Just clamped the blades in at an angle and pushed and pulled the rod back-n-forth 2 maybe 3 million times, and it was done before I knew it.
Pinned the end with a brad, peened down the ends, filed and sanded them and the pin disappeared nicely.
Still didn’t feel the mojo for working on the wood, so I picked up my triggerguard and filed an acorn finial on the trailing tang ”“ pretty well matches the acorn that came on the forward tang.
Finally convinced myself to get back at the wood, so I eased into it with inletting the forward pipes. Pretty standard stuff.
Pic shows my little chisel/scraper/poker made from 1/16” music wire I use to extract most of the wood after cutting down the sides with a straight chisel.
Drilled the pin holes mostly by eyeball and a visual level guide.
Hit both pretty pipe tabs well fortunately.
Last night I finally attacked the wrist area for slimming and girth reduction.
Filed ¼” flats in the sides (1st pic below) and then rounded everything back to a crest/shadow line there.
Repeated this process 3 times on each side.
Wrist is now 1.5” or less in all spots.
But I think I still have more to go.
Last pic is how she sits today.
I think I have to soften that crease between wrist baluster and comb”¦.
I’m open to all tips, hints, criticisms, rants, and curses.
Next is inletting trigger guard when I’m sure my bottom line is close to final.
/mike millard
Did a whole lot more blank staring at the piece then actually working on it.
Distracted myself by switching to making the tapered ramrod.
Used two utility knife blades in my vise to skinny down most of the 7/16” blank for my 3/8” pipes and RR hole.
Just clamped the blades in at an angle and pushed and pulled the rod back-n-forth 2 maybe 3 million times, and it was done before I knew it.
Pinned the end with a brad, peened down the ends, filed and sanded them and the pin disappeared nicely.
Still didn’t feel the mojo for working on the wood, so I picked up my triggerguard and filed an acorn finial on the trailing tang ”“ pretty well matches the acorn that came on the forward tang.
Finally convinced myself to get back at the wood, so I eased into it with inletting the forward pipes. Pretty standard stuff.
Pic shows my little chisel/scraper/poker made from 1/16” music wire I use to extract most of the wood after cutting down the sides with a straight chisel.
Drilled the pin holes mostly by eyeball and a visual level guide.
Hit both pretty pipe tabs well fortunately.
Last night I finally attacked the wrist area for slimming and girth reduction.
Filed ¼” flats in the sides (1st pic below) and then rounded everything back to a crest/shadow line there.
Repeated this process 3 times on each side.
Wrist is now 1.5” or less in all spots.
But I think I still have more to go.
Last pic is how she sits today.
I think I have to soften that crease between wrist baluster and comb”¦.
I’m open to all tips, hints, criticisms, rants, and curses.
Next is inletting trigger guard when I’m sure my bottom line is close to final.
/mike millard
jdkerstetter
69 Cal.
- Joined
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- 3,029
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Lookin' good Mike! :hatsoff: Enjoy, J.D.
- Joined
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- 964
looks great!
mikemeteor
45 Cal.
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2008
- Messages
- 660
- Reaction score
- 3
Still plodding along ”“ nothing exciting.
Got the trigger guard inlet ”“ mostly standard stuff.
While I normally have to modify the front of the trigger plate to fit a TG, in this case I had enough room to avoid that, and just had to shorten the back of the plate to make room for the middle TG tab.
You can see I heated the rear finial where it meets the bow so I could bend it to follow the cast off.
Then moved to installing the vent liner.
Marked the spot and leveled the barrel under the drill press.
Drilled with three size-steps up to tap size, then tapped and countersunk hole.
You can see I left the breech plug in for the drilling ”“ no reason for that ”“ but I was POSITIVE I was going to miss the face of the plug with the drill bit ”“ still, it’s safer to take the plug out probably.
Hole landed about where I figured with respect to plug face.
The liner invaded the bore cylinder, as I imagine most do, so I marked the bore axis on the liner knob and filed a radius along that axis.
OK, look away purists !!!
I used a Dremel cut-off on the sacrificial liner nub.
Cleaned it up with a point file backed with some stiff stock and then wet-dry paper.
It’s a simple process, but always glad to get through it with no screw-up.
Soldered on the front turtle sight using Birddog’s handy hacksaw blade soldering clamp.
Then added molding line to forestock.
I started with a homemade scratch tool guided by the bottom RR channel line.
Then used a little veining tool in the scratch mark, and then moved to a modified, sharp-edged file run in the groove to straighten out the little wobbles.
Finish the contouring with a little 320-grit and a lot of scraping.
So I’ve got all the metal on and I think I’m about done with the overall general shaping.
Now I’m gonna move into some relief carving in a few select spots ”“ not planning on going overboard with it.
Also acquiring and practicing some modest engraving techniques.
If this thread aborts altogether, you’ll know my carving and/or engraving crashed and burned”¦..
/mike
Got the trigger guard inlet ”“ mostly standard stuff.
While I normally have to modify the front of the trigger plate to fit a TG, in this case I had enough room to avoid that, and just had to shorten the back of the plate to make room for the middle TG tab.
You can see I heated the rear finial where it meets the bow so I could bend it to follow the cast off.
Then moved to installing the vent liner.
Marked the spot and leveled the barrel under the drill press.
Drilled with three size-steps up to tap size, then tapped and countersunk hole.
You can see I left the breech plug in for the drilling ”“ no reason for that ”“ but I was POSITIVE I was going to miss the face of the plug with the drill bit ”“ still, it’s safer to take the plug out probably.
Hole landed about where I figured with respect to plug face.
The liner invaded the bore cylinder, as I imagine most do, so I marked the bore axis on the liner knob and filed a radius along that axis.
OK, look away purists !!!
I used a Dremel cut-off on the sacrificial liner nub.
Cleaned it up with a point file backed with some stiff stock and then wet-dry paper.
It’s a simple process, but always glad to get through it with no screw-up.
Soldered on the front turtle sight using Birddog’s handy hacksaw blade soldering clamp.
Then added molding line to forestock.
I started with a homemade scratch tool guided by the bottom RR channel line.
Then used a little veining tool in the scratch mark, and then moved to a modified, sharp-edged file run in the groove to straighten out the little wobbles.
Finish the contouring with a little 320-grit and a lot of scraping.
So I’ve got all the metal on and I think I’m about done with the overall general shaping.
Now I’m gonna move into some relief carving in a few select spots ”“ not planning on going overboard with it.
Also acquiring and practicing some modest engraving techniques.
If this thread aborts altogether, you’ll know my carving and/or engraving crashed and burned”¦..
/mike
