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Recent content by dave_person

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  1. dave_person

    Muzzleloading Long Rifle Identification

    Hi, It looks like an English waterfowling gun from the late 18th or early 19th century. The locks likely was replaced when it was converted to percussion from flintlock. It has private Tower proof marks, which means the barrel was made before 1810 or so. dave
  2. dave_person

    Red Mapel

    Hi, Red maple has a lot of variation in density. The secret is to handle the blank, if it is heavy, it will probably work out, if light, maybe not. I've used a lot of red maple over the years and it usually doesn't carve that well if you need sharp small details. However, the figure is often...
  3. dave_person

    Kibler lock In Chambers fowler?

    Hi Redbeard, I prefer the English lock over the Virginia. It has a nice decorative border like the Kibler and it has a raised lip on the pan that seats inside a mortise cut into the pan cover. dave
  4. dave_person

    Kibler lock In Chambers fowler?

    Here is a Chamber's round faced English lock that fired 671 times without a misfire using just 10 flints and requiring only that the vent was picked every 15 shots or so and the flints and battery wiped clean of fouling. Can you show me a lock with better performance? dave
  5. dave_person

    Help Identifying Possible 1760/78 Light Dragoon's "Royal Forester" Pistol

    Hi, It looks like a pattern 1778 Royal Forester's light dragoon pistol. It has the later lock showing 2 screws behind the flint cock. The hole in the lock plate is for the screw holding the mainspring on the lock plate. It still works without that screw because it was largely unnecessary. I...
  6. dave_person

    Hawk New England Fowler

    Hi and thanks everyone for the comments. No, I have not had a chance to shoot it yet. My shop has been way too busy for me to step away and shoot. I've laser bore sighted it and the windage looks bang on but elevation remains to be determined. I won't get to it until after this current big...
  7. dave_person

    Woodsrunner, Is this normal for walnut?

    Hi, After sanding the initial slurry off smooth, I do not sand between coats. There is no need but you must apply the finish, let sit for a few minutes and then wipe off the excess completely. You want thin coats. dave
  8. dave_person

    Woodsrunner, Is this normal for walnut?

    Hi, No. I believe Danish Oil is a linseed oil based oil-varnish mix. dave
  9. dave_person

    Woodsrunner, Is this normal for walnut?

    Hi, American black walnut is quite different than Juglans regia (aka English, French, Italian, Turkish, Armenian, Circassian, European walnut) and is usually less dense. I build many British military guns but often have to use black walnut for the stocks because long blanks of English walnut...
  10. dave_person

    Woodsrunner, Is this normal for walnut?

    Hi, Walnut has open rays or pores that need to be filled. If you don't use a filler of some sort, it will take many coats of finish to fill the pores. Some like a dull in the wood oil finish with the pores mostly still open. That is not an authentic finish except for some later 19th century...
  11. dave_person

    Frizzen doesn't want to brown

    Hi, Don't bother browning the frizzen. Modern browning of frizzens and lock plates is not authentic and amateurish. Leave it bright or with temper colors or case colors, or nothing. There is nothing that screams 20th and 21st century more than a LMF, Wahkon Bay, or Plum Brown browned lock. dave
  12. dave_person

    What gun for early 1700's Virginia.

    Hi, Nice gun Ricky! My previous post describing Gill's book on Virginia gunsmiths points at social and economic conditions that did not stimulate a strong middle class of tradesmen, professionals, small landowners, and industry unlike New England and most of the mid-Atlantic colonies. It was...
  13. dave_person

    Anyone Experienced with Hardening a Frizzen?

    Hi Sam, That is good advice but there are many locks on which the pan fence is too close to the face of the battery to fit a sole unless the sole is shortened so it no longer covers the bottom of the battery. I don't like that solution for lack of space because it looks kludgy. dave
  14. dave_person

    Anyone Experienced with Hardening a Frizzen?

    Hi, There are really only 2 reliable things you can do. Case harden it or sole it. You can try heating to bright orange-red color and quenching in oil or brine but I have limited success with that when hardening India-made parts. I think their steel alloys vary a lot. Now I don't bother with...
  15. dave_person

    What gun for early 1700's Virginia.

    Hi, In Harold Gill's "The Gunsmith in Colonial Virginia" he identifies 212 gunsmiths working in Virginia during 1607-1800. Of those, only 14 were known to work in the 17th century. There is a rifle barrel found in Virginia that predates 1640 and a handful of others documented during the 1600s...
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