Bedding as Pennance...or-

[clayfeld]

Pride Goeth Before a Hammer Fall.

Well, somewhere in my pre-build self-education, I scanned *all* the archived "Builder's Bench" archives and read and copied many of them. With my decades-long history of multiple venue workshop projects- furniture, guitars, sailboats, auto restoration, scratch-built ship models, etc., I thought there just wasn't a project I couldn't do fairly well, so in my ignorance and arrogance I just ignored Zonie's warning that a Hawken build was four or five times as difficult as almost any other style and I went ahead and bought Don Stith's Gemmer Hawken kit, on sale last Christmas.

So- while I haven't made *every* mistake, I'm pretty close to having made every *other* mistake. To pay for my sins in barrel and tang inletting, I bedded them both. I had some left-over System 3 boatbuilder's epoxy and some Tap Plastics Cab-O-Sil (the "thixotropic agent"- love that term; thickens epoxy so that it stays where put). I went back to Tap and bought some Premium Pigment, in brown and black, and some soft wax release agent. Rubbed-down all the metal with the release agent, filled the staple holes with modeling clay and the lock bolt hole with the shaft of a drill bit. I then poured out 20 ml of the resin, added a dollop of brown pigment and half-a-dollop of black to get a nice, chocolate brown mix, stirred in a heaping tablespoon of Cab-O-Sil, mixed it all up and slopped it in with a tongue blade. I then put the barred and tang together and clamped them into the stock. Set up nicely in a couple of hours and, at six hours, I took out the barrel and tang. Took a few good whacks. Next time I would use Vaseline also, over the release wax.

All-in-all, it turned out pretty well. Probably
if I had followed the Law of Zonie and picked an easier build, without the patent/hooked breech fitting and inletting challenge, I would not have had to do it. Oh, well, nothing wrong with a complete education in a single project, I guess!

With rapdily increasing humility,
Clay
San Jose CA

 

[Hoyt]

I wouldn't worry about the mistakes too much..just do like I do and remodel. It gives me something to work on remodeling my first build while waiting on parts for the next one. I've already refinished it once, added a patch box and changed and added some carving. Next I'm going to redo the fore-end..take it down some to pull ramrod in so tip will be flush with nosecap..which I'm going to redo..along with the whole right side of stock. Then I'm going to redo the Bucks County..my second attempt at building. All that will have to wait until I get through with my 3rd attempt..Berk's Co...hope I can get it close to right the first go round.

 

[Vaino]

Have done 2 half stock "Hawkens"...first one was a Pecatonica and the second was a Stith left handed. Evidently from your post, the epoxy was used in the area of the hooked breech and tang to correct inletting errors? First off, did you inlet the tang and barrel as a unit? I epoxied the tang and barrel together and the inletting was no different than a LR, just a longer tang. A time consuming task w/ a "Hawken" is attaching the under rib w/ the little screws, not difficult but there's got to be a better way. Perhaps riveting? Getting the hooked breech/tang fitted and inletted and installing the under rib are to me, the only differences compared to building a LR. Good luck.....Fred

 

[clayfeld]

Thanks for the therapy, guys. Actually I fitted the breech plug first and it went so well I got cocky. Over-filed the hooking plate on the tang and had to silver solder a new piece on. Finished the barrel channel with chisels and transfer agent, using the muzzle end of the barrel as a guide. Squared off the muzzle end of the channel for the tang and did a rough inletting finish there, then shimmed and finally soldered the tang and breech together for final fitting. It never felt quite secure enough to me, hence the bedding.

Clay
San Jose CA

 

Clay, you jumped right in there a are building a Hawken. I admire your attitude about learning it all now. Just think, when you get this rifle done and all the finish and stain on it, you won't notice the flaws. At least no one else will. :grin: Next Hawken will be a lot easier. Hawken building has it's moments but all in all, it's invigoratin', ain't it? :applause: :applause:
Don

 

[clayfeld]

It *is* invigorating, Don! Now I'm collecting Hawken photos- some great ones in R.L. Wilson's giant color photo essay "The Peacemakers. Arms and Adventure in the American West". I'd like to build a Hawken squirrel rifle next, in a small caliber. Then there's always those exotic breechloaders with Hawken stocks that J.P. Gemmer built.

Clay

 

"Then there's always those exotic breechloaders with Hawken stocks that J.P. Gemmer built." He said
Well this one has taken the bait, and the hook is well set. All we gotta do now is reel it in! :rotf: :rotf: Another one secumbs to the black powder addiction, for which there is no cure, only rehab. build another one. :blah: Bill