Hawken Help

[1stnamebassist]

I just finished up my left hand kit. My first long gun build. I have very little experience working with wood, but quite a bit of metal working experience. I watched the Bob Woodfill video several times and downloaded some pics of original Hawkens to reference. You will be removing a lot of wood! I bought some inexpensive rasps and some rubber sanding blocks and sandpaper from Amazon. I bought some Homer Dangler red/brown stain and Laurel Mountain browning solution. I worked on it a couple minutes here, a couple hours there and I was happy with the results for my first rifle build! Good luck with your kit, it was fun and a bit of a challenge, and well worth it!

 

[Kabulrocks]

I just finished up my left hand kit. My first long gun build. I have very little experience working with wood, but quite a bit of metal working experience. I watched the Bob Woodfill video several times and downloaded some pics of original Hawkens to reference. You will be removing a lot of wood! I bought some inexpensive rasps and some rubber sanding blocks and sandpaper from Amazon. I bought some Homer Dangler red/brown stain and Laurel Mountain browning solution. I worked on it a couple minutes here, a couple hours there and I was happy with the results for my first rifle build! Good luck with your kit, it was fun and a bit of a challenge, and well worth it!

That is a great looking rifle!
I believe there have been a couple of the Gemmer kits completed with the guidance from Bob Woodfill’s video now.

 

[1stnamebassist]

That is a great looking rifle!
I believe there have been a couple of the Gemmer kits completed with the guidance from Bob Woodfill’s video now.

Thanks! Some day soon I hope to get it out and give it a shot so to speak.

 

[Notchy Bob]

Watch this video for tips on building a Gemmer kit. Bob Woodfill also had an article in the September 2022 Muzzle Blasts on this very topic.

Thanks for posting this, @Kabulrocks . I had read Mr. Woodfill's article in the September 2022 Muzzle Blasts, but I was not aware of this video, which went into a bit more depth than the article. I do think Bob might have mixed up some of his terminology (e.g. fire blue versus rust blue), but he has been in the "Hawken game" about as long as anyone living. I think this video is well worth watching by anyone who wants to get the most out of one of these kits.

Notchy Bob

 

[Ryanlpuckett]

Track of the Wolf offers plans that I have used on several occasions.

https://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/304/2/PLAN-HAWKEN

Thank you, I will be ordering a set today

Best

Ryan

 

[Ryanlpuckett]

I just finished up my left hand kit. My first long gun build. I have very little experience working with wood, but quite a bit of metal working experience. I watched the Bob Woodfill video several times and downloaded some pics of original Hawkens to reference. You will be removing a lot of wood! I bought some inexpensive rasps and some rubber sanding blocks and sandpaper from Amazon. I bought some Homer Dangler red/brown stain and Laurel Mountain browning solution. I worked on it a couple minutes here, a couple hours there and I was happy with the results for my first rifle build! Good luck with your kit, it was fun and a bit of a challenge, and well worth it!

Very fine looking rifle sir!

Best

Ryan

 

[Ryanlpuckett]

I'll add that if you get cabinet scrapers, get the thinner ones so that they're easy to bend to conform to curves. I got thicker ones and wish I had the thin ones

Yes, I bought some of these for my Kentucky build, were unfortunately cheap quality. Will invest in some new ones for the Hawken. Because I want everyone to be gawken at my Hawken

Best

Ryan

 

[Ryanlpuckett]

That is a great looking rifle!
I believe there have been a couple of the Gemmer kits completed with the guidance from Bob Woodfill’s video now.

I'm going to be checking out bobs video, seems to be the standard on this type of project.

Best

Ryan

 

[Ryanlpuckett]

You should check this out.

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/gpr-kit-build-modificaions.38735/
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/gpr-kit-build-modifications.37827/

Thanks for this!

Best

Ryan

 

[Stumbling Buffalo]

If you get the Hawken affliction in a bad way; Bob Woodfill's recent book from the NMLRA is a great reference (about $50 I think). Lot of great photos of different period rifles to study the subtle differences in the little details. He built replicas of several of them in the book gives the details of his builds. Good luck!

 

[Ryanlpuckett]

If you get the Hawken affliction in a bad way; Bob Woodfill's recent book from the NMLRA is a great reference (about $50 I think). Lot of great photos of different period rifles to study the subtle differences in the little details. He built replicas of several of them in the book gives the details of his builds. Good luck!

Thank you for the resource, I will look into it for sure. Looking forward to the build, and thank you again

Best

Ryan

 

[Dale Lilly]

See my post #4, Feb 21, 2023 in The Craftsman forum. Save some money. Dale

 

[Ryanlpuckett]

I am awaiting the arrival of an Investarm, Hawken Gemmer Kit. What i have read, suggests that this was one of the more accurate production kits available. The robust Iron furniture is probably what sold me, knowing the amount of work required to re-work the stock, well the iron is what sold me lol. I do wish that it had a patch box, but oh well. Anywho, I would like to make it as accurate as possible, and am looking for source material to work the stock to as accurate as to original as possible. Does anyone know of templates, drawings or any other resources for these rifles? With work one can get close, with dedication and a set of files and a shoulder replacement one can attain perfection. I see these kits out of the box as flawed "historically" speaking, but manufacturers were not striving for perfection at these price points, however, they offer a good starting point.

Thank you guys!!

Hey guys,

I wanted to share some photos of the progress that I am making on the Investarm Hawken kit. There is some final filing to be completed, and the lock needs to be inlet around 1/16", or so. I want to have it prepped and ready for stain by Friday. I am still debating barrel bluing or brown. Anywho, please tell me what you think.

Best

Ryan

 

[Grenadier1758]

The cheek piece could be a bit more refined. It's too large to my eyes. I think you know you need to smooth the file and rasp marks around the cheek piece. What's that line under the cheek piece? Your inletting and fitment of the buttplate to the stock is good. Getting close.

 

[Ryanlpuckett]

The line came in as I was squaring the bottom of the stock. But yes, it will be blended in some time this week. The size, I honestly did not know how small or large to make make it. Is the geometry correct? More filing to be done to level the stock and clean up the lock and cheek piece . Thank you for your reply.

Best

Ryan

 

[1stnamebassist]

Yeah I think your cheek piece could be a bit thinner, maybe a 1/4” or so in height. Also clean up around the cheek piece. You will like the look a bit better if that is all smoothed up especially when it’s stained. I used a rasp on my stock all the way down to the metal. Then I changed to sanding. Also all the metal may have file marks and since you have to file casting lines or marks out after you take them off and sand and polish all the metal, you can correct the file marks then. My trigger guard was terrible. It even had a serious twist I had to fix! My stock was from a left hand kit and it was a mess! I probably spent about 20 or 30 hours just filing and sanding to get my stock to where I was happy with it! Look at lots of photos of original Hawkens and have them handy while your working. Also in YouTube check out “I Love Muzzleloading”. He does a series of about 20 videos of start to finish on putting together this kit. In fact what I did is went really slow building and watched those videos over and over sometimes. It was a big help to me. Another one to watch is duelist1954. He did a build of this rifle also from start to finish. I know nothing really about woodworking so I watched the masters and learned. I do have a ton of experience working with metal so that part helped me some, but I’m retired and still always learning from others! Keep up the good work, take your time and enjoy the process!

 

[Ryanlpuckett]

Yeah I think your cheek piece could be a bit thinner, maybe a 1/4” or so in height. Also clean up around the cheek piece. You will like the look a bit better if that is all smoothed up especially when it’s stained. I used a rasp on my stock all the way down to the metal. Then I changed to sanding. Also all the metal may have file marks and since you have to file casting lines or marks out after you take them off and sand and polish all the metal, you can correct the file marks then. My trigger guard was terrible. It even had a serious twist I had to fix! My stock was from a left hand kit and it was a mess! I probably spent about 20 or 30 hours just filing and sanding to get my stock to where I was happy with it! Look at lots of photos of original Hawkens and have them handy while your working. Also in YouTube check out “I Love Muzzleloading”. He does a series of about 20 videos of start to finish on putting together this kit. In fact what I did is went really slow building and watched those videos over and over sometimes. It was a big help to me. Another one to watch is duelist1954. He did a build of this rifle also from start to finish. I know nothing really about woodworking so I watched the masters and learned. I do have a ton of experience working with metal so that part helped me some, but I’m retired and still always learning from others! Keep up the good work, take your time and enjoy the process!

Thank you for this information, I will thin the cheek down a bit as suggested. There is still much to do, clean up, lower the lock in a bit more so as it sits flush with the barrel. My guard is also twisted, and the mortise are a bit to shy for fit, so will have to extend about a quarter inch for fit. Will also have to deepen the rear mortise as it is a bit shallow. Still have to polish the metal. The guard cleaned up nicely, definitely a different material than the cap. So far so good, enjoying the build.

Thank you again!

Best

Ryan

 

[Grenadier1758]

The cheek piece needs to be a lot smaller. The edge of the cheek piece should be starting from where it is at the start of the comb and be about 1 to 1 1/2" above the toe line of the stock at its lowest edge. The tail edge should curve back so the blended end of the cheekpiece is pointing toward the bottom corner of the buttplate top edge. Look at the pictures of Hawken rifles by Sam Hawken. I can still see evidence of the fish belly under the cheek piece. That should be taken down some. A little curve is okay but not so much of the belly as to be so noticeable.

You are doing quite well and you will have a fine rifle when you are done. Take your time. Watch Woodfil's video.

 

[Kabulrocks]

Thanks for the photos! As others have said, there is a lot of wood on a kit stock that has to be removed to get the nice graceful lines of the original rifles.

For metal finish, my vote is to blue it. That’s the way the originals were finished. I have a Lyman GPR that I built in the 80s, and I browned the metal because I didn’t know better. That rifle is on my radar for a re-do following the guidance from Bob Woodfill.

If you are anywhere near St. Louis, you might want to hold off working on your kit until you can see the real deal at the Hawken Classic and study the details on the rifles. It’s at the end of August, 2023.

This is my browned-out GPR that I mentioned above:

 

[Ryanlpuckett]

Good morning all!!

I just wanted to share some photos of the final product. After copius time filing, its finally at a place of which I am content. One final whisking and then stain, followed by hand rubbed

Tri-Oil, rubbed back with some 0000 wool, and finally rubed with some wax.