My first gun from my new shop

[dave_person]

Hi Col.Bat,
Thanks for the compliment but don't be intimidated and I am flattered that you are inspired. Compared to Bill Shipman, Jim Kibler, Taylor Sapergia, Allen Martin, Flehto (on this site), and several others, my work is just OK. My strength is that I try very hard to do the best I can. But one thing where I am good is that I am not afraid to jump in and try something very challenging, even if I fail. I value failure because I learn and I do both all the time.

dave

 

[C Broad Arrow]

Dave, tell us how you got started and what skills you had coming into this hobby.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
My Dad had a great woodworking shop in our basement and I tinkered in there under his supervision from a very early age. In the late 1970s, a friend bought a TC Hawken and we all went out and spent some afternoons shooting with it. Dad and I had a lot of fun but both of us thought we could make a better gun if we could get a lock and barrel. We discovered Dixie Gun Works and I bought a barrel, buttplate, trigger guard,a Siler lock kit,a plank of maple,and Richard McCrory's little book on making a longrifle. We built a rifle, with many mistakes, but it looked pretty nice and shot well. My Dad was an excellent wood carver as well as a good all-round wood and metal worker so I learned a lot from him. Mostly, I learned on my own making guns and pistols. Bill Kennedy helped me a lot, particularly showing me his restoration work on originals and guns he made. I learned what long rifles really looked like from him and hanging around Vince Nolt's Eagle museum. Vince kindly let me inspect and handle several originals. Also, at that time (early 1980s), the Washington's Headquarters Historical Museum in Morristown, NJ, near my boyhood home, was much less formal and institutional. They were a very small operation and the curator gave me access to one of their back rooms stuffed with antique guns. Most were donated to the museum and not appropriate for Rev War period, so they sat in the back. Most were Civil War period guns but there were several high-end English sporting guns and early percussion rifles. I learned a lot from that collection. In the mid 1980's, I left NJ to pursue degrees and a career in wildlife ecology. Eventually I wound up in Alaska with a PHD and a job with Alaska Fish and Game studying wolves and deer. I did not build many guns during that time until 2000, when I finally had a permanent shop again. My wife was a gifted graphic designer and woodworking artist. She taught me a great deal about art and design, knowledge which I now use constantly. Gail passed away in 2012, I left Alaska in 2013, and set up shop in Braintree, Vermont by early 2014. I am semi-retired, build mostly for fun, and love a challenge. My Dad taught me how to carve and basic wood and metal working. My wife taught me design and the rest I picked up on my own by doing, including engraving. I have a large library, so I do my homework, make a plan, and then jump in with both feet. Often I sink, but sometimes I swim. I only sunk a little on the rifle above.

dave

 

[C Broad Arrow]

Dave...
You are too modest. I think many of us here would like to sink like you and would be quite happy for the water we swallow.
The experience you gained from your dad, and the guidance from your wife (my heart felt condolences for your loss) give you a step up over the rest of us mere mortals as we struggle with kits and the like. But it is good to get a better handle on what it really takes to be a craftsman like yourself. Thank you for sharing this with us.

 

[dave_person]

Hi C Broad Arrow,
Thank you for your interest in my story. At the risk of boring folks further, let me relate one more story that illustrates some of what I consider important to me as a maker. I am a fan of 18th century English sporting guns. I've built a couple but only now do I think I know enough to do them justice. It helps that I own an original fowling gun that was restored by and purchased from Jim Kibler. I love the ornate sculpted sideplates found on the high-end guns of the period and wanted to try my hand at making them, although I had no special skills for such a challenge except perseverance. After looking at originals and photos of guns, I was convinced that they were cast in the rough and then the details cut in with chisels and gravers. I discovered a simple casting system called the "Delft Clay" system, which is nothing more than inexpensive sand casting but substituting the fine clay from Holland for sand. I also discovered hard green carving wax from which I can carve a design that can hold up to the casting and be reused (as opposed to being burned out in a lost wax process). All of these materials can be purchased at jewelry suppliers like Rio Grande and Gesswein. During some practice runs, I found I could not cast something as large and intricate as a pierced fowling gun sideplate in one piece. The mold cooled too quickly even if preheated. I decided to cast it in 3 very manageable sections and solder them together. So now I had to design the plate in such a way that 1) it could be made in sections and the joints invisible, 2) it filled the space on the gun with pleasing shape and balance, 3) it was historically appropriate for the time and place of the gun, and 4) it was an expression of me. That was where my wife's teaching really paid off and this is how it turned out in silver:

It will be duplicated and the plates will go on matched fowling and rifle guns. After making the first plate I had to put everything on hold until after my move. Details to note about the plate are the pleasing shapes of the spaces between the silver. A weeping heart and a "P" can be seen. They are pleasing in their own right and they represent intentional design of the negative or white spaces. Gail taught me how important that was for carving, engraving, drawing, and sculpting. It is often the reason why folks find a work of art especially appealing although they don't consciously know why. The carving and inlays on my rifle at the beginning of this thread fit within their backdrops and don't fight with anything. Note that the molding around the lock is narrow and thinner on top. The lock is not centered in that flat space but if you look at the whole section of the gun around the lock, you sense that everything is in balance. If the molding was even all round it the lock panel would look top heavy within its backdrop. That is management of negative space and I am eternally grateful to Gail for that knowledge. Finally, one of my artist friends who was formally trained said his instructors insisted that students learn craft first and then the art will come. It would be a terrible prison if you had the soul of an artist but no way to express it. Again thanks for your interest,

dave