Pistol/dagger project

I had a few minutes before church today so I did some finish up file work on the hammer and trigger. Also heated the oven to 1500f and put them in at about 1300f until they turned blue and dunked them both in PBC. Back in the oven and soaked them at 1500f for 5 minutes and quenched them in Brownells "tough quench".
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Here is after the PBC (anti-scale compound)
Did I mention that these are made from 0-1?

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................oooooooooohhhhhhhhhh yeah , gimmie more, more,more, more!!!

sorry i lost myself there for a second. fantastic work!!!

andrew
 
Bruce Bump said:
One of my upcoming projects is for a pistol and a matching bowie. .
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Interesting. Your project has inspired me to attempt the same. I just finished my first bowie and acquired an out-of-print 1975 paper-back titled How to build you own percission rifle or pistol by Georg Lauber (no 'e'). His lock is so much more complicated than yours that it's almost discouraging. If you'll share your internal design, it would be most appreciated. Are you planning a pistol based on the same internal design as this piece, or, will you add the 'half-cocked' safety??

Jacque

p.s. I also just acquired a mini-mill and still need to get a lathe - so, I have a lot to learn. :) It will probably take me 3 years to do what you will do in 3 months.
 
jacqueeagonsr said:
Interesting. Your project has inspired me to attempt the same. I just finished my first bowie and acquired an out-of-print 1975 paper-back titled How to build you own percission rifle or pistol by Georg Lauber (no 'e'). His lock is so much more complicated than yours that it's almost discouraging. If you'll share your internal design, it would be most appreciated. Are you planning a pistol based on the same internal design as this piece, or, will you add the 'half-cocked' safety??

Jacque

p.s. I also just acquired a mini-mill and still need to get a lathe - so, I have a lot to learn. :) It will probably take me 3 years to do what you will do in 3 months.
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I'm glad you are inspired enough to make your own. I find gun making even more fun than knife making. Its all challenging even after making 6 of them but the basic rules all apply. Making each one different is like re-inventing them each time. Thats where most of my time is spent. If they all shared the same parts it would speed up the process but I think it would get old doing that.

Yes I plan to make the "half cock" hammer on the next pistol.

Dont worry about how long it takes to make yours. Just try to make it the best you can. Its a great excercise in patience and the final result is worth it.
 
After hardening them and rinsing off the burnt PBC I cooked (tempered) em for 1 hour at 600f which should put them at 52 rockwell hardness. If you look in Brownells catalog they give hints as to correct hardness of the parts they sell for guns. Its a handy book and its free. Get one.
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I love the PBC because there is no scale from austinizing heat. Look at this color after the tempering. My favorite shades of blue

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I may have mentioned before but its so neccesary to get these two parts heat treated correctly. The sear (contact area between the hammer and the trigger) will wear away and fail to hold the tremendous pressure from the main spring if it is too soft, too hard and the hammer will break from the high impact of the normal operation of striking the nipple. Also the pivots holes and pins will gall and drag if they are too soft allowing the hammer and trigger to wobble and rub the sides of the frame. Which reminds me that I need to make brass or bronze spacers for them sometime soon.

I need to take a minute just to thank everybody for all the grand compliments you've given me. This is the biggest thread I've ever made and the most fun doing it. Thanks guys for staying with me. My intent is to generate interests in Cut-N-Shoots and show you that its not that hard to do. All those museum pieces were made by rebels just like us, We are just lucky enough to have power tools at our disposal. They did everything by hand or made their own tools for each procedure and part. A good assortment of hand files and a drill press that drills perpendicular holes are IMO a must. The old methods of heat treating will suffice. I bet the old masters would love my digital Even Heat oven.:)
 
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Bruce, THANK YOU for the time & effort that it takes to document the steps and all the photos associated with such a project!!! It's people like you that make this such a cool place to hang out.

Anxious to see 'er finished!! :cool:
 
Back to this project.
Here are the last additions. They are essentially plates that do the same thing as a flat washer. I wanted some more area for engraving also and these plates provide that. I had to cut out a window for my makers mark but I like it. It says Walla Walla WA. under the left plate but that sounds silly on a "Pirate Boarding Pistol" anyway so heck just cover it up.
I drilled a lanyard hole in the ram rod knob too.
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Its about finished except for final finishes on everything. I need to take it down to about 600-800 grit before sending it to Jere Davidson for the engraving.

I went out an shot it yesterday. It operates very good and had only one misfire but that turned out to be a faulty cap. I started at 6 grains of black powder and worked all the way up to about 14 grains. There is no point going any higher as too much black powder doesnt have time to burn before the bullet comes out the muzzle. It fires like a dream with a nice recoil and report with 8 grains. No damage whatsoever to the barrel.

I'm off to Josh's Hammer-in tomarrow and will take some pictures of it firing.
 
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bruce....that looks great....when you fire it do u need one of those little rods to pack the stuff in there like from the guns from the civil war....could u explain the procedure to fire it.....ryan
 
ryan9977 said:
bruce....that looks great....when you fire it do u need one of those little rods to pack the stuff in there like from the guns from the civil war....could u explain the procedure to fire it.....ryan
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Here is my loading kit. It has a flask of FFF black powder, .250" round lead balls, .005" thick patches and muskett caps.

First simply hold your finger over the spout, invert the powder flask and open the valve with that little lever, it fills the spout with the measured amount. Now close the lever and turn the flask back upright. The measured amount of powder stays in the spout.

Pour the 8 gr. of powder down the muzzle of the barrel being careful to not spill any.

Next put the pre-lubricated cotton patch on the muzzle and place the ball in the middle of the patch.

Use the ram rod to push the ball and patch all the way down to rest on the powder

Put the ram rod away, Do not leave it in the barrel :eek:

Next cock the hammer back and place a muskett cap on the nipple. It will stay on the nipple.

Point and pull the trigger. Its that easy. Loading is half the fun of black powder shooting.



see that purple magic marker line? Im going to regrind the top edge plunge area to match the new plates better.
 
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wow...your enemies could read a short novel while you're reloading!.....hey bruce...did you ever make engraved little tools for your guns or maybe damascus ones....not trying to add to your workload i think it would be cool though....like makers that make little damascus doohickies for take-down pieces......ryan
 
Bruce Bump said:
see that purple magic marker line? Im going to regrind the top edge plunge area to match the new plates better.
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I know you have got 10,000 times the grinds I do under your belt, but doesn't that terrify you to take something with so much work and put it back on the grinder like that?
 
Blue_Dragon said:
I know you have got 10,000 times the grinds I do under your belt, but doesn't that terrify you to take something with so much work and put it back on the grinder like that?
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shhhhhhhhh, no speaky of these things until they are done
-matt
 
Blue_Dragon said:
I know you have got 10,000 times the grinds I do under your belt, but doesn't that terrify you to take something with so much work and put it back on the grinder like that?
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Well I wasnt terrified but I did pay close attention. Its done and came out nice. Thanks for your concern :)
 
ryan9977 said:
wow...your enemies could read a short novel while you're reloading!.....hey bruce...did you ever make engraved little tools for your guns or maybe damascus ones....not trying to add to your workload i think it would be cool though....like makers that make little damascus doohickies for take-down pieces......ryan
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Deadwood has ivory handled screw drivers with matching engraving. Brutus has matching powder horn and bullet mold.
I want to start making my own powder flasks because the "off the shelf" stuff is pretty low quality. I usually end up cutting them down and modifiying them. None of them have the proper grain sized spout available. It would be cool to make a flask that held the powder and the ball side by side and have it engraved the same as the pistol. They did that in the days.
 
OK I have it cleaned and sanded to 400 grit at this stage. I'm putting it together again and off we go to Josh's Hammer-in

See ya next week!! Hope to see some of you guys there.

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