Horsewright
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2011
- Messages
- 13,064
One of the iconic western movies is Quigley Down Under. Its so popular around here that our DVD is flat wore out. The movie stars Tom Selleck as Quigley, Laura San Giacomo as Crazy Cora, Alan Rickman as the bad guy and Quigley's rifle, a Sharps .45-120.
Our local horse vet dropped this off. Whada we got here?
Oh my, its a Sharps:
And not just any Sharps. There are many Sharps replicas on the market. Most are made in Italy and some are very fine indeed. I've got quite a few rounds through one that belongs to a friend, an excellent rifle. What a lot of folks don't know though is that the original Sharps company is still in business. This is a Sharps 1875 model in .45-70, made by Sharps, in Big Timber Montana. You wait a long time for one of these guys after you order it.
So in the movie, when Quiqley first arrives in Australia he's carrying his rifle and saddle as he steps down off the ship. The rifle is encased in a suede rifle case/bag. Later he's carrying it horseback in a scabbard but our project was to recreate as close as possible the suede carrying bag.
I found this Youtube video and this is what I went off of.
Doc wanted a Sam Browne stud closure on the bag and he's a lefty so we flipped it but here we go.
Laying it out on paper to make the pattern:
Doc said he paid $500 extra for a wood upgrade on this custom rifle and it was worth every penny. I've handled custom rifles worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and this wood is right up there with them.
Laying the pattern out on the leather. I draw around the pattern with a "silver" pen. A silver pen is used extensively on garment/chap types leather for marking. The ink on one of these can then be rubbed off with a damp paper towel. Very handy. We're using 3-4oz chap leather and we'll be building it rough side out. This will keep the smooth finish side against the rifle and also then there are less fuzzies in the action.
I always punch a hole at the apex of any v shape cut. Here on the butt end of the bag and also at the muzzle end. This prevents your leather from splitting further up that cut.
Using a piece of water buffalo for the Sam Browne stud.
If ya look close I ground the head of the screw down so it will lie flat against the rifle and not mar it. The stud is always assembled with either Locktite or superglue. Here the contact cement is drying and this stud placket will be sewn on before we proceed.
Now that the placket is sewn on we'll glue up the whole bag prior to sewing.
See that long dark brown oiltan thong? That will be our buckstitch after the bag is sewn. Needed to get that in first though so we can sew down the originating end for attachment.
After sewing up the bag I cut the fringe. The silver pen marks were laid out with dividers and that will be where I punch the slots for the buckstitch.
Punching the slots.
After threading the oiltan thong through the slots, I brought the terminating end of the thong between the two layers of the bag at the muzzle end. I had not glued or sewn the muzzle end yet so I could do this. Then the muzzle end was sewn, securing the thong.
So now we fit the strap for the Sam Browne stud. Here's a little trick. I made the flap fit so the rivet when the flap was closed would be on the leather and not on the gun. This was done to protect the gun and then we didn't have to line the flap and deviate too much from the original. But what about when the gun is withdrawn from the bag? Wouldn't want that rivet to scratch that gorgeous wood. Use the flat side of a small ball pein hammer and hammer your rivet flat. Then use the round side and carefully pein the rivet into the leather so it is below flush. Then get some clear fingernail polish and put it over the rivet. Rub smooth with your finger, let dry and you are good to go. Gel type works the best. I stole this bottle from Nichole about 10 years ago.
Well heck thats pretty much it, cept for the pics. Now that was its own special challenge since this rifle is so long with its 34 inch barrel. Had to take that 18-55 zoom all the way wide at 18mm to get it all in at once.
Dang a "buffalo" rifle has to be photographed on top of a buffalo hide:
And of course the gratuitous shot with other cool period stuff:
Well I hope you enjoyed our little trip to the movies. This was a fun little project, I'd not made one of these bags before. If ya haven't seen the flick, ya want to, its great. As always questions and comments welcome.
Our local horse vet dropped this off. Whada we got here?
Oh my, its a Sharps:
And not just any Sharps. There are many Sharps replicas on the market. Most are made in Italy and some are very fine indeed. I've got quite a few rounds through one that belongs to a friend, an excellent rifle. What a lot of folks don't know though is that the original Sharps company is still in business. This is a Sharps 1875 model in .45-70, made by Sharps, in Big Timber Montana. You wait a long time for one of these guys after you order it.
So in the movie, when Quiqley first arrives in Australia he's carrying his rifle and saddle as he steps down off the ship. The rifle is encased in a suede rifle case/bag. Later he's carrying it horseback in a scabbard but our project was to recreate as close as possible the suede carrying bag.
I found this Youtube video and this is what I went off of.
Doc wanted a Sam Browne stud closure on the bag and he's a lefty so we flipped it but here we go.
Laying it out on paper to make the pattern:
Doc said he paid $500 extra for a wood upgrade on this custom rifle and it was worth every penny. I've handled custom rifles worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and this wood is right up there with them.
Laying the pattern out on the leather. I draw around the pattern with a "silver" pen. A silver pen is used extensively on garment/chap types leather for marking. The ink on one of these can then be rubbed off with a damp paper towel. Very handy. We're using 3-4oz chap leather and we'll be building it rough side out. This will keep the smooth finish side against the rifle and also then there are less fuzzies in the action.
I always punch a hole at the apex of any v shape cut. Here on the butt end of the bag and also at the muzzle end. This prevents your leather from splitting further up that cut.
Using a piece of water buffalo for the Sam Browne stud.
If ya look close I ground the head of the screw down so it will lie flat against the rifle and not mar it. The stud is always assembled with either Locktite or superglue. Here the contact cement is drying and this stud placket will be sewn on before we proceed.
Now that the placket is sewn on we'll glue up the whole bag prior to sewing.
See that long dark brown oiltan thong? That will be our buckstitch after the bag is sewn. Needed to get that in first though so we can sew down the originating end for attachment.
After sewing up the bag I cut the fringe. The silver pen marks were laid out with dividers and that will be where I punch the slots for the buckstitch.
Punching the slots.
After threading the oiltan thong through the slots, I brought the terminating end of the thong between the two layers of the bag at the muzzle end. I had not glued or sewn the muzzle end yet so I could do this. Then the muzzle end was sewn, securing the thong.
So now we fit the strap for the Sam Browne stud. Here's a little trick. I made the flap fit so the rivet when the flap was closed would be on the leather and not on the gun. This was done to protect the gun and then we didn't have to line the flap and deviate too much from the original. But what about when the gun is withdrawn from the bag? Wouldn't want that rivet to scratch that gorgeous wood. Use the flat side of a small ball pein hammer and hammer your rivet flat. Then use the round side and carefully pein the rivet into the leather so it is below flush. Then get some clear fingernail polish and put it over the rivet. Rub smooth with your finger, let dry and you are good to go. Gel type works the best. I stole this bottle from Nichole about 10 years ago.
Well heck thats pretty much it, cept for the pics. Now that was its own special challenge since this rifle is so long with its 34 inch barrel. Had to take that 18-55 zoom all the way wide at 18mm to get it all in at once.
Dang a "buffalo" rifle has to be photographed on top of a buffalo hide:
And of course the gratuitous shot with other cool period stuff:
Well I hope you enjoyed our little trip to the movies. This was a fun little project, I'd not made one of these bags before. If ya haven't seen the flick, ya want to, its great. As always questions and comments welcome.
Last edited:
as always, good to see your work sir !
