More Fintlock Rifle Photographs

Here is an image of the sideplate, somewhat of my own design.

For what's it worth, my next project will be a Hawkins rifle using a piece of Claro Walnut that a friend (Tony Montoya) of mine gave me. There is enough wood for a Hawkins rifle stock and two pistols (flintlock). At this point in time I rather doubt I'll do another flintlock rifle as I've finally built what I want.

The rifle barrel, end cap, and ramrod. This also shows the nice curl to the maple and finished color of the wood after the application of Nitric Acid, Potassium Permanganate and Alkanet Root.

These images show: The Delux Siler lock with an original flint from the period; the possible bag, powder measure, pan brush and vent pick, and Buffalo powder horn that I made a year or so ago; and the incised carving on the butt of the rifle. I didn't remember to take photographs of the barrel browning process nor cutting the slots for the sights and barrel lugs. For me this is a comfortable and rather lightweight rifle that will be fun to shoot.

Completed Flintlock Rifle

This shows the sliding wooden patch box being shaped and inlet into the butt. I decided against a brass patch box as it didn't have the heart to hide the beauty of the wood. The stock is a nice piece of stump cut maple with a lot of curl and character.

An image showing the finished sliding wooden patchbox with its brass plate inlet into the butt and brass butt plate.

This image shows the stained maple stock. I treated the wood with a

dilute solution of nitric acid then heated it with an electric heat gun. The stock will turn a rich reddish/golden color.
I then painted on several coats of potassium permanganate dissolved in water. I did this until it was almost black. Where upon I rubbed it out with '000' steel wool and linseed oil. It makes for a very nice finish although labor intensive.

Now the rifle is almost finished. I applied some Alkanet Root dissolved in mineral spirits mixed with Damar varnish and linseed oil over the stock as well. It helps to seal the grain of the wood and lend an ever so very slight red tone to the finish. Every few days I will continue to rub linseed oil into the stock with the palm of my hand. This ads a deep luster to the finish on the stock.

This is the completed rifle patterned after the rifles produced by Herman Rupp from Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. It has a .50 caliber swamped barrel, overall length of 59 1/4 inches and weighing about 7 pounds .