Birth of a blunderbuss

[wes1761]

Here are the beginning pics of my new 'buss....opted for a Cherry stock instead of the black walnut:

Cherry block:

Stock blank:

Will start inletting for barrel and drill ramrod hole tomorrow....

[Jas. Hook]

Congratulations Dad! Going to pass out some cigars?

Jas. Hook

[LadyBarbossa]

Damnit man! Ye have me incredibly, utterly, patheticly JEALOUS of ye now! ::: whimpers; drooling over the yet-to-be-finished weapon:::

~Lady B

[Darrel Morris]

I too am jealous of ye...Maybe one day...

[wes1761]

Actually started to inlet for breech, only had 3 loads of laundry to fold so I got more shop time....hee hee har har:

[Commodore Swab]

hows that inleting going for the tapered barrel, fun eh . . .

[wes1761]

Lots o fun there for sure! But I do have a little ball rasp that fits in the dremel....saves some time

[Commodore Swab]

depending on your bore try a sanding drum for a drill

[wes1761]

I have not measured the bore with a mic yet, but I am fairly certain its a .75.....looks just like an old Jack Garner barrel I had a few years ago. Either way, a good sharp chisel (gouge) works too, I just take her pretty slow.....I also use candle soot or lamp black to find the high spots.

[wes1761]

Inletting progress:

[GentlemenScotty]

(whistles!)

lookin' good lad..lookin' good

[wes1761]

More progress....inletting for lock on the way:

[Commodore Swab]

So is it a race between your buss and mine?

[wes1761]

LOL...if I hurry I'll probably run a chisel through my hand!!!

2 different style, 2 different builders, both gonna be cool and go boom....

nyah nayh...mines cooler!!! lol

(only kidding!!)

[Commodore Swab]

yeah well mines older so there ha ha ha

[wes1761]

Updates:

I am gonna have to seriously start thinking about some of the cooler tools and equipment Vintage is using on his!!

[Commodore Swab]

I got lucky and a friend lets me use his shop. However, I am setup to do much of this on my own. A simple harbor freight combo lathe/mill really helps and isn't that pricy.

[wes1761]

Done

made the buttplate out of copper.....

[Emmanuelle Wilshire]

Beautifully done Mr. Wes, I am in awe of your talent!

[John Maddox Roberts]

Is there historical precedent for a copper buttplate? I've seen iron and brass. Sure looks cool in any case.

[peglegstrick]

This is a thing of beauty. Raw parts into a work of art. Well done Wes

Edited June 3, 2011 by peglegstrick

[wes1761]

The reason I did copper is I didnt have enough brass! I have seen iron, brass, german silver, and I remember a reference to copper parts. I figure I can explain it (depending on the year I am portraying) as it needed a replacement butt plate and on the ship I was on, I used a small piece of hull sheathing........more modern than GAoP, but I like it

Thanks for the compliments guys!! Pistols are next!

[Commodore Swab]

Not to open a can of worms but would hull sheeting be copper or lead? I know on a wreck we are working on we have found a good ammount of lead from the hull but no copper.

[wes1761]

marine archaeology has unearthed evidence that copper and lead sheathing was used on some Roman and Greek vessels, and from the 15th century lead was used for sheathing by the Spanish and Portuguese navies. John Cabot's son Sebastian, who in 1514 saw a Spanish ship sheathed in lead, may have brought back the idea of using lead to England, and certainly a number of English ships were clad underwater with lead in the 1670s. Other methods of protecting the hull were also tried in England and elsewhere, including an extra, sacrificial, layer of planks beyond which the teredo was unlikely to penetrate.

The Dutch admiral Piet Heyn may well have experimented with copper sheathing early in the 17th century, and the British dallied with the idea of using both copper and brass during the first half of the 18th century. However, the earliest evidence of it being used in the Royal Navy came when an examination of the wreck of the 74-gun Invincible, which sank in 1758, revealed that she was partly copper sheathed. The first documentary evidence that copper sheathing was ordered for the keels of two British naval ships is dated October 1759, and in December of that year the keels of two more ships were sheathed in this way.

Though experiments on other methods to prevent fouling continued at the same time, the first trial of a ship with a fully coppered hull began in October 1761 when the 32-gun frigate Alarm was sheathed in copper. This proved successful but few other ships were similarly treated. This was partly expense and partly because galvanic action had occurred between the copper sheets and the iron bolts by which the planks of the Alarm's hull was secured to her timbers. Though a sloop called the Swallow was built in 1770 with copper bolts, thus becoming the first ship whose underwater hull was totally copper fastened, it was some years before the copper sheathing of smaller vessels began. Then in 1779 orders went out to copper the entire fleet, and in 1783 orders were issued that copper bolts should replace iron ones in naval shipbuilding. Copper sheathing then became general, and other navies soon followed suit.

[Commodore Swab]

The wreck we are working on sank in 1733 and I believe was built in 1731 if my memory serves