Building a Spanish (Catalan) Blunderbuss

[Commodore Swab]

Progress is made and disaster strikes . . . .

I started by cutting out the thimble on the lathe (some old bronze shaft I recovered from a wreck)

Then a tab gets welded on

After this it gets put into the mill and trued up then back into the lathe to be bored out (sorry forgot to take pics of that)

The tabs and tang also get welded onto the buss. As this was bored from a solid steel shaft there is no need for a breech plug.

Now I was slightly misleading when I said disaster strikes. The frizzen spring screw wouldnt hold the spring well and under inspection I found there to be no threads on it. Also the spring for the trigger was broken. To fix the frizzen spring I decided to try welding onto the original screw (much harder than it sounds due to the metal) and tap the hole to a slightly larger size. Of course to tap the hole I needed to remove the main spring which requires removing everything else.

The cracked trigger spring

The "glob" welded onto the original screw (to the left of the cock)

The "new" old screw with the new threads cut

As for the cracked trigger spring sometimes its best if somebody isnt around to tell you you cant do something.

I welded that up by just tapping it with the TiG pratically then quenched it in water, it took a couple trys of tempering but she is now back in the lock and it all functions great, the frizzen is the best its ever been.

[Commodore Swab]

Unbelievable.

I called the rifle shoppe on Tuesday morning to order a triggerguard for the buss. This morning I went to the bank to see if they had charged the card since I couldn't get ahold of them. The money was gone and this afternoon the triggerguard arrived! Ordered on Tuesday arrived on Friday, that has got to be some record for the Rifle Shoppe.

[Cascabel]

Unbelievable.

I called the rifle shoppe on Tuesday morning to order a triggerguard for the buss. This morning I went to the bank to see if they had charged the card since I couldn't get ahold of them. The money was gone and this afternoon the triggerguard arrived! Ordered on Tuesday arrived on Friday, that has got to be some record for the Rifle Shoppe.

Absolutely amazing !!!

[Gunpowder Gertie]

Thanks VS for posting this. I am finding it quite fascinating to see the effort and the workmanship that goes into making these old weapons.

She's a thing to behold, and that's the truth!

[Commodore Swab]

I was amazed as well, i am a little surprised nobody noticed the "other" blunder pieces in the picture

[peglegstrick]

Ye are talking of the short stock & barrel on the pict of the tabs welded on the subject barrel ar'nt ye

[Commodore Swab]

Well it seems you can have it 2 of three ways when dealing with the rifle shoppe. Good, Fast, Cheap I got the triggerguard relativly fast and cheap . . .

Note how the lines arent across and the detail is lacking, Ive had much worse and much better in a sand casting. Definatly workable

Cleanup started, working with a hand file and dremel

and for those of you who spied the ther buss heres a picture of how its coming along. Once its done having a photoshoot on the 18th it will be available for sale

[James Smythe]

This is turning into a beauty.

[Commodore Swab]

Ok for those of you desiring an update, it is comming but not now. Long story short I screwed what needed to be put together without doing the detail work and ran her thru the paces this weekend. As a little teaser she was fired for the news . . .

[Commodore Swab]

Ok heres a couple better pics from last weekend, guess who . . .

And one of myself

[Cannibal Chrispy]

Aye! And she feels and fires better than she looks!

[Commodore Swab]

Sweeeet! do you want a couple of my antique huge French amber musket flints to finish 'er off with? I won't be needing all that I bought I'm sure. If interested pm me with your addy and I'll send a few of the bigguns, along with a couple of English ones too.

Theyre from the british armory in Nepal, supposed to be at least a couple-hundred years old.

Bo

I just got them, Thank you so much they are beautiful and will add the perfect finishing touch to this piece. Thanks again.

[Commodore Swab]

More updates are comming soon, we have been in the process of a move but I am back to working on her and have stripped her down, inlet the triggerguard and done some more cleanup work

[GentlemenScotty]

OUTSTANDING WERK LAD!

thanks SO much fer sharin' the progression

wit all us (tips hat)

[Dread Pyrate Greyhound]

Beautiful... Simply beautiful. Well done and encore! I'd love to be able to make my own stuff like this.

[Gentleman of Fortune]

Another neat piece that maybe simple-r to make is the blunderbuss style pistols that were popular during the GAOP.

I would think you (that is you with your skills) could take one of the Indian import pistols and retro fit it with the blunderbuss style barrel.

Good work!

Edited July 18, 2011 by Gentleman of Fortune

[Commodore Swab]

I built one for a friend of mine with a bronze barrel, due to the stock its easier and cheaper for me to build one from scratch with an american lock than to modify an india piece. I have a piece of bronze im going to cut for another pistol before too long.

[rickdog999]

How thick is the wall on your barrel?

[Commodore Swab]

General good rule of thumb is the wall thickness at the breech should be equal to the bore in bronze, this is what I use for a basis when working with small cannons and larger pieces. It makes a difference if you are building to fire a ball or shot as well. I would much rather err on the side of caution and have to lug a heavier piece around.

[rickdog999]

Thanks for the quick response.

And for steel barrels?

[Commodore Swab]

This one was machined out of single piece of solid stock, if steel is 3x the strength of bronze then something with a bore of .75 cal should have a wall thickness of .25 making an OD of an 1.25. I would not build anything the way you are thinking of building.