Building an Alexander Henry Target Rifle from a Rod England Kit

Modern Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Modern Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Fellows, your comments are greatly appreciated! Thanks.

I originally engraved my grip cap with a sunburst design:



Then I engraved the screw and it broke on me when I was tightening it down. Got a new screw from Rod, and decided that the grip cap engraving might not flow well with the rest of the rifle, so I filed it all off and came up with a different design.





Then I started to work on the lock plate and the cock. Found the compound curves on the cock to be a bit challenging:













Having some internet issues tonight so that's it for now.

Thanks for looking!
Curtis
Wow, really beautiful stuff.
 
Thanks for those flattering comments folks! 😉 I haven't been able to capture to level of shading I would like to see, but I am hampered by both my skill level and my equipment. I will work on improving things as I go along - if I feel I can pull it off without screwing up what I got so far! But for now, onto the next thing in line, the standing breech and tang.

Curtis
 
I just felt sick!
:-[


In the process of starting to engrave my last major part on my rifle, I somehow managed to let my barrel take a tumble from my vice - I thought it was locked in but alas it was not. It fell about four feet, bounced on my rubber floor mat and flipped breech first into the concrete floor for a double hit. I was hoping I might save the breech but was afraid it will need to be replaced. One top corner got crushed and behind the snail it got pretty mangled.

Here is the damage:







Of course the standing breech is already engraved which will make fitting a new plug a delicate operation....

Curtis
 
I had posted pictures of the damage on the American Longrifles gun builder forum fishing for ideas on what could be done to fix things. I got several good suggestions, ideas and encouragement from the responses.

I took advantage of a cool spell here and spent the night doing a little primitive camping on the back of my place last night. Enjoyed a nice fire and came back to the house with a clear head and a better attitude!

After returning from my overnight camp with a clear head I took another look at the damage behind the nipple and decided to see if I could move some of that metal back in place. First I used a section of steel rod that fit the area (I held it in place with my fingers but needed one hand to hold the camera):



And a slightly smaller screwdriver shaft for more control on the curve:



Then a slightly rounded punch:





And a graver handle to flatten the plug face again:



It now looks considerably better, I think I a little careful file work will take care of the rest.





Curtis
 
Now for a little experimentation! I found a solution that worked, which turned out to be the exact method posted on ALR by Jerry Huddleston while I was working and experimenting in the shop.

I started out with a barrel cutoff I had in the shop by putting a ding on two corners. The first ding I was able to lift an repair by lots of hammering with rounded punches, I had to move a lot of metal and it took a great deal of time and care to keep from damaging the edge.

While I was doing all of that hammering, I got well acquainted with the shape of the dent I was attempting to raise, basically just a triangle. So I thought, what is a triangle but a flat profile of a cone? So I used a couple different sizes of center punches and one that I ground with a more tapered cone and within a few minutes (and with MUCH less labor) I had enough metal raised to start peening into shape. Here are some photos of the second phase of my experiment:











I used a black sharpie followed by a couple of strokes of 600 grit paper backed by a file to identify high and low spots:



When finished the ding was ready for final sanding. In the lower left corner on the end view photo you can see black markings left from my first experiment:





I then felt ready to start working on the breech ding on my Alexander Henry barrel.







Once I was happy with that phase I went over to the nipple side, did a little more peening, some filing and polishing. I was happy with the results considering the original damage! All I have left to do is inlay an iron plug as Jerry H. described in his post on ALR. Here are some photos:









It has been a positive learning experience for certain! Now back to engraving.....



Curtis
 
Nice work,Curtis ,some fine low heat tig welding would of been what I would of done but will definitely try your metal moving for sure if needed . Be looking forward to see this work in person. Thanks for all your imput.
 
Since the metal was not lost but displaced I think you have a good chance of correcting it. The tig welding could be a back up. Good luck and keep posting the results. Interested in the outcome, hope it goes well.
 
Wildcat2 - I seriously contemplated going the welding route, I need to practice my tig welding so I will be more prepared for "delicate" future needs.

Jims - I was able to move the metal back in place finally, take a closer look at the last few photos in my previous posting. I will add some more photos as I progress with the engraving.

Thanks - Curtis!
 
After all that fun I finally got back to engraving, here are a couple of buttplate photos:





And some border work on the breech:





Thanks for looking,
Curtis
 
Beautiful work ,do you free hand your layout ? If so I am in trouble I can't even draw a stick person very well.
 
Beautiful work ,do you free hand your layout ? If so I am in trouble I can't even draw a stick person very well.

Wildcat2, Unlike a professional engraver would likely do, I draw most all my work freehand directly on the surface to be engraved. For a busy area such as a lockplate I usually apply a light coat of white spray paint and let it cure. It makes for a durable surface that will stand up to considerable erasing. Otherwise I just pencil a sketch on the metal and start cutting. If I am having trouble with a curve or circle sometimes I use a circle or ellipse template to help define my lines. For straight lines I usually scribe a light line with a scribe that has the tip polished into a tiny "ball" as that doesn't really scratch the metal but leaves a fine line that disapears with a little fine sanding.

If you have trouble drawing you can print a design and trasnfer it to the metal, if you google the process you can find lots of info and some commercial products to help with tranfers.

Curtis
 

Latest posts

Back
Top