1842 Springfield Project

[Zonie]

Several years ago, I bought a 1842 Springfield Musket.
The barrel is in a sorry condition and the lock needed a replacement screw. Someone, most likley in the 1950s, replaced the wood around the barrel tang with Plastic Wood, held in place with a few small nails.
I have replaced the locks sear arm screw with a Dixie Gun Works part so that is no longer an issue, but I got to thinking, Anything I do, has to be as good as that Dam Plastic Wood, so I now have another project to play with.

The first 2 pictures show the stock before I started my project:

I took these pictures for references but thanks to the help I got on this Forum, I now have several photos of what a 1842 Musket is supposed to look like in this area.

This photo shows the stock after I removed the old fix.
After this picture was taken, I proceeded to sand the area flat, removing only what was necessary to assure a good glue joint with a small block of Walnut.
I glued the block in place with yellow/white Wood Glue because I feel it not only gives a good bond, but it is a little more authentic than epoxy.

Sorry, I didn't take photos of the block of Walnut glued to the stock :shocking:

With the barrel tang inlet complete and the block sanded down to a "close" condition it looks like this:

After I removed enough material to clean up the old splintered surface, the new block was lower than the lockplate inlet so I first had to reinlet the lockplate:

With this gun, the barrel breech block rests on top of the lockplate just underneath the nipple. With the barrel tang inlet so the two surfaces are just meeting, it becomes obvious that it can't go deeper.

With 160 year old wood, there is always some shrinkage.
In this guns case, the shrinkage is enough that the "arc" or flow of the wrist will be below the top of the tang (as shown with the red line)

My question of you learned people is: do I try to duplicate the old shrunken line of the wrist with a smooth flowing surface, or do I try to blend in the wood to the existing barrel tang height and let the hump exist?? ::

 

[robinghewitt]

It's certainly looking good so far, keep posting pictures.

If this is a vote then I say dump the hump. I reckon it will look most odd if you leave it in :thumbsup:

 

[Cheyenne]

Since I am still 'learning' and not yet fully 'learned', I was waiting for one of the more experienced to chime in before I jumped in.

The 1842 is one of my favorite CW muskets....I'll go with Robin on this one, dump the hump and blend the reapir into the comb, it'll look better and not stand out so much as a repair. :m2c:

 

[Zonie]

Thanks for the opnions.
Next question: If I fair and blend the new contour to the existing wood, the tang will stand proud of the wood at least 1/32 inch or more.
The tang and barrel have obviously been corroded and pitted as shown in this photo:

I am thinking of filing the rear of the tang down so it will be not more than 1/64 inch above the wood.
After filing it, I am thinking of using Bleach to re-etch/pit the metal in the filed area. Then lightly browning it and steel wooling the area so it matches the remainder of the barrel.
Is this ethical?
Should I just say "To H with it" and leave it as is?

I know several of you out there work with museums. Do you have any opnions about this tired old war horse? ::

 

[Zonie]

Well, it's as done as it's going to be, at least for now. My vacation is about over.

I decided to leave the barrel proud of the wood and it didn't turn out as bad as I first thought.

The new wood doesn't exactly match the old wood, and the glue line is visable but then, I didn't claim to know what I was doing.
Here are a few photos of how she turned out:

The gap on the right side of the tang is due to the barrel being peened over at the top. The metal lower down in the stock fits the mortice rather well. I guess it ain't easy being an old gun, but I bet it looks a lot better than I will at age 158.

It isn't perfect, but it does look a little better than the Plastic Wood did?

There are 2 photos of the full gun over in the Photos Forum if your interested.

 

[Cheyenne]

I think it came out pretty nice. There's a fairly nice '42 locally for 795.00, which is a pretty good price. Same shop also has a fairly nice 1795 for 1295.00.....can't afford them, but fun to hold them!

Your '42 looks good, you did the old girl proud! :applause:

 

[Musketeer]

The new wood doesn't exactly match the old wood, and the glue line is visable but then, I didn't claim to know what I was doing.

Zonie, don't sell yourself short! That's a damn fine looking repair job! :thumbsup:

 

[robinghewitt]

The new wood doesn't exactly match the old wood, and the glue line is visable

I am curious. As the wood under the repair is burnt black, and black is the easiest colour to do, why didn't you use black? ::

 

[Zonie]

Robin: Perhaps I should have used some black, but there are several reasons I didn't.

The photos don't show it well, but there are several different colors in the area. None of them really looked burnt, but some of them have oxidized more than others. Also, the wood around the iron furniture seems to have leached out into the wood giving a blackish appearance. This is not uniform so it has a somewhat mottled appearance with full walnut color being the most previlent one.

My experiances with black in the past tought me that it is real easy to overdo it, and real hard to undo what was done.

Sometime in the future, when I get some more time to play with it, I may re-sand some of the new wood and add some blackish color to it, especially on the left side adjacent to the rear sideplate screw.