Awfully quiet over at Kiblers.

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
These are very appealing…..I’m eyeballing a Kibler kit for my first ever build. I was settling on a Woodsrunner, but this has tangled me up a bit. Being my first build, maybe a Woodsrunner would still be my best bet because there are a lot of build videos on the internet…..I wouldn’t feel comfortable building a Fowler without following instruction from more of an expert. Decisions, decisions….part of the fun.
 
Concern over the new Fowler barrel is unwarranted. I don’t have any reference books on Fowlers, but I have several on trade guns. The octagon-round-round barrels were on all the 1700’s English trade gun originals I had access to. Now the early French trade guns were octagon to round. After the 1820’-30’s the English barrels were octagon to round too for the examples I saw. It’s not a good idea to second guess Jim’s knowledge of these things. Here’s a photo of my 1740’s English trade gun. It is Rice barreled too.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_3803.jpeg
    IMG_3803.jpeg
    1.8 MB
We will probably offer a stain package to help the black walnut look more like proper English walnut. Besides this, filling pores is an option which I like. Again, we’ll probably offer a dark filler. After this, just your favorite stock finish.

Yrs English walnut was used , referring to Reilly as they are well documented on google. When the father died around 1848 , his son EM Reilly went over to using french walnut. Quite why I don’t know, Today the top guns seem to be mainly of expensive Turkish walnut . I would have thought walnut was walnut . A lot of good trees must have been chopped down over the years . However my cape rifle has probably french walnut as it was made in 1853 Just a bit of conversation in passing
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    2.2 MB
  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    2.3 MB
English, French, Turkish etc. is all the same species. Region and growing conditions do make a difference. If we can find a reasonable source for English walnut, we’ll offer it as an upgrade to the black walnut. Almost all guns like this were stocked in English walnut. Black walnut is a cost effective compromise. We’ll be selling a stain kit to make it more similar to English walnut.
 
Preordered a 20 with walnut this will be my first flintlock and I'm like a kid waiting for any news of it! only other flintlock I have shot was a Brown Bess we had in the farmhouse would have loved to know what happened to that family heirloom.
 
I would say just get a few European walnut stock blanks. Put photos and prices on the website and sell them individually. There are guys out there that will blow an extra $3000 for a really nice Turkish walnut stock.
 
Concern over the new Fowler barrel is unwarranted. I don’t have any reference books on Fowlers, but I have several on trade guns. The octagon-round-round barrels were on all the 1700’s English trade gun originals I had access to. Now the early French trade guns were octagon to round. After the 1820’-30’s the English barrels were octagon to round too for the examples I saw. It’s not a good idea to second guess Jim’s knowledge of these things. Here’s a photo of my 1740’s English trade gun. It is Rice barreled too.
Looks like the same barrel profile, promising results from your posts! Beautiful gun!
 
Back
Top