Embellishing a fine New England rifle by Mitch Yates

[dave_person]

Hi,
This half-stocked New England rifle was made by Mitch Yates. Believe it or not, it was his first gun made from a bandsawed blank. It is very well made and faithfully reproduces the style of rifles made by Silas Allen and others during the early 1800s. The owner is very knowledgeable about NE guns and asked me to add some embellishments that represent the kind of work by Allen and other NE makers. It took me a while to amass the photos, and examine originals in museums and gun shows. The owner also provided photos of examples. Anyway, I added the wrist inlay with wire outline, the cheek and butt stock "sun ray" inlays, reshaped the cheek piece and added the silver wire border. The engraving matches the style and quality of the time. After the inlay work, the owner asked me to checker the wrist in the historically correct manner found on many of these rifles. That was a challenge because I've never checkered a wrist before. My modern checkering tools do not produce the historically correct flat-topped checkering so I had to make my own single and parallel line cutters with the proper spacing. Well, I did the best I could and the results came out pretty well. The owner is very happy, which is what really matters.

dave

 

[Spikebuck]

He should be happy! :thumbsup:

Your work is always outstanding. :hatsoff:

 

[Vaino]

The added inlays are meticulously inletted and the wire work has been done expertly. The engraving is very different, but I'm not familiar w/ the NE style of engraving or the NE architecture of the rifle itself....looked at too many PA LRs I guess. The Pbox also is very different....they certainly had their own NE "style".

I take it that the entire rifle had to be refinished? Is that tinted varnish or was the stock stained?

Your versatility certainly came into play w/ this project....Fred

 

[dave_person]

Thanks Spikebuck and Fred for looking,
Fred, the reddish color is largely from the incandescent lighting. The stock is black walnut with a true color between that shown in the picture of the diamond and the other photos. I had to refinish a lot of the stock where I had inlet, reshaped the cheek piece and checkered the wrist. However, I also scuffed the finish overall with a fine Scotch-brite pad and then hand rubbed in finish to blend the old with the new. The engraving is unique to these guns and some students of NE rifles believe that 1 or 2 jobbers did all the work throughout the area. According to Joe Puleo, virtually all NE flintlock rifles of this late 18th and early 19th century style were made around Worcester, MA, and they all look similar. It was another historical adventure for me with respect to the engraving, inlays, and checkering. The owner did not want a modern interpretation but as close to historical correctness as possible. Apparently, Mitch's rifle and my embellishments are very similar to a gun displayed at Sturbridge Village historical site in MA. It was fun but it took a lot longer than I planned and I am playing serious catch up now. Thanks again Fred.

dave

 

[dave_person]

Hi Fred,
I thought I'd share this additional information with you because I am still steeped in background material for this project. Virtually all of these NE rifles from this period were for state militia. Each NE state had infantry and light infantry militia units and prior to the War of 1812, there was a scramble to arms. The wealthier and better connected citizens often formed the light companies with fancy uniforms and rifles rather than muskets. As Joe Puleo describes it, they were more akin to modern volunteer fire companies than regular military units. Probably none of the rifles ever fired a shot in anger and they survived at higher rates than the thousands of muskets issued because target shooting with rifles became so popular in NE during 1820-1860. Many rifles were converted to percussion and used for target shooting for many years. You mentioned the patch boxes. Again, according to Joe Puleo, virtually all of the rifles had either the patch box shown on Mitch's rifle, known as the "clock" design, or the famous "horsehead" design.

dave

 

[fleener]

you certainly made the rifle looks nice.

The owner should of had you fix the wood chip outs in the tang.

That would drive me crazy.

Fleener

 

[Cowboy]

Dave, your work always amazes me!! We're lucky to have such talented members here on our forum as yourself. It's always a treat when you show your work!

Respectfully, Cowboy :thumbsup: