"Hail Wogdon, Patron of the leaden death..."

[dave_person]

Hi,
Robert Wogdon was so famous a maker of dueling pistols, he even had a poem written about him. These Wogdon dueling pistols arrived last Friday. For me, these are a Holy Grail of gun making. Disassembling and examining them is like taking a master class in gun making from one of the best ever. Over the next few days, I intend to post a lot of photos of the pistols, inside and out, and discuss them in detail. But for now, I'll just post the eye candy.








They are 40 bore (0.488 caliber) and are in very good condition. The flint cock on the pistol in the third photo above is a replacement and I will reshape it to match the other. Both pistols have some stock damage around the barrel keys nearest the muzzles and on one the stock is split at the muzzle, which I will repair. They are both in perfectly useable condition.








They can be dated very accurately. The London Gunmakers Guild view and proof marks are clear on the barrels. Wogdon used the private Tower proofing service until 1774 so these pistols are no earlier than that. Wogdon also shifted the location of his proof and makers marks to the underside of his barrels in 1778. Therefore, these pistols were definitely made between 1774 and 1778. The oval style of the rouletting engraved at the breech of the barrel and the acorn trigger guard finials also point to that time period.








The barrels are of his "French" form. They have a slight octagon shape at the breech but are mostly round and taper toward the muzzle.



The locks are superb examples of the best lock making during the 1770s. They have safety bolts but do not yet have the "water proof" pans or frizzen roller bearings. Moreover, the pistols have simple triggers not the set or hair triggers common to dueling pistols 5-10 years later. These guns were made fairly early in Wogdon's long career.









In the next posts, I will discuss details about the locks, barrels, stocks, and hardware. In the process, hope to dispel a lot of rubbish considered common knowledge about dueling pistols both in literature and online. In addition, I will discuss how to make pistols like these. Enjoy the ride.

dave

 

[Rudyard]

Ime sure we will all enjoy the ride . I have made pairs of pistols but its allways good to see other makers work & Dave is a very good tutor for any one to learn from . Of course the real 'Document'is the original guns them selves .
Respectfully Rudyard

 

[dave_person]

Ime sure we will all enjoy the ride . I have made pairs of pistols but its allways good to see other makers work & Dave is a very good tutor for any one to learn from . Of course the real 'Document'is the original guns them selves .
Respectfully Rudyard

Hi Rudyard,
Thanks and my purpose is to use these originals as the guide. There is so much in them that needs discussion and will benefit modern makers.

dave

 

[Rudyard]

Dear Dave . I know the pistols will be fully up to Wogdon no doubt about it .
Regards Rudyard

 

[garypl]

Those are so cool! How did you find them Dave?

Gary

 

[Colonial Boy]

I’m going to enjoy this!
I’ve handled one Wogdon pistol in my life, a somewhst later one than these and I’ll never forget the feel of it and its ’natutalness’.

 

[Brokennock]

Thank you very much for sharing with us. Topics like this from men like you are the reason I stick around this place.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
I've examined and handled one other pair of Wogdons, which were from the late 1780s and had all the bells and whistles as far as Wogdon went. I especially like these because they are earlier and before the "true" British dueling pistol was fully evolved. These do not have hair (set) triggers and octagon barrels that later became almost universal on duelers.

I am going to start with the locks. They are the typical product of Wogdon's shop during the 1770s. They have safety bolts but none of the the other bells and whistles that came later like roller frizzens, tumbler with stirrups, and waterproof pans. Also, Wogdon did not always subscribe to those features. For example, he often made pistols late in his career without roller frizzens or tumblers with stirrups because he believed he could shape and balance the frizzen and mainsprings so well they did not benefit from any increased performance with a roller in the frizzen or stirrup in the tumbler. So let's look at the outside of one of these locks.



They are classic high quality locks from the 1770s. The pans are shallow and wide, and do not have any of the rain guttering found on later locks. The finial for the frizzen spring is flattened, which is an early Wogdon feature. They have narrow safety bolt thumb plates. Later those were made wider. No gold in the pan and pan cover fits really tightly when closed. The lock plate and flint cock were probably charcoal blued but none of that finish remains. O'Sullivan and Bailey, in their book on Wogdon, showed a bill by Wogdon from the 1780s indicating case coloring suggesting he offered that as an option. Note the hump in the top leaf of the frizzen (feather) spring. As the frizzen opens, the hump offers more resistance to the frizzen toe until the toe slides over the crest. Once past the crest, resistance is reduced greatly much like having a roller on the frizzen or feather spring. The frizzen snaps over and open when raised about 30 degrees above the pan.



The locks are small, only 3 13/16" long and 13/16" wide behind the pans.



Let's look inside.



They are magnificent products of the lock maker's art. The face of the toe of the mainspring is ground at an angle so it perfectly slides over the toe of the tumbler, smooth as silk. You can see the bridle with the stud of the safety bolt protruding in its slot. Also, the center of the sear spring is covered over by the triangular shaped safety bolt spring.



As the lock is pulled to full cock, the end of the mainspring slides right up into the inside corner of the tumbler allowing a slight lessening of the force needed to pull the cock back to full. The lower leaf of the mainspring is straight at full cock and the sear bar is slightly raised when the lock is at rest but then lowers to the same position for half and full cock. The tumblers do not have fly detents, which would be required if the set triggers were installed. The safety bolt is activated when the lock is at half cock. The thumb plate is pushed forward extending a bolt into a slot in the tumber, locking it in place. The bolt spring acts on a little nub on the bolt to lock it forward or back. The bolt is pulled back when the lock is to be brought to full cock.







Here are some photos of a later style Wogdon lock I made showing the safety bolt. It is easier to see the parts when they are bright and shiny.









Notice, the thumb catch on the outside of the lock has a bar that slides through a slot in the lock plate and into a tiny mortise in the safety bolt on the inside. You can see the end of that bar in its mortise. A pin or screw is then inserted through the bolt and bar, locking it in place. I can say from experience, cutting that tiny mortise into the safety bar is a very precise task. The bolt spring has a little nub inside that rides over the nub on the rear end of the bolt locking it forward or backward.





The safety mechanism works smoothly on both pistols. It takes exactly 7 lbs of force to pull the cock back from rest to full when pressure is applied backward on the top screw. It takes 2 lbs 14 oz of force to pull the frizzen closed when force is applied just below the top of the steel (frizzen face). Therefore, it takes 41% of the force required to pull the cock back to full to close the pan. The locks spark really well. Next up will be the barrels.


dave

 

[Coinneach]

Hi Rudyard,
Thanks and my purpose is to use these originals as the guide. There is so much in them that needs discussion and will benefit modern makers.

dave

Thank you for the great images of classic Pistols that most of us can only dream about.
Following this thread with relish, if only they could talk; do you have any providence on their history ?

 

[TFoley]

Remarkable. I have yet to see a similar article from a UK-based source, and look forward with great keenth to reading more.

 

[Loja man]

This will be fun! Maybe it will inspire me to finish my Kentucky pistol!

 

[Fitzhugh Williams]

This is very interesting. Thank you for posting this. It is something that I have not seen before!

 

[FlinterNick]

Great pair of pistols Dave, learning a lot about the safety feature, never have actually seen its mechanical functions from the inside of the plate.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
I am so glad that folks are enjoying this. All I can say is that I have a real passion for British guns from this period but it is from the perspective of a gun maker. I want to know how they made the finest guns in the world so I can up my own gun making game. With respect to Wogdon, John O'Sullivan and Dewitt Bailey published their book "Robert Wogdon, Wogdon and Barton, John Barton: London Gunmakers 1764-1819" in 2019. It was published by Bonhams and is a deep dive into the biography, history, and work of that great gun making firm. Many of the details I am exploring are described in the book.

When discussing the barrels on Wogdon's pistols, the question "Did he bend his barrels?" always comes up. The answer is yes. O'Sullivan and Bailey provide indisputable radiography and instrument measurements proving it in their monograph about Robert Wogdon. I used much simpler tools to determine if the bores of my pistol barrels were curved. I turned a dowel to a diameter just slightly smaller than the bore of the barrels so it would slide in easily but with very little play. The dowel could only be inserted about 2/3s of the way into both barrels before binding. Then I compared the outside top and bottom profiles against a straight edge. The first photo shows the straight edge along the top of the barrel.



It touches most of the way and shows a fairly straight taper from the breech to the muzzle. Then I checked the bottom.



You can clearly see the space between the ruler and barrel and the barrel is strongly swamped downward at the breech. That was how Wogdon concealed the bend downward at the breech. He made the top profile either a straight taper or a gentle swamp while giving the unseen bottom a fairly substantial swamp that accommodates the bore bending downward toward the breech. The idea was to lower the point of impact of the bullet because of "muzzle flip", the tendency for the muzzle to rise during firing. While Wogdon's pistols were famous for accuracy, the barrel bending had nothing to do with it. It does not send the ball out with a downward arcing trajectory until gravity overcomes the force of propulsion as it eventually does for any bullet shot from a gun.
Keep in mind, these guys were not physicists and had very limited means to rigorously test ideas.

So my barrels appear to be bent. Moreover they are likely made of "watered" or "stub" iron. Stubs are the left over horseshoe nails that folks would collect off the roads and sell to iron mongers. The iron used to make nails had to be top notch or the nails could not be cut or used. So excellent iron was used and the barrel forgers believed the pounding of the nails on the roads and cobblestones made that iron more ductile. The stubs were bundled together within a hoop of iron and mixed with bits of steel. The assembly was heated red hot in the forge and hammered into a flat skelp. This made very strong barrels with beautiful patterns when browned. Here is an example from a fowler by Mortimer.





The Mortimer barrels are made from stubs but the initial flat skelps are cut into strips that are then twisted with other strips and welded together into flat skelps. Then those are spirally welded around a mandrel to form the tube. In the case of my pistol barrels, the stub iron is not twisted and they likely were lap welded longitudinally along the length of the tube. They probably had a beautiful marbled appearance from the browning when new.

The 40-bore (0.488 caliber) barrels are 8" long, 0.884" high and 0.892" wide at the breech. They taper to 0.684" high and 0.689" wide at the muzzle. They are fitted with 2 lugs for flat keys on the bottom each with loops 0.125" wide. The wide loops create a nice smooth and wide surface over which the keys slide. That provides smooth but firm pressure on the keys.





The barrels are of a style O'Sullivan and Bailey called "French" form. Wogdon used that style for most of his early production. The barrels are mostly tapered round but there is a top flat all the way to the muzzle and the first 2 inches of the barrel at the breech have slight octagon flats, which you can see here.



Later, Wogdon adopted fully swamped octagon barrels for his dueling pistols. The barrels are stamped with London Gunmaker Guild view and proof marks as well as Wogdon's mark. They are visible on the left oblique flat. After 1778, the marks were on the bottom of the barrel. Wogdon engraved his name and "LONDON" on the top flat along with a border of oval "rouletting" at the breech. Later, he would usually have a double row of more rounded rouletting engraved at the breech.



As you can see from the muzzle photo, the top flat was filed into a round turned barrel. It is not raised.



I made height and width measurements the full lengths of both barrels. Based on the irregularities in those measurements I am certain the barrel blanks were hand filed to form the taper. The turret lathe was still in the future. They were not obsessed with modern machinist precision with respect to minor deviations in the taper and evenness of the barrel. The front sight is mortised into the barrel and appears to be made of silver. It is not dovetailed and there is no windage adjustment. Again, that is an early feature.






The barrels are fitted with "false", "standing", "break off", "hook" breeches. Virtually all British guns of better quality at this time used standing breeches coupled with barrel keys. The tangs are beautifully engraved and the fit today must be as tight as it was in the 1770s when the pistols were made.











The standing breeches have the lugs on the bottom for cross pins that anchor the bottom. With the tang screw, the two points of anchoring provide rigidity to the breech so the hook can engage very firmly and not lift the breech up. To that end the slots in the breeches for the hooks are tapered toward the top so the hook on the barrel tightens into its slot when fully seated. They are as precise and snug today as they must have been 247 years ago. They also have rear sights fitted. The sights are not adjustable and feature a wide "U" notch. That was designed so the shooter could acquire a target picture quickly with sufficient accuracy at about 15 yards. The vent holes are bushed with some material that might be gold but I cannot tell. They are not the wide gold liners you see on high end British guns.

More to come.

dave

 

[1BadDart]

Amazing! Thanks for sharing.

 

[PathfinderNC]

Congratulations Dave on your acquisition of this historic set of pistols. They are in the best hands.
At the time period of their production, we’re these actually called “ Dueling Pistols”?
Also, I may have missed it, but what wood are the stocks?
Enjoy your exploration and discoveries. I can only imagine the thrill in this opportunity for you. Looking forward to learning and seeing more.

 

[Colonial Boy]

Keep up the good work, much appreciated.
Particularly the locks, I’ve always wanted to pull one of his locks apart and now you’ve done it for me.
Thanks again.
Bye the way, I’ve made locks but your’s outclasses mine by a wide margin.

 

[Rokon]

Hi Rudyard,
Thanks and my purpose is to use these originals as the guide. There is so much in them that needs discussion and will benefit modern makers.

dave

 

[Rokon]

Dave--I've handled one Wogdon. What impressed me more than any other feature of his work was the "simplicity and unadorned" nature of the pistol compared to most duellers. He left off anything that did not fulfill the essential mission of delivering a ball quickly and accurately. There is a purity in a Wogdon dueller that is most striking.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
Next up the stocks. They are English walnut (Juglans regia), which is the same species as French, Turkish, European, Circassian, Italian, Armenian etc walnuts. In fact, during the 1770s, walnut was scarce in Britain and much was being imported from Italy. The guns are stocked to the muzzle and the total length is 12.125". These are small pistols. The right angle drop from the top of the breech to the bottom of the handle is 4.125" Here is a diagram that may help.



Note the area I call the "Wogdon Square". If you look at photos of Wogdon dueling pistols and measure at a right angle down from the breech to the bottom of the handle, and then horizontally from the breech to the back of the handle, the measurements will be close and the enclosed shape is a square. Some will be elongated a little horizontally but still pretty close to square. I believe this is the most important key to getting that Wogdon profile right. Obviously, there will be some variations depending on the fit of the owner but the handle area will in most cases fit within a square. I have other dimensions for the rest of the stock. The height of the stock from top of the barrel channel to the bottom of the stock is 0.925" at the lock and 0.518" mid way between the ramrod pipes. The pin for the rear pipe is 4.357" from the breech and the forward pipe pin is 6.07" from the breech. The forward pipe is 0.712" long with internal diameter of 0.317". The rear pipe is 1.87" long with the tang and 0.289" internal diameter. All of the hardware is iron or steel. The pipes are not made from sheet. It is not clear to me how they were fabricated.






The trigger guard bow is 1.07" high above the trigger plate and 1.72" long. These are big trigger guards relative to the small size of the pistol. The rear extension of the guard is 2.125" long from the attachment to the bow and 0.44" wide. The forward extension is 2.41" long.





The engraving is well done and the same on both pistols. There is no engraving on the rear extensions. The front is held in place by a cross pin hidden within the lock mortise. The rear has no pin. The tab is shaped into a hook that slides under a lug embedded in the mortise. To remove the guard, you have to take out the forward pin and then pop the forward extension up and then slide the guard forward to release the rear hook. The trigger plate has a boss for the tang bolt and a rear screw.





The triggers are simply pinned to the stock. Later in Wogdon's career, he usually installed set triggers. The set or "hair" triggers were not secret. Often there was an adjustment screw visible but sometimes they had none and the trigger pull was set by the gunsmith with the trigger assembly removed from the stock.



The stocks are superbly inlet. A CNC machine might do the work faster but no better.










In the last photo, you can see the hole for the trigger guard pin, a little above and behind is the hole for the pin anchoring the bottom of the standing breech, and then further back is the trigger pin. Here they all are from the other side.



The lock bolts have simple washers surrounding them. The stocks are clearly finished with some sort of varnish, probably linseed oil based. No modern dull "in the wood" oil finish here. They are still a bit shiny and the rich brown color still shows.




dave