Kentucky pistol

[Colonial Boy]

I’m starting the remodeling of my Pedersoli “Kentucky” into something, hopefully, more historically accurate.
First job, remove the finish.

This was easier said than done, my fiercest paint stripper did absolutely nothiall, so it was strip by scrapers and abrasive paper. It came off surprisingly easy, the untouched bits are
where I intend to remove some wood, in particular the bottom of the butt where I’ll fir a brass cap.
I’m leaving the ramrod pipes in place as I don’t fancy removing the tiny pins,

 

[wiscoaster]

Looking forward to the finished result.

 

[Compressorguy]

Really looking forward to your progress!

 

[Colonial Boy]

WelL here’s a bit of progress, have turned roughly two thirds of the.barrel round and draw filed it a bit, only just touched the two side flats and the bottom flat so that there are no unseemly gaps.
Two wedding bands

Will now reassemble and do some wood removal.
Haven’t started on the butt cap yet as the only brass that I had on hand was part of a cast Indian vase, the brass machines beautifully and takes a high polish but whatever its composition is it is impossible to anneal so I’m waiting on some brass that will allow annealing and hammering, promised for next week.

 

[brightboy]

Following!

 

[Gtrubicon]

I like what your doing, looking forward to your progress.

 

[Colonial Boy]

Some rough work today, now it’s lunch time and then the garden

A bit of surplus wood removed and the butt drilled and reinforced with a brass rod glued in with auto body filler; the rod goes in to the arrowed pencil mark.

 

[Mike Payne]

I reworked a pedersoli kit a few years ago but didn’t do anything with the barrel. I like what you are doing with your barrel how did you turn it down? Looking forward to your finished product!

 

[Colonial Boy]

Mike,
Just a bit of ordinary lathe work, I have an Australian “Sheraton” bench lathe for small jobs [a copy of the venerable American “South Bend” with a few minor improvements].

Here’s the barrel ready for rust browning.

I’ve cleaned it with alcohol [non-drinkable variety] and given it its first coat of solution.

 

[TDM]

Looking great @Colonial Boy! I have the same pistol and plan a rebuild too.

 

[Colonial Boy]

Just got hit with an idea for a humid rust assisting box, very cheap too [1/2 inch of water in the bottom and into a warm room].

 

[Mike Payne]

Mike,
Just a bit of ordinary lathe work, I have an Australian “Sheraton” bench lathe for small jobs [a copy of the venerable American “South Bend” with a few minor improvements].

Here’s the barrel ready for rust browning.View attachment 267465
I’ve cleaned it with alcohol [non-drinkable variety] and given it its first coat of solution.

Looks great wish I had a lathe! I did remove the bluing on mine and browned it. Keep us posted on progress.

 

[Colonial Boy]

Have stopped browning at the ‘aged’ look as I discovered that the drum reaches to the centre of the bore and even though there is a chamber of reduced diameter to the bore a couple of threads are exposed to the ignition, besides being an obstruction to proper cleaning.
l’m looking at taking the breech plug out and depending on its diameter either boring it to bore size or taper boring it.

The wall thickness is still the same as at the breech end, there is a dimple opposite the drum which I first thought to be poor machining but it may be deliberate to help with ignition as fouling builds up.

 

[Pete G]

Have stopped browning at the ‘aged’ look as I discovered that the drum reaches to the centre of the bore and even though there is a chamber of reduced diameter to the bore a couple of threads are exposed to the ignition, besides being an obstruction to proper cleaning.
l’m looking at taking the breech plug out and depending on its diameter either boring it to bore size or taper boring it.View attachment 269745The wall thickness is still the same as at the breech end, there is a dimple opposite the drum which I first thought to be poor machining but it may be deliberate to help with ignition as fouling builds up.

Not many threads engaged on that drum. Be careful.

 

[trackpin]

Some rough work today, now it’s lunch time and then the garden
View attachment 267198View attachment 267199A bit of surplus wood removed and the butt drilled and reinforced with a brass rod glued in with auto body filler; the rod goes in to the arrowed pencil mark.

Good idea. Mine broke there.

 

[Colonial Boy]

Did a bit more, put a tapered hardwood rod down the bore and got an impression of the front of the chamber which is only 0.215 inch diameter, which is inconveniently small for cleaning.
By some careful measurement I found that two full threads of the drum were protruding into the already limited space, these have been removed, there are 5 threads left.
The nipple protrudes as well and obstructs access through the cleaning hole in the drum, not good workmanship on the part of the makers.

The best I could do with the camera, bit shaky.

This clearly shows the nipple protruding and note that there is no area machined on the drum for the nipple to seat.

The photos were taken on the lid of a polystyrene box with a torch inside.

Edit,
Was going to take the offending bit off the nipple but got cautious and checked; had I done so I’d have made the hole much to large.
Will now check through the spare nipples.

 

[Alan O]

maybe it's too late, but can you make it a flinter?

 

[Colonial Boy]

maybe it's too late, but can you make it a flinter?

I toyed with the idea but decided to stick with percussion.
Here’s the latest bit of work.
I found that the drum was overturning slightly but not enough to use a washer so I washed the threads in alcohol and reassembled using 24 hour epoxy, assembled the pistol and set the nipple right, left it for a bit over thirty hours and then drilled the chamber out from 0.217 in to around o.335 [that’s what the unmarked drill measures].
Removed the unwanted threads from the drum previously so the drum is now a neat cleanable fit in the larger chamber.
The heavy lines are the original chamber and protrusions [ no wonder the previous owner said it hadn’t been fired much].Please excuse lousy drawing.

Here’s the drill and wooden muzzle bush along with the barrel with the sights filed down [I’ll probably make them smaller yet when I zero it].
Also took the newness off the lockplate.
When drilling I set the depth using the chuck as the stop and centered the drill in reverse at very slow revs then keeping slight pressure on, I switched to forward and drilled the chamber, with a few stops to tip out the swarf.

 

[PathfinderNC]

Interesting! What diameter did you bore out the breech plug to, and why not drill it out with the breech plug removed from the barrel?

 

[Colonial Boy]

I drilled the plug to 0.335 [or so].
I didn’t remove the plug because I wanted to have the drum blended smoothly into the chamber, mainly to do with the ease of cleaning.
I intend to make a tool to chamfer the mouth of the chamber.