Kit is finally finished!

[hawkeye1755]

GREAT WORK Mike :bow:
I hope you have not to deal with idiots anymore :shake:
What is your average time to build such a gun :hmm:
I'm only a novice and you are a ' Master of the bench'
:hatsoff:

 

[MikeChapin]

Great work as usual. :thumbsup:

 

[timbuckII]

Very good photos and a great looking rifle.

 

[Mike Brooks]

I'd keep your head on , don't put it on the chopping block. Very nice! How many m/l's have you made? Please don't tell me that this is your first. I'm still drooling over the pics. Maybe you should send this piece to me so that I can get a closer look! :rotf:

I've been at this a while, this is # 253. # 254 is on the bench, due for delivery on the 19th of july....I GOT TO GET CRACKIN! :haha:

 

[Mike Brooks]

Mike,
I love the lines of that one. I also like the satin finish and color on the stock. What did you use.

Great job and outstanding rifle.

I used A combination of Jim Klien's stains, then rubbed them out to get the wear effect and lighten up the color in general. In other words I stan WAYYYYY to darke then rub it back to the color I want. The finish is Chambers stock finish. I decided when it was done that the stock was still a little too dark so I rubbed it out again, then applied a coat of plain old boiled linseed oil. :shocked2: Yes, I know I've poo poo'd linseed in the past, but I figured the Chambers finish had everything sealed up, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to try a couple coats of BLO.

 

[Mike Brooks]

Fantastic, Mike. Congratulations. I just browsed your web site looking to see if that kit was being offered up there yet. Did I miss it?

(and does this mean the Type G kit you planned to develop is next in the queue?)

I can't even get my web guy to remove the guns that are for sale there that I sold a year ago! I'm going to try and get ahold of the contol on that web site so I can ad stuff to my hearts desire...I don't especially care for the lay out any way. :shake: So, yes the kit is for sale now, you just have to know the secret handshake to get one I guess...... :haha: The "G" and the Carolina gun are both ready to be shaped out, I've got the barrels and all the parts, and the barrels are inlet into the blanks waiting for me to make the master stock patterns. I'd like to think I'll have one or both done for fall Friendship, but I don't think that's realistic considering the number of guns I have promised to customers before then.

 

[Mike Brooks]

It's perfect! Decorated nicely without being gaudy. I just wonder how much that irritable emailer you mentioned on the other thread thinks it's worth. I've seen people ask a lot for something of far less beauty. I hope I'm not offending if I ask if you do all that brass and lock egraving yourself. Nice work.

HistoryBuff

Yep, I do all of my own engraving, it's one of the most difficult things to learn about building guns. It's one of those things the more you do the better you get.

 

[Mike Brooks]

Beautiful gun. I'm intrigued why you would put on an English lock onto an enigma piece ( ie a Virginia rifle that was built with a Germanic Lock, and a plain tigger) and then put on a German style set trigger. As the little Churman on Laugh-in would say "velly interesting" But I got to agree it does look better with the English lock, after looking at it in RCA. I also agree with Slowpoke on a single trigger. All in all a beauty. Bill

Well, I figured since I was the one designing the gun I'd do it the way I wanted. I don't really care for siler locks....never did. This Chambers Virginia lock is my all time favorite, and was real common on these rifles from the south. One other problem I've noticed with all the classes I've taught on kit assembly is most guys have a heck of a time setting up a single trigger for a light trigger pull with out a lot of creep. Also, a great percentage of fellas prefer set triggers. I personally prefer a single trigger on my own guns, so I did the set trigger in this case to hopefully increas the intrest level. Most kits on the market are designed for a single trigger, and if you want a set trigger, you have a heck of a time fitting it in. This one is designed around the set trigger, and actually helps the architecure and sets up the whole thing for the stepped wrist.
There is some precident for set triggers and english locks with the Haymaker rifle which is #131 in Vol II.

 

[Mike Brooks]

Mike,

As usual, a real beauty. I still can't get over your stain/finish combination.
Your engraved borders just make me wet. :redface:

Well Done. :applause:

You said a kit gun?? Whose kit?

It's my kit, designed by me after the F. Klette rifle. I get my buttplates and sideplates sand cast locally here in town, so there are some unique parts used on it. The stock is shaped, and the lock and buttplate are inlet. It takes a colerain 42" C weight barrel. A Getz C weight may fit too, with a little scraping. It's of the same quality as what Chambers is producing.

 

[Mike Brooks]

GREAT WORK Mike :bow:
I hope you have not to deal with idiots anymore :shake:
What is your average time to build such a gun :hmm:
I'm only a novice and you are a ' Master of the bench'
:hatsoff:

I've not added up my hours yet on this gun, but I'm guessing I've got 60+ hours in this particular gun. Seems like it was going to take for ever there for a while! :haha:

 

[dlemaster]

Mike
There you go again "showing your arrogance and bringing down the sport" LOL :rotf:
Seriously, the rifle is excellent! I really came to like the Klette rifle from the first time I saw pictures in Merril Lindsey's book.
I really like the way you developed the carving. I just wish I could pull off those little cresent accent cuts as well as you do.
The color of the stock is the color I most often shoot for, it looks great.
Another wonderful job, I hope I can get to Friendship this fall to see it in person.

Regards, Dave

 

[aragorn]

Fantastic work. I've looked at this beside the Shumway rifle and don't see how you could have done better. What's the plan with the kit - will you be marketing them soon?

I'd love to see and handle some of your rifles (other than factory guns, the only finished contemporary longrifle I've ever handled is my own - I'm pretty isolated from other builders up here!). I greatly admire your engraving skills too, especially now that I've had a go - you're absolutely right, it's the one thing you can't just pick up the tools and have any hope of getting right without a great deal of practice. It will be a while before I put any engraving on a gun of mine.

No 253. Phew! I wonder how many guns the great makers of the 18th c finished? I guess the problem would be distinguishing what was their work entirely, or almost entirely (except perhaps the metalwork), from the more common output - I would guess - where one or more other craftsmen were employed. (I recently went to a Picasso pottery exhibit and was taken aback, though not surprised, to find that the vast bulk were made by others to his broad designs, then signed by him. What a charlatan ...) Given the likely workship setup of the past, it makes the output of a contemporary gunmaker like you all the more impressive as you probably do more yourself on each gun than some of the great makers of the past.

 

[Mike Brooks]

What's the plan with the kit - will you be marketing them soon?

They are ready to go now. I'll have this finished gunon display and several kits for sale at Friendship in Sept.

 

[sse]

I really like this piece. Nice work on the metal. Very nice wood that has some good cat eye figure, which stands out very well against the patchbox. Love the stain and resulting color. I also really like the finish on the barrel. A guy in our club does them something like that and I like it much better than the browned or blued look for the appropriate piece.

Regards, sse

P.S. Also forgot to say I really like the carving near the entry pipe. Nice place to see it.

 

[LRB]

Very nice Mike, please post when the type G is ready!

 

[BS]

Another, Great Looking rifle. :bow:

Have you said what caliber it is? :hmm:

 

[rusty]

very nice indeed :hatsoff:

 

[Mike Brooks]

Another, Great Looking rifle. :bow:

Have you said what caliber it is? :hmm:

This one is .54. It would make a great target rifle in .50 . I think Colerain makes this barrel in .54 smooth too.

 

Oh wow! Another great rifle! :applause:

 

[rickystl]

Mike: Do you still have the 28 guage fowler on your Web-Site for sale?