My matchlock build -If anyone wants a look. Not yet completed
- Thread starter LawrenceA
- Start date
Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:
Love it.I started a Matchlock build.
Can't really say it is my first build (assembled a CVA in the 80's) and have done a bit of gunsmithing over the years.but I can say first in 30 years.
The stock was from a "Roger Vardy" mannlicher blank.
Borrowed a bandsaw to rough cut the stock after spending 2 hours with a hacksaw just setting the forend down 1/2" to start inletting the barrel.
- The butt has 3 facets but you kinda can't see them. It is a fairly curly bit of English walnut. Cost USD180
- Barrel is a modified 20g Iver Johnson. Cost USD45
- I made the lock, pan and covers. Cost <USD15
- The Trigger lever is just a long bolt. USD3
- My TOTW order seems to have gotten marooned with COVID19 so now kinda stalled till I get the breechplug and other bits.
Managed to saw the cock about 1/2 way down evenly with a good sharp hacksaw blade. Proud of that.
Spent a considerable amount on more hand tools. Have not kept track of that.
Can recommend the Shinto Rasp for large curves and flats.
Barrel channel was basically cut with a 3/4 flat chisel and smoothed and scraped with a 3/8 mold plane (eBay AUD25) and whatever else I could find that worked.
Thanks to whoever said that burning masking tape makes heaps of soot. It certainly does!
I have a 4' x 2' work bench made from and old table which I pull into the garage door for light and my power tools are limited to a dremel and a drill (so far).
I have used a variety of plans and photos so the end result is not really any particular gun but I think has that Matchlock quality.
Please excuse the mess of cast bullets on the table. The shiny ones are for this project.
Must Thank Bill Raby for his build videos. As well as the volume of information and advice from this forum.
I think this shows that you really cannot blame your tools.
Has anyone had experience using Aqua Fortis on Walnut?
What do rear sights look like on a Matchlock?
View attachment 34583View attachment 34584
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2019
- Messages
- 3,552
- Reaction score
- 4,528
Dear Treestalker I missed responding to your post Matchlocks If fascinateing might stem from early school days & reading' Bevis& Mark' probably a hard book to find. and my first guns where awfull probably dangerous affairs . They are so delightfully low tech . but I did hunt with the smooth bored ones & the snap matchlock had a smooth & a 54 rifle option and I hunted days with it after deer . bit of a challenge but part of the allure . I thought . . The great plus perhaps is not really that hard to duplicate you can, Nay Should leave spoke shave & axe marks Ime sure the short rod hole up by the breach end was to simplify the long boreing out which caused Lawrence's whoes . But he got the Serpantine dragons head right . Very important to have dragons , Ive chisled them in breach & muzzle ends .. Cant have to many !..
Regards Rudyard
Regards Rudyard
RAEDWALD
40 Cal.
Ah yes. Richard Jeffries ‘Beavis, The Story of a Boy’ Which is available as a free ebook. A hardback copy of this gave me my first interest in matchlocks. I have my doubts about the heat shrunk breech though. I must read it again to remind me if it was peened over as well. White hot in a domestic kitchen grate?
Last edited:
Doc Ivory
45 Cal.
Nice job.
I would really enjoy making obe as well
I would really enjoy making obe as well
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2019
- Messages
- 3,552
- Reaction score
- 4,528
Dear Raedwald I seem to recall Bevis takes it to the blacksmith he says something about "Will white hot shut tight " and is charged 6 pence good memory after 65 years , clearly grabbed my imagination and I made -plenty since then .Kitchen stove with bellows ? maybe oxy as an expedient . I drove a wooden plug into a aluminium pipe with a sprig to hold it it fired both ends .! But I got better later on .
Cheers Rudyard
Cheers Rudyard
smoothshooter
50 Cal.
What is “ FN “ ?
Treestalker
Treestalker
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2014
- Messages
- 4,051
- Reaction score
- 3,748
- Location
- Third Pond from the Great God Helios
Sweet! I would like to build one with a 40 inch barrel I have, it's .60 cal. smoothbore, round tapered, fairly heavy.I started a Matchlock build.
Can't really say it is my first build (assembled a CVA in the 80's) and have done a bit of gunsmithing over the years.but I can say first in 30 years.
The stock was from a "Roger Vardy" mannlicher blank.
Borrowed a bandsaw to rough cut the stock after spending 2 hours with a hacksaw just setting the forend down 1/2" to start inletting the barrel.
- The butt has 3 facets but you kinda can't see them. It is a fairly curly bit of English walnut. Cost USD180
- Barrel is a modified 20g Iver Johnson. Cost USD45
- I made the lock, pan and covers. Cost <USD15
- The Trigger lever is just a long bolt. USD3
- My TOTW order seems to have gotten marooned with COVID19 so now kinda stalled till I get the breechplug and other bits.
Managed to saw the cock about 1/2 way down evenly with a good sharp hacksaw blade. Proud of that.
Spent a considerable amount on more hand tools. Have not kept track of that.
Can recommend the Shinto Rasp for large curves and flats.
Barrel channel was basically cut with a 3/4 flat chisel and smoothed and scraped with a 3/8 mold plane (eBay AUD25) and whatever else I could find that worked.
Thanks to whoever said that burning masking tape makes heaps of soot. It certainly does!
I have a 4' x 2' work bench made from and old table which I pull into the garage door for light and my power tools are limited to a dremel and a drill (so far).
I have used a variety of plans and photos so the end result is not really any particular gun but I think has that Matchlock quality.
Please excuse the mess of cast bullets on the table. The shiny ones are for this project.
Must Thank Bill Raby for his build videos. As well as the volume of information and advice from this forum.
I think this shows that you really cannot blame your tools.
Has anyone had experience using Aqua Fortis on Walnut?
What do rear sights look like on a Matchlock?
View attachment 34583View attachment 34584
Last edited:
Treestalker
Treestalker
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2014
- Messages
- 4,051
- Reaction score
- 3,748
- Location
- Third Pond from the Great God Helios
Rudyard, I just now found your response to my matchlock inquiries, here it is March 1st! Thank you for your advise and encouragement, my barrel sits waiting...
FN is Ferrous Nitrate basically it is the crystals you use to make Aqua Fortis as we know it (Actually Aqua Fortis is technically Nitric acid but lets not go there).
Well
I think I will call this finished.
Removed the old blacking.
Slimmed the stock.
Added sights.
Was getting more fails and flashes then bangs so adjusted the cock and opened the touch hole but had to cut the dragon's trunk.
Put a face on the dragon.
I still need to file sights to POI and then hunt.
I think I will call this finished.
Removed the old blacking.
Slimmed the stock.
Added sights.
Was getting more fails and flashes then bangs so adjusted the cock and opened the touch hole but had to cut the dragon's trunk.
Put a face on the dragon.
I still need to file sights to POI and then hunt.
I think it's great but I'd say go the extra mike and get some slotted screws and get rid of the phillips heads. There are hardware distributors who will sell you one screw at a time. I needed something for a touch hole cleanout screw once. They didn't have the exact screw but they did have something close and I just cleaned up the edges with a file using my drill as a chuck. You can see the screw in my avitar picture.
Keep going, really, it looks like a fun build.
Lawrence...great job. Thanks for posting all the pics and information along the way. I like what you did, but would echo to get rid of the phillips head screws. 
I can't wait to see some pictures in the hunting forum of you with your matchlock and downed game. It's a magnificent accomplishment to build the rifle and adding some blood to the mix will be icing on the cake! 
I can't wait to see some pictures in the hunting forum of you with your matchlock and downed game. It's a magnificent accomplishment to build the rifle and adding some blood to the mix will be icing on the cake! Thanks for the build updates. I love stuff like this. I did a build blog called "Bridesberg Resurrection" you might be interested in. It's on this forum. It's not a ground up build like yours but rather a sympathetic restoration of an original 1861 model percussion rifle from the civil war that had be very badly treated in its 150 years of life. I did try my very best to keep the gun as close to period correct as possible using 98% all original parts and the other 2% were period correct reproduction parts (sights, sling, screws etc.) I have no intension if selling it, in fact I'm about to have Bobby Hoyt reline the barrel for me. By the time I'm finished I'll have more into the gun then a working model would cost but I know what I have and I had a blast doing it.
I hope your project works as well as mine did. Don't forget to post pics when you shoot it.
Neil
I hope your project works as well as mine did. Don't forget to post pics when you shoot it.
Neil
Col. Batguano
75 Cal.
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2011
- Messages
- 5,039
- Reaction score
- 1,424
Yeah definitely get rid of those.
Not here there isn't. The proper screws will need to wait till I do a TOTW order or find them in the city next time I go. For TOTW I need a minimum order.
Failing that I will ask someone to weld up the heads and cut my own slots
What toot said! When I finished the Bridesberg I had two different phillips head screws in the buttplate (one brass) and everyone (I mean EVERYONE) called me out on it at the range. Even a kid. The screws I got for it were some very nice bugle /dome head stainless screws that drew zero attention away from the rest of the gun. They cost me a couple dollars. A pair of original butt plate screws? Like $36. You pick your fights with period correctness. I went the extra yard on the barrel bands, spring retainers, ram rod etc. Even the piece of wallnut I used for the stock repairs was from a board over a hundred years old. There's nothing like shooting something you built. Hitting what you aim at just seems like bonus, lol. Have fun.
