Pedersoli Pistol Kit

Thank you sir. It is a .54 caliber. I don't know why they make a stock with sapwood in it either, but it's probably one of the reasons the kit was only $185. I'm not worried about it, and I do kinda think it looks cool. I'm still seriously considering not staining it and just oiling it and leaving it what it is.

I shot it today, and man, am I tickled pink! I found out quickly that the PRB combo I've been shooting in my rifles won't work in this pistol... I couldn't even get it started. I'd have had to hammer it down the barrel, which I wasn't going to do... so, I just decided to shoot it with no patches. No problem. The first shot took a few hammer falls to get enough spark in the pan to make it go off. After that, it went off every time! After 5 or 6 shots, it was igniting so fast it was like shooting a caplock! I didn't drill out the touch hole either! The first shot, I wasn't even aiming at the target... just kinda pointing it at the berm and jerking the trigger... I just wanted it to fire. After it fired, my buddy asked if I was even aiming at the target! I said, "No, but I will on this next one!" Loaded her again, lined up the top flat of the barrel as best as I could (I haven't put the sights on it yet LOL), gave her a squeeze, and ker-BOOM! Walked up to the target, and I about fell on the ground laughing! Right smack dab in the middle of the 10 ring, almost dead center! With no sights, and no PATCH?!?!?! :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

I laughed for another five minutes! Apparently, it's a pretty accurate gun, sights or no, because then my buddy took it and dang near did the same thing. (I didn't step off the distance... it wasn't 7 yards, but it wasn't 25 either... somewhere in between, probably around 15 yards or so.)

My buddy took his digital camera and we got pics of all of us shooting it... as soon as he gets them to me, I'll post them for all to enjoy. Zonie, I did my best to keep it clean, and the stock didn't get all nasty. :winking: Had a great time shooting it, as well as the Great Plains Rifle today.

Man... it's good to be a flintlock shooter! eace:

 

Well, I promised pictures, and here they are:

On the bench:

First shot!

Here's my buddy's shot:

Here's one as it got darker. We tried to get some fire in the photo, but it just wasn't meant to be:

 

Mmmmmm. I smoked Camels for years. Quit 8 years ago. That wood looks cool with the light/dark contrast. It'll look sweet when you stain it! Will you try some decorative carving or inlay work?

 

Ouch. Sorry if I tempted you... I probably should have cropped my cancer sticks out of the picture. :redface:

I'm not going to do any carving on this one, but I think I am going to put a couple of inlays in the stock. Nothing major, I'm thinking about a star on each side of the barrel, and maybe a circle or oval on the back of the grip behind the tang.

 

Can't wait to see the finished product. I'm thinking of putting a thumbpiece inlay on my Jaeger. Good luck.

 

[Zonie]

Static: After you get it all built and tested, you might want to do what I did with mine.

I sent away for a rough sawn #4 Curly Maple pistol sized block of wood and then proceeded to inlay the barrel, lock, trigger, etc from the Pedersoli.
That way, I had a very nice finished gun to play with, and, when all is said and done, I had a beautiful stock to remount the hardware in.
Although it was a number of years ago, I think the wood only cost about $30.
Doing this gave me a LOT of experiance in gun building.

The only fly in the ointment was I built it to match a Lehigh County rifle, stained the same, with the same style of inlays etc. When a guy wanted to buy the rifle, I made the mistake of showing him the matching pistol.
He wanted the pair and offered a price I couldn't refuse so now I don't have anything except the original Walnut stock. :boohoo:

 

Zonie, that's a great idea! And, Lord knows I'm going to need the experience when I start building my longrifle. I might just do that...

I gave the 'ol lady a list of books that I wanted for my birthday (coming soon) in preparation for starting to build a serious rifle. (Recreating the American Longrifle, Gunsmith of Grenville County, Art of Building the Pennsylvania Longrifle, Art of Engraving, etc.) I figure I can do some good reading and studying while I save for the kit.

That's a durn shame about matched pair... he must've offered you a bundle for 'em! :master: Ya know, you could always just order another one... :winking:

 

[Zonie]

Static: I may do that.

When I sold the set, I sit down with the buyer and showed him how to remove the barrels on both guns so he would know how to clean them. I gave him a list of what he would need to shoot and clean them. Also showed him how to set the flint, how to use the set triggers etc.
He thanked me and then said, "Thanks for showing me about that, but I don't plan on shooting it. I just wanted it to hang on my wall."

The really sad thing to me is I know there are a lot of people out there that would have used the gun for what it was built for as well as hang it on their wall.
Oh well........... :boohoo:

 

Man, what a shame. I'm with you... the guns were made to be shot, shoot 'em! If he wanted a wall hanger, he should have bought an antique.

I did some filing and polishing work on the steel muzzlecap last night... will post pics soon. I need to get the brass ramrod thimbles out of the stock, but they are pinned. Do I need a special punch or something to get the pins out without ruining them, or can I use something like say a small finishing nail with the point ground flat?

I also ordered a couple of star inlays and small shield inlay, as well as some silver inlay wire from TOTW yesterday. Not sure if I'm going to do anything with the silver wire yet, but I'm thinkin' about it... prolly get a better idea once it gets here.

Thanks for all your help so far!

 

[Zonie]

If you don't have a fortune worth of pin punches, a small finishing nail with the end flattened will work great.
Just make sure it is going to be smaller than the pin hole.

Go easy with the first few taps. When the pin is about 1/8 inch out, some folks would rather grab the exposed end with some locking pliers and pull it the rest of the way out. This will prevent buggering up or enlarging the pin holes.

If your "pin punch nail" slips and you damage the wood at the mouth of the hole, you will congratulate yourself on having the great foresight of buying some inlays to cover the damage. :: :: ::

 

If your "pin punch nail" slips and you damage the wood at the mouth of the hole, you will congratulate yourself on having the great foresight of buying some inlays to cover the damage. :: :: ::

Is that why almost every rifle you've built has 20lbs of German Silver inlays in it? :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: Just kidding ya... I think your rifles are some of the prettiest I've ever seen, and I mean that. :redthumb:

I haven't given up on the kit... been working on it a little. Got the muzzle cap sanded and polished, as well as the ramrod thimbles. Here's a couple of pics:

Muzzle cap:

Entry pipe:

Thimble:

All three together on the desk:

My inlays and stuff came from TOTW, but I gotta figure out how to bend them to conform to the stock before I can inlay them. I don't have a bending block yet like the one you've shown in earlier posts... gonna have to make something up like that before I can continue with those. Until then, more sanding... some on the stock, mostly on the barrel. The mill marks aren't very bad at all on the barrel, so I'm going to try to not file it, and just sand it. We'll see how that goes.

 

[Zonie]

"...Is that why almost every rifle you've built has 20lbs of German Silver inlays in it?..."

My secret is out! Dam, I hate when that happens!

As a note of interest, the gun I'm working on now was not going to have any inlays on it but when I drilled the rear underlug pin hole, it just missed the underlug. The results? Another pin hole right next to the screwed up one. The method of covering the mistake? You guessed it. Two small oval (brass) inlays, one on each side of the stock forearm.

As I have said before, when building a muzzleloading gun, you must be flexable. Mistakes happen.
If a mistake is made, the builder can do one of three things:
Ignore it.
Hide it.
Celebrate it.

Surprisingly, the first one often works well. The builder is usually his worst critic and most people will look right past the error.
Hiding it goes without saying, but it can include revising the wood or metal profile, staining it, plugging it, or a lot of other methods.
Celebrating it envolves making it a focal point. It is the "I WANTED it to look like that" idea. For instance, if a notch is filed on one side of a part, the builder can duplicate this notch on the opposite side making it look like it was all part of the plan.
This is usually hard to do and have it look right, but it is something to think about before tossing the stock blank into the fireplace.
And no, all of those inlays on my rifles are not covering up screw up's. :: ::

 

And no, all of those inlays on my rifles are not covering up screw up's. :: ::

I knew that... but I was admiring them earlier today in the Photo forum, so I just had to poke a little fun. You don't give many reasons to do that... so I have to take what I can get. :winking:

Well, I started sanding one of the barrel flats tonight... and it's going much slower than I had hoped. So... I think I'm gonna opt to draw file it. The milling grooves are a little deeper than I thought, and if I have to sand the whole barrel as much as I sanded that one flat and STILL didn't get all of the mill marks out of it, well, I'll probably start walking with a cant due to the extra muscle weight in that arm. ::

 

Well, just to keep the "journal" in this thread of the kit progress, I'm going to post these inlay pics here as well.

I still have the third inlay to inlet, then I can start sealing and oiling the stock. While that's happening, I can work on getting the barrel cleaned up. The sanding thing just ain't gonna fly... too much elbow grease required. I'm gonna have to file it.

Lucky for me I got Perfesser Zonie's "Filing 101.1" class under mah belt! :redthumb:

More pics soon. I promise. I'm feeling like I'm in the home stretch here... if I can get my job to leave me alone long enough to get it finished!

 

Okay, here's the third inlay:

Wow. This one turned out great. No gaps, no problems. There's a slight little bit of darkness in the corners... I'm guessing that's from hand-oil.

Thanks for all the help you guys... I'm sure without your tips and knowledge, I'd have thrown the thing in the trash trying to figure out how to do the inlays!

Now, to get 'em polished, then start on the stock and barrel finishing!

WOOHOO! :RO:

 

[Zonie]

StaticX: Looking good!
Now for more thoughts:

As you know, the stock you are working with is Walnut.
Walnut is an open grain wood (unlike Maple which is closed grain and has a very smooth surface).
Because it is open grained, it has thousands of little pores exposed to the elements. While there is nothing wrong with that, and you could oil the surface and leave it at that, (a lot of people like it that way), or... you could fill the grain.

Several companys make filler for Walnut. The one I've used most often, with excellent results is Birchwood Casey Gunstock Filler Walnut tone.
This is an oil base product, so it should be applied after staining with water or alcohol based stains (if you decide you want to use them). It's consistancy is about like a creamy paste.

To use this filler, you apply it with a rag, rubbing it across the grain into the pores. Then let it harden and buff the excess off with a coarse piece of material (burlap is great for this if you can find it). This removal buffing should also be done across the grain.
By the way, the filler never seems to get really hard so some kind of topcoat should be applied.

By applying the filler, and buffing it off across the grain, it leaves all of the little wood pores full of the filler material leaving a smooth surface overall.
It will also fill any gaps between the wood and your inlays so the gaps will seem to disappear.

Apply the top finish coats of whatever you want over the wood and dried filler.

Just a thought.

 

As you know, the stock you are working with is Walnut. Walnut is an open grain wood (unlike Maple which is closed grain and has a very smooth surface). Because it is open grained, it has thousands of little pores exposed to the elements. While there is nothing wrong with that, and you could oil the surface and leave it at that, (a lot of people like it that way), or... you could fill the grain.

Several companys make filler for Walnut. The one I've used most often, with excellent results is Birchwood Casey Gunstock Filler Walnut tone. This is an oil base product, so it should be applied after staining with water or alcohol based stains (if you decide you want to use them). It's consistancy is about like a creamy paste.

To use this filler, you apply it with a rag, rubbing it across the grain into the pores. Then let it harden and buff the excess off with a coarse piece of material (burlap is great for this if you can find it). This removal buffing should also be done across the grain.

By the way, the filler never seems to get really hard so some kind of topcoat should be applied.

By applying the filler, and buffing it off across the grain, it leaves all of the little wood pores full of the filler material leaving a smooth surface overall.
It will also fill any gaps between the wood and your inlays so the gaps will seem to disappear.

Apply the top finish coats of whatever you want over the wood and dried filler.

Just a thought.

I was planning on wet-sanding the stock after sealing it to accomplish the pore-filling. This is how I've read it should be done on a few gunstock finishing sites. The idea is to wet-sand with 400 grit and the tung oil to fill the oil with wood dust. This oily sludge is then wiped into the grain by wiping diagonally against the grain. This should do the same thing as using the filler you mention, should it not? It should look better too, I'm thinking, since I'm filling the grain with wood dust from the same wood? Also, I'm getting oil down into the wood pores, which I'm thinking will help with the durability of the finish?

I'm going to polish these inlays, get the stuff sanded off the edges, and hopefully get a coat of sealer on this thing tonight.

John

 

Well, no sealing tonight, but I did get the polishing done. Zonie, that scotch tape trick is the bee's knees! Worked like a champ!

Should be able to start sealing it up tomorrow. Will post more pics then.

 

[Zonie]

I was planning on wet-sanding the stock after sealing it to accomplish the pore-filling. This is how I've read it should be done on a few gunstock finishing sites. The idea is to wet-sand with 400 grit and the tung oil to fill the oil with wood dust. This oily sludge is then wiped into the grain by wiping diagonally against the grain. This should do the same thing as using the filler you mention, should it not? It should look better too, I'm thinking, since I'm filling the grain with wood dust from the same wood? Also, I'm getting oil down into the wood pores, which I'm thinking will help with the durability of the finish?

John

Sounds like a plan.
I haven't used this method but it should work. 400 grit sounds very fine so it might take a while to get the job done. Let us know how well it works.

 

Well, here's a couple of pics after two coats of sealer (4 parts mineral spirits and 1 part Tung oil).

Lock side:

Other side:

Grip:

There are some slight runs here and there, as you can see in the third pic, but I'm not worried about those, as those will disappear in the wet-sanding and finishing process.

I decided against staining for this one... sorry Zonie, but I decided to do just a natural oil finish and let the wood be what it is, sapwood and all. I'll stain the rifle when I build it.

Will hopefully get a couple of wet-sandings done this weekend, and will post more pics of that process next week. The stock is definitely looking better with the addition of some oil... and I think it's going to be beautiful when it's done.

Edit: Oh yeah, I finally got my Black & Decker Workmate that I got for Christmas a few years ago assembled, and am using it to draw file the barrel. (Yeah yeah, I know, it ain't PC... sorry, until I buy a bigger house and such, I just don't have room for much more.) So far it's working very well. Clamps the barrel in it good and tight, and I don't have to worry about marring it, because the clamps are boards. :redthumb: