T/C .45 Hawken embellishments??

[msuspartan]

Did the Hawken rifles ever get personal embellishments? Such as thumb plates, side plates, cheek or brass/silver wire inlays? I have not seen much in the pics around the net or from books. Would love to personalize (as historically as possible) it and make it my 'own'. Ideas, sites, books....??? Thanks for your help.

Cheers, Don

 

[bigted]

:hmm: is your question whether or not thomson center did custom embelishments on their hawkins rifles,,, or if places like the origanal hawkins shops circa 1810ish did :idunno:

 

[BrownBear]

I really prefer iron to brass on TC's Hawkens. They didn't come from the factory that way, but I've bought a couple of replacement parts sets from The Hawken Shop, and October Country lists them. May be the same source. I also prefer to strip the original bluing and brown them using Laurel Mountain Forge browning solution. You can get it from LMF directly, but lots of muzzleloading supply houses like Track of the Wolf carry it, too.

 

[ebiggs1]

I think it is going to be difficult to make a TC Hawken 45 cal more historical correct since they don’t seem to fit anywhere in the first place. But I probably have done more customizing than most folks do to TCs. If this is what you were meaning. Such as:

Toe plate.

Sight

Side plate.

 

[longcruise]

Did the Hawken rifles ever get personal embellishments? Such as thumb plates, side plates, cheek or brass/silver wire inlays? I have not seen much in the pics around the net or from books. Would love to personalize (as historically as possible) it and make it my 'own'. Ideas, sites, books....??? Thanks for your help

First off, don't take this personally or put me straight into the category of "smart A$$".

I also have a TC .45 Hawken and enjoy shooting it. But, there is no way that it is going to become more HC by embellishing it. That said, there is no reason you could not do whatever you please with it. A cheek inlay would be nice. You could also change the escuteon inlays. Changing the patch box is possible but you will need to go larger than the existing inlay in the wood.

 

[msuspartan]

I saw your refinish/build from an earlier post. Quite the handsome rifle there. Did you hand rub the stock? And how did you finish the stock? I would like to remove the old finish and do something more period. AND less shiny!!

I understand about the .45 and that it seems that larger calibers were more common. Would love mine to be a bit more historical than at present and make it more mine.

Also, what and where did you get that sight?

Thanks for you reply. Awesome rifle :bow: :thumbsup: and I love the finish.really sets the tone of the piece.

Cheers, Don

 

[rafterob]

People tend to disparage the TC and other repros as not being historically accurate to a "Hawkins" rifle. That is probably the fault of the manufacturers using that term to begin with. They do tend, however, to have very common similarities to the "plains rifles" of the 1800s. Leman I believe were the first to mass produce and market such rifles but there are many examples out there and most have the basic look that has since been imitated by TC, Pedersoli and Ardessa. Most pictures I've seen of originals have no or very limited embellishments (mainly in the form of small inlays, escutcheons and such). As long as you present your rifle as a Plains rifle and not a Hawkin you should be doing alright.

 

[Zonie]

The way I read the original post it was asking about a Hawken rifle.

Based on this I'll have to say YES.
The Hawken rifle owned by Mariano Modena had quite a bit of fancy furniture.

This was a typical half stock Hawken rifle with 5 stars surrounding a 4 piece patch box. The patchboxes side panels were pierced allowing the wood to show thru.

The original Hawkens rifles were not production guns and the buyer could order whatever they wanted on their guns.

 

[ebiggs1]

I saw your refinish/build from an earlier post. Quite the handsome rifle there. Did you hand rub the stock? And how did you finish the stock? I would like to remove the old finish and do something more period. AND less shiny!!

Cheers, Don

Thank you so much for the kind words.
1. Don, I use anyone of the commercially available strippers such as BIX. The finish TC puts on stocks nowadays is very tough so be prepared to use rubber gloves and 0 or 00 steel wool and multiple coats. Have mineral spirits available. I also use the regular water hose for rinsing but be careful of splashes. I made a cheap 2x4 frame laid flat on my bench. Put a large trash bag over it do this dirty work on my bench. Plus you can cover the stock with the bag and let the stripper work. This is the hardest part. After this is done the rest is simple enough a cave man can do it! If it was a kit stock the finish usually falls off when you mention the word stripper
2. Many years of woodworking has taught me not to sand too much. You need to stop sanding before the wood becomes so tight, it won’t accept stain or oil. I actually only use sanding for shaping and fitting the stock to the brass. Just a little touch up to smooth it out. Now, what most folks don’t do is burnish the stock (lightly) with 0000 steel wool. I do this before staining and after staining and between each coat of tung oil.
3. I have a dedicated buffing wheel. It has two different texture wheels on it. I use red rouge compound and Brasso. It will remove any scratches you put in while fitting the brass to the stock. In order to get the brass to fit like it is part of the stock, you must sand it while it is part of the stock. This puts many scratches in it and you would be forever trying to get them out with any of the hand only methods. The wheel takes only minutes. When I sand the stock I use a 5-inch orbital (power) sander, a flexible sanding block and a hard sanding block. (100, 150, and 220 grit)
4. One last note, on that last gun I used Minwax Mahogany #225 stain and Minwax Tung oil. (0000 steel wool in-between) The thing about tung oil is the more coats you put on the glossier it will get. You can get it to the same gloss as lacquer or urethane if wanted. The first coat needs to be heavy and the succeeding coats light. (0000 steel wool in-between) That gun has three coats.
The brass is removed before tung oil and it got a coat of satin Minwax polyurethane, which won’t last a lifetime but helps keep it that way for a long time. The tung oil finish is extremely durable and easily renewable. If you get a scratch all you need is a dab of tung oil and its gone.
Hope this helps you and you have a beautiful rifle when you are through. Please let me see it.
Ernie

 

[ebiggs1]

Also, what and where did you get that sight?

Cheers, Don

Don,
The sight is from Dixie Gun Works but other sources have them.
Installing that sight requires making a dovetail. Are you comfortable doing that? I can show you how and if you go slowly, you can do it. Is this something you want to tackle?
It requires a hacksaw and a triangle file.
EB

 

[msuspartan]

Ebiggs,
Thank you for the info. I am going out today to get the bits and bobs to start the stripping process. (tried to include the wife with the stripping process too but she told me to shut up and go back to the man cave :shocked2: )I will be at Friendship in a couple of weeks to get furniture for the rifle so it is going to be a fun adventure.

 

[TennesseeJed]

Are you taking your wife furniture shopping with you? :wink:

 

[ebiggs1]

I believe I have heard that. She doesn't have a sister in Kansas, named Miss Elizabeth, does she?

 

[Robert58]

The easiest thing I have found to strip a stock is spray carb cleaner from Walmart and steel wool. Followed with Aceton with the wind at your back.

Robert

 

[Swampman]

I wouldn't refinish it. If you do I wouldn't use sandpaper.

 

[sqqy14]

Nice looking rifle. I have a question...in photo #2 with your new rear sight installed, where did you find the headless screws to fill in the holes where the original sight was located? I installed a peep sight some time ago and haven't been able to find any of those screws. Thompson Center didn't have any available when I called them.
Regards
Bob

 

[BrownBear]

I'll let him answer cuzz it might be different than mine.

But I went to a local gun shop that had a boxed set of different sized ones they got from Brownells. The set included either 8 or 12 different sizes. We just sorted through them till we found ones that fit. Heck, there wouldn't have been any sorting at all if I'd known beforehand what size screws the barrel was tapped for!

Long and short of it, if you know the screw size you can probably order that size from Brownells if you don't have a well-equipped local gun shop.

 

[msuspartan]

No sister except here in Indianapolis. But I told my wife she had a 'twin' in and would she? Oh well...I digress into the gutter. :youcrazy:

Thank you for your information. Hopefully mine will turn out as well as yours. If I can figure out the addition of pictures, I will post when done.
I have a Zoli Harpers Ferry .58 flintlock that I am currently redoing first. Is a lot of fun doing this. Very satisfying!!

 

[ebiggs1]

I got them and all my gun screws form Brownells.
You can order from there web site but I, too, went to our local gun smith and he gave me several. They are 6-48 size.

 

[ebiggs1]

Since I want to see some pictures of what is going to a beautiful gun:

Do you have an account on Photobucket? If not go to Photobucket.com and start one, it is free. There will be a tab that says, “Upload images & Videos”. Click it. This will bring up a folder on your home computer, which may or may not be the place your picture resides.
I usually make a folder called “My Pictures”. So I don’t have to fiddle around finding the picture I want to use. Than simply change to that folder (My Pictures) and select the photos you want to upload. You may have several “Albums” on Photobucket but if you don’t specify one, they call it your default album.
The reason Muzzleloading Forum does this is the forum cannot grab the picture from your computer. Photobucket, or one of the many other photo sites, have an “address” that the forum does understand and can get your picture from. That address is what you are putting into your post. BTW, you can also use Photobucket to share your pictures with your friends and family, not just put pics in your posts.

You must be in one of your albums or your default album or the process isn’t as easy. If you don’t have a lot of pictures uploaded you will have only one album. Probably called your “default” album. When you are there just roll your mouse over the picture you want to use in your post. That will cause a drop down menu to appear. Roll your mouse straight down to “IMG code” Left click your mouse on IMG code. That will cause the address, to the right of where you just clicked to change color. It will be blue. Move your mouse over the blue address and click your right mouse button. That will cause another menu to appear. Scroll your mouse to the word ”copy” and left click it.
Now go back to your post in the Muzzleloading Forum and right click where you want the picture. A little menu will come up, you will left click on “paste”. It will insert something like this,

IMG]http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx50/ebiggs1/IMG_1925.jpg[/IMG

That is the address where the Muzzleloading Forum will get your picture from and put it into your post.