Traditions pistol kit questions

[PM]

HI All,

First I want to say thank you for all the great info you've all handed out. I've been reading on here for a while and have learned a lot but still have a long way to go.

I have a Traditions pistol kit that came to me second hand and like my last kit from them it has a lot that need rework before I do any finishing. Two things in particular I'm not sure about.

The first thing is where the tang meets the barrel. The edge of the tang isn't finished smooth. Being a Traditions barrel I can't remove it to fix the edge. I was thinking about filing the top down but it would have to be pretty deep and even then the sides on the tang are rough almost 1/16 down. Is there a way to fill it? Or I thought maybe I could braise some brass over it?

The second thing is about the lettering printed on the barrel. I don't care for the paragraph they have on it and it seems pretty deep. Again my first thought was to file it so it's not as prominent but I thought I'd ask for some more experienced opinions before I did.

Barrel

Tang1

Tang2

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Zonie]

If it were mine, I wouldn't worry about the little gap between the barrel and the breech plug.

There isn't much you can do to fix it.

Any type of brass, bronze or solder will stick out like a sore thumb and bring the viewers attention to it.

Brass, bronze, tin or lead solder cannot be colored to match the surfaces of the barrel.

The marking I see looks like it was photo or laser etched.
If it was, it is actually very shallow and it could be removed by draw filing.

If your not familure with filing or draw filing, perhaps you would like to follow this link.
If you do, scroll to the top and start reading there. There is a lot of good information in it for anyone new to files and filing.
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/...66/post/9562/hl/Filing+101/fromsearch/1/#9562

 

[PM]

Thanks for the link. I'm familiar with the idea of draw filing but haven't done it myself yet. Your right about them being laser cut so I guess now is the time to try my hand at it.

I wouldn't mind leaving the caliber on the barrel but from what I've read here that might not be all that common for the time. I'm guessing this is supposed to be modeled after something from earlier 1800s. I've done most of my reading on 18th century so far so I'm not really up to speed on this period. Assuming it supposed to be from when I think it is were barrel marks used or was it more like the bullet mould came with the gun?

This is the kit. Funny they didn't mark up the one on the site like this.
https://www.traditionsfirearms.com/product/Kentucky-Pistol-Kit-.50-cal-Percussion

 

[Zonie]

Barrel marks showing the caliber were not common.

If they did show something that represented the caliber it most likely would have used the "balls per pound" method.

In the case of a .50 caliber that would be close to a 37 which represents a ball .501 in diameter.
(For the patched ball your gun will shoot, use a .490 diameter ball. That gives room for the cloth patch the ball needs to grip the rifling and seal off the powder gasses.)

My advice to you if your plan on removing all of that marking is to transfer the serial number to the underside of the barrel.

These guns don't need the serial number in most places to be "legal" but it will help you retrieve the gun if it is ever stolen.

 

[PM]

Marking the bottom of the barrel is a great idea. That's what I'm going to do. Thanks for the advice and I apologize for the newbie questions.

This wouldn't have been my first choice for my next project but now that I have it I figured I'd use it to learn new things. The vinegaroon thread was interesting so I'm going to try that. I'm also going to get a set of scrapers and practice on this before I try to follow along on the Pedersoli thread.

The rest of the barrel looks like someone used it for a hockey puck so I need to shorten it by about 1/16 to get a nick out of the muzzle and clean up the crown. I'll follow the lead of some of the others here and get some better pictures before starting and then during the build. Maybe it will end up being interesting. At the very least I'll record my mistakes.