Blacksmith work!!

B

Butch Lambert

Active member
I have been accused by a couple of members of the forum of being a blacksmith. These are photos of my CM Pierce recievered 6.5X47Lapua hunting rifle. The barrel started as a 1.350 Lilja CM barrel that I chambered and sent to GUNMAKER"James Anderson". James cut the octagon. I had a lot of fun doing the octagon iron sights. The front sight is tapered octagon, both inside and outside with .028 wall thickness. It took 2 tries. It has a Kiff 3 pos Safety and a Shilen trigger. I made the scope mounts to fit Talley rings. They have only one exposed screw that will be covered by the rings. The bolt handle was a product of piecing 2 bolt handles together to get the look that I wanted. Dan Armstrong did the welding and he is a real craftsman.
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The next pics are of the stock that James Anderson is doing for me. The wood is Australian{English} walnut from Roger Vardy. It is not an expensive piece of wood, but I think that it will look very nice when completed. James is a pleasure to work with and is excellent doing either metal or wood work. He is a member of the ACGG.
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The wood has only one coat of finish here. It will have a skelton grip cap and a semi crescent butt plate.
Maybe one of these days I can acquire the skill of some of the others.
Butch
 
Butch,

You should post photos of your anvil, forge and post vise. They must be very high quality for you to do work like that.

Jay
 
Joe,
I tried to steal an 8 ball from the pool hall and got caught. I'll guarantee if one of my Grand Daughters want one they can open the safe and pick it out.
Butch
 
The Village Blacksmith by Henery Wadsworth Longfellow

Butch does remind us of a special poem.
He more and sometimes less resembles these famous verses:
Under the spreading chestnut tree the village smithy stands (or squats as does Butch)
The Smith a mighty man is he with large and sinewy hands.
And the muscles of his brawny arms are strong as iron (rubber?) bands.
His hair is crisp and black and long (sparse, gray and disheveled).
His brow is wet with honest sweat (or at least wet with sweat).
He earns whate'er he can (not a whole lot after taxes).
And looks the whole world in the face (in a myopic manner).
For he owes not any man (tell that to the IRS on April 15).
Week in week out, from morn till night (less his 2:00-4:00 nap)
You can hear his bellows blow (or catch a whiff of it if the wind is right).
You can hear him swing his heavy sledge
With measured beat and slow (very slow).
Like a sexton ringing the village bell (especially if it is for dinner)
When the evening sun is low.
A blacksmith he may be but there is a little of Butch in all of us. At least I hope so. Tim
 
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Darn good blacksmith work!!!!!
You might try pointing up those diamonds on that checkered bolt knob though! Just one of my pet peeves! :p
 
The bolt engraving was done by Jerome Glimm, a well known engravers guild member. The photo does not give his job credit. Actually if I could afford it I would have the stock checkered with flat topped checkering. Very few people are skilled enough to do it.
Butch
 
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Butch,
Couldn't you just checker the stock normally and then take horse shoe rasp and file it flat? Looks like that'd be the way to go.
Nice rifle, and I like the wood too.
 
Butch Lambert said:
The bolt engraving was done by Jerome Glimm, a well known engravers guild member. The photo does not give his job credit. Actually if I could afford it I would have the stock checkered with flat topped checkering. Very few people are skilled enough to do it.
Butch
Click to expand...

Butch,

I love the flat top type checkering. It is typical on the classic British sporting rifles that I have collected over the years, and I prefer the way it feels in hand. Here are a couple of Jeffery rifles from different eras with that style of checkering. The top is a 333 Jeffery from the first year of production of that caliber (pre 1910), and the lower one is a 375 H&H from the early 1950's. These were both "working guns" that I was lucky enough to find and import from Zimbabwe when I hunted there.

There are still some people left in the US who do a good job of checkering in the flat top style. The lower two photos shows a CZ in 416 Rigby that started life as the standard European hog back stock. I asked Roger Ferrell to make it look as close to a vintage British rifle as he could (sort of a cross between an early Jeffery butt with a short Rigby style fore end). This is the result of his carving all the excess wood away, checkering in a flat top style, and doing "a bit" of metal work, plus a rust blue. I thought it turned out pretty well for a "factory rifle" :D.

Jim

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Beautiful rifles Jim. You have good taste. I have a 458 Lott on a CZ550 that David Christman built. You need to smooth up the rough edges on them, but they make a fine rifle. Duane Weibe does some real nice flat top checkering. I may check with Kathy Forster on the checkering. I have a few more going at this time. I have a Banner Mauser in 9.3X62 that is being stocked at this time and hopefully will be done by the end of Feb. I have a Hyper Single falling block being restocked and a little other work that was supposed to have been done when school was out last year. I have a 450 ackley magnum that needs redone. It is on a 1917 enfield. I happened on a new 1917 Remington Enfield receiver with a very high serial number that will eventually be a 416 Rigby. The next in line is a small ring, small thread mauser receiver that Karl Feldkamp gave the G33/40 look to. It will be a 250-3000. The last receiver that may or may not be next is a stainless steel Satterlee double square bridge mauser clone. It is a real nice piece of work. It was built expressly for a 300 WinMag.
Hopefully I'll live long enough to build a few more. Kent, I do have a good wood rasp.
Butch
 
A "four in hand" farriers rasp makes a really good checkering tool. First, you have to cut away material on both ends to leave a 60 degree pointed tool. Then, you just place it where you want the checkering and smack it with a hammer. Must finish in one hit because multiple hits can be hard to locate the tool properly.

Kent Owens said:
Butch,
Couldn't you just checker the stock normally and then take horse shoe rasp and file it flat? Looks like that'd be the way to go.
Nice rifle, and I like the wood too.
Click to expand...
 
Man! Kent and Jay, where have you guys been all the time. You could have saved me a lot of work and time. Thanks Bob. I am a BR guy, but love to do metal work on the custom hunting rifles. Shown below are 2 parts not shown above. The octagon front banded sight was a real pain for me to make. It is tapered inside and out and has a .028 wall thickness.
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The next 2 photos are of the bottom metal. I was blessed to have Jay Lynn Gore do the hand work. He is a real artist.
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Butch
 
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REALLY nice work Butch ! I am envious of your metal working skill ;). That rifle is going to be a work of art when you are finished.

Jim
 
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