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Daily Briefing Page

Daily Posts

February 26, 2010

Hello everyone. I thought I'd make a post here, as the result of a conversation I recently had with a buddy. We were discussing my current progress. I began explaining something that may not be obvious to readers who do not build complex things. It might be of interest to you.

In this kind of handmade craft, many of the parts are dependent upon their neighbor parts. Certain proceedures, must wait until previous proceedures have been performed first. For instance: A barrel can't be seperated out (say ... for bluing) ... until the breech has been reamed, the mounting threads have been cut, the crown has been machined, the bore has been stropped. In some cases ... and this is a better example ... in some cases, the loading port is actually part of the back of the barrel. So; that has to be milled in ... but first, the bolt tunnel has to be reamed, and the breech chambered. That might mean the action's bolt housing has to be all made first, in order that it all match properly.

What results is that building the gun, is very much about planning out the order of the build ... and not just making a list of parts. That's the hand fitting - that's where the precise fit comes from. Now; I'll admit ... if all of my machines were enormously expensive CNC units, which ran all new specialized cutting heads and bits ... then more of the parts would be strictly built to the numbers in teh computer ... and require less hand fitting. But ... I'd have a factory then, and you'd be buying a product which had been extensively tooled up for. They'd all be alike. And, they'd have been simplified to make them easier to build in quantity ... and to appeal to a survey of buyers. That's fine ... it makes excellent automobiles and products ... but that's not art ... and it's not hand craftsmanship.

Where I'm going here, is that the build process (of which I've been doing a silly number all in one batch) ... has a very long season - out in the middle of the process - where it seems you can't do this until you do that first. I'm fortunately getting beyond much of this. I have a bunch of guns that need the "top ends" completed ... to go with the main frames. I've been working on this, and have some of the barrels ready to blue now.

It's still pretty intense up to the very end, but it's more fun when parts become "sets" of components handfitted to the individual projects. The fact that I designed so many different models, complicated everything by a power of 10 at least. But - it's made a very unique family of individual products.

Don't forget ... I post daily over on our Barnes forum ... it's called "Airgun Rendezvous". It's interactive - and it's much more "company" for me than just writing here - with no feedback. I've worked alone in my shop, for 36 years now. It's good to drop in and see the conversations on our forum during my coffee breaks.

I realized it had been forever since I posted here. Please join in the discussions, and see the vast materials and pics that have been archived there, for your enjoyment.

Please join us on our interactive forum site .... http://www.airgunrendezvous.com

Respectfully,

Gary

August 30, 2009

If you haven't been following along on the Rendezvous forum pages, here's some of the things I've been working on ...

A new finish I call "dragon skin".

It's a hard shell lacquer special effect ...

Here's the action in the unfinished stock. This is an 87 caliber smooth bore - approx. 750 foot pounds of muzzle energy.

The top features a green dragon skin ... bottom a brown.

The stock during oiling ...

Special effects on the stock's belly plates ...

A close up with flash - to show the true colors of the dots that make up the special effect on the stock.

And a Grizzly Bear deep relief carving I've done on the Grizzly 62 rifle (approx 800 foot pounds).

I've been working hard ... feeling pretty well with rough spots here and there. I'll take it. Could be much worse.

Thanks for checking in. I know I haven't been posting here alot, because the Rendezvous format gives opportunity for interaction. I know it's fun for readers to duck in for a few minutes and click out again ... however; I feel like I'm working in a deep cave without any interaction on the various steps of progress. I can't finish something every day ... so the steps along the way are important.

Thanks for reading.

Gary