Shellac and its Uses.—Gum shellac is the gunsmith’s friend. It is the best material from which to make the varnish he uses, and in wood-working, if there be cracks or checks in the material, or in stocking should a little slip of the tool occur while letting in locks or other parts, a little of the gum judiciously applied remedies the defect, and, like charity, “covers a multitude of little sins.”
Shellac is often adulterated with resins, and it requires some knowledge of the article to detect this adulteration. It can only be ascertained by experience in handling, or by ocular demonstration with an expert.
To make Shellac Varnish.—To make varnish, put the shellac in a clean vessel and put over it a quantity of good alcohol, enough to about cover it, if it lie somewhat compact in the receptacle; if too thick when made it can be thinned with alcohol. While the gum is dissolving keep it covered from dust and let it stand in a warm place, as in the sun during the summer, or near a warm stove in the winter. Too much warmth will tend to evaporate the alcohol; and for this reason it ought to be somewhat sealed from the air. It may take two or three days to thoroughly dissolve the gum for varnish, according to the temperature in which it is placed, etc.
When the gum is dissolved, thin with alcohol to the proper consistency for easy application with the brush. If it be dirty, or it be desired to have it clear and nice, filter it through good blotting paper. When not using the varnish, keep close covered to prevent evaporation.
How to conceal Bad Places in Wood-work.—If there be cracks in a stock or a bad cut made in stocking, as will sometimes happen where locks and straps are let in, apply a piece of the gum to the place and with a warm iron melt it into the place, so that it will be well filled; also warm the wood in close proximity to be sure of good adhesion. Let it remain until cold and solid, and then finish down the same as the stock is finished down.
Another Method.—Another method of filling bad places in wood-work is to get fine dust, as made with a fine rasp or file, and mix this dust with thin glue, and rub it into the interstices, letting it remain until hard and solid, and then finish same as the adjoining wood. Neither this nor shellac will adhere where there is oil, or where the surface to adhere has been oiled.
Emery Cloth and Emery Paper.—Emery paper is the cheaper, but is not so durable as the cloth. The paper is soon worn out and is torn in using, but the cloth is seldom destroyed, and can be used so long as any abrasive material remains upon it.
There are about six grades, say Nos. 00, 0, 1, 1½, 2 and 3, which may be selected. To use on plain surfaces cut the sheet up in small, convenient pieces, fold a piece around a file and use as if using the file. In using a finer number, be careful to remove all the marks left by using the previous number. If moistened with oil, a fine, soft-appearing, dead finish is obtained. To use in a lathe, run the work with fast speed and hold the cloth to place with the hand, or put it around a file and so hold it. After the pieces are somewhat worn, they can be used to finish with.
In selecting by the numbers remember that 00 is the finest, and is called flour of emery cloth, or paper; 0 is a little coarser, and then follow the different grades in numerical order.
Uses of the Alcoholic Lamp. How to make Small Springs.—An alcohol lamp is almost indispensable to the jobbing gunsmith. Suppose a small bent spring is to be made, a little trigger spring, for instance, such as is used in many kinds of revolvers, it can be easily formed in this manner: Take a bit of old watch-spring, heat it in the lamp until it is blue, then, with the snips or hand-shears, divide it lengthwise to the necessary width; heat in the flame of the lamp, and, with a pair of pliers, bend to the required shape. It is not always necessary to temper these springs, but if it be necessary to do so, heat until red in lamp, using a blow-pipe if the heat be insufficient, harden in oil, and then draw the temper to suit. The whole operation can be done without moving from the bench, and much quicker, and certainly better, than could be done at the forge.
How to make Small Drills.—Then, again, to make small drills of steel wire, use the lamp for heating and tempering. If a small drill be broken, draw the temper in the lamp preparatory to forming it anew. Drills of larger size may be hardened in the forge fire, brightened by grinding or rubbing on a piece of fine emery cloth, and the temper readily drawn in the lamp. The same process may be applied to tempering small screw taps. Small screws can be readily blued in the same manner.
Advantages of the Alcohol Lamp.—The lamp has this advantage over the forge-fire; it draws the temper very evenly, and the temper color can be readily seen, as the flame of alcohol makes no smoke to obscure it. Even for small tempering, when once employed, no gunsmith will think of discontinuing its use.
The Soldering Copper.—The soldering copper for the use of the gunsmith should be about one and a half pounds in weight. The length of the copper should be about four or five inches, of octagon form, with a square pyramidal shaped point. It is fixed to an iron rod about eight inches long, on the end of which is a wooden handle.
How to Heat the Copper.—When heating the copper for use, the best way to ascertain the proper heat is to hold it near the face, and if a bright warm glow is felt, it is hot enough for use. If heated too hot the tinning will be burned off, and it will not work satisfactorily. To replace the tinning, heat it warm enough to just melt the solder, and file the surface to be tinned bright and smooth, then place a little solder and a bit of resin on a piece of sheet-tin, and in this rub the heated copper until the brightened surface has received a coating of the solder, the resin acting as a flux during the operation.
How to Tin the Copper.—Another method to tin a copper is to put the solder and the resin on a brick, heat the copper and rub until it receives the tin coating. The common soldering acid may be used instead of the resin for a flux. During the operation the point of the copper may be dipped in the acid to facilitate the tinning. It will be found that a too free use of the acid, if used as a flux, for general work, will soon destroy the point of the copper. When this is the case file off the roughness and heat the copper quite warm, and draw it out to shape on the anvil, the same as if working a piece of iron. When so shaped, file smooth and re-tin as directed.
To Prevent Gun Barrels from Glimmering.—It sometimes happens that gun-barrels are disposed to throw off a kind of glimmer without any apparent cause, thus seriously interfering with the hunter or sportsman in getting a correct sight. Of course, the gunsmith would remedy the evil by browning the barrel, but the sportsman in the woods could not do this. Had his friend, the gunsmith, known that such a thing was going to happen he would have told him to get a green hazel-nut pod, crush it, and rub the juice over the barrel, which would produce a beautiful non-glimmering brown. If a green hazel-nut pod could not be had, a green wild plum or a green wild crab-apple or a bunch of green wild grapes would answer the same purpose reasonably well. In the absence of these an unripe black-walnut crushed and rubbed over the barrel would stop the glimmering; and early in spring, when no kind of fruits had yet appeared, a young sprout of wild grape-vine crushed and rubbed over the barrel would make a very good substitute. These were the means resorted to by the “hunters of Kentucky” in the long-gone days of backwoods life, when “Old Kentuck” was young.
Repairing Shot-Chargers.—Very often the stud that holds the lever of a shot-charger will become loose or be forced from its position. The best method to repair it is to remove the lever with its spring and the cutters, put the stud back in place, wet the joint on the inside the charger with soldering acid, and, holding it with the stud downwards, put a bit of soft solder upon the joint, and hold it over an alcohol lamp until the solder melts. If well done it will “stay put.”
Sometimes the lever spring will not remain in place, but will slip out. To remedy the evil, take a common Berdan cartridge primer, or any other kind will do, only take one that has been used or has had the priming removed, put inside it a drop of soldering acid and a bit of solder, enough to fill it when melted. Hold it over the lamp until the solder fuses. When it has cooled, wet the charger with a touch of the acid just where the bend of the spring comes, and there place the primer with the solder next the wet place. Hold it in position with a bent piece of wire or a strip of steel bent like a loop. Hold over the lamp, with the primer downward, until the solder is melted. Replace the spring, and it will be found that it will remain firmly in its place.
Broken Plunger Nipples.—When plunger nipples are broken or are lost from the gun, and none are at hand to repair the damage, a substitute may be found in a common gun-nipple by filing away a portion of the cone where the cap is placed. It is worth while to save broken nipples, as they are taken from guns with this end in view for their use. They can be annealed or the temper drawn, and they can be kept ready for drilling for the strikers and cutting over to fit the gun in which they are to be inserted. The nipple used in military arms makes a good substitute for a broken plunger nipple, as the thread is nearly the same as that of some plunger nipples.
How to Remove Rusted Screws, Broken Nipples, etc.—Sometimes it so happens that a screw is so rusted in a lock or other part of a gun, or a rusted nipple refuses to start from its seat, and by repeated trials the sides of the screw-head adjoining the slot are worn away or the squares of the nipple are forced off, and the removal of either screw or nipple an almost impossibility with the hand screw-driver or nipple wrench. In such cases have a screw-driver or the nipple wrench fitted to the lathe chuck, and, holding the screw or nipple in place to be thus turned out, move the dead spindle of the lathe so that the work be firmly held in place, with no chance to “give back,” then turn the lathe by moving the fly-wheel with the hand, or hold the wheel fast and turn the work, and, as there is no chance for the tool to slip from its place, the screw and nipple is almost sure to be started. If so, it may be readily turned from its place by hand.
Converting Muskets to Sporting Guns.—Very often old muskets are brought to the gunsmith to have the rifling bored out and changed so as to present more of the appearance of a sporting gun. If properly worked over they make a gun not very bad-looking, but very serviceable, as they will stand a great amount of abuse and will bear large charges. For shooting hawks and keeping corn-fields clear of depredators they are “just the thing.”
After the rifling is removed, cut off the barrel to 30 or 32 inches in length. Take off the bands and throw them away. Cut off the stock where the top of the lower band comes, solder a rib on under side of the barrel and attach two thimbles to receive a wooden ramrod. Bore out the stock to receive the wooden rod, using the thimbles on the rib as guides in so doing. Fit the rod as in sporting guns. Cast a tip on fore end of stock where the lower band was, using the lower shoulder where the band rested for the shoulder of the tip. Remove the elevating sight by heating, if it be soldered on, and fix muzzle sight by soldering on a bit of brass, or by drilling a hole and putting in a pin and filing to shape.
In boring for the rod the bit may strike the forward lock-screw, and when this be the case float the stock so that the rod will go above the screw. Don’t attempt to change the shape of the stock by removing any portion of it, otherwise than stated, for by so doing the shape and symmetry will be lost, and it will show to be a botch job.
To hold the barrel in place a loop for either wire or bolt must be attached to the barrel a little distance back from the fore end, and a wire or bolt put through the stock the same as other guns are made. In place of the wire or bolt a very good plan is to put a short stud on the barrel, and from the under side of the fore end put in a screw with a large head, like a tumbler-screw. In this case it is necessary to drill a hole through the stud to let the ramrod pass through.
Patent Breech, Bursted.—As the right-hand barrel of double muzzle-loading guns is fired more than the other, it sometimes happens that the patent breech of this barrel is destroyed or becomes defective. It can be replaced by taking a piece of good sound iron, cut down one end of it, and cut a thread the same as if making a breech-pin. After being fitted to the barrel cup it for powder-chamber like the one removed, and cut the hook end off to length. Make the nipple seat as given in the article on that subject. File the hook so as to fit the break-off, remove from the gun, and case-harden. A somewhat formidable-looking job to the one who never made one, but very easy and simple when once accomplished.
Broken Tumblers.—It often happens that the tumbler in a lock is broken off where the hammer goes on, and no tumbler is at hand to replace it. A repair may be made by filing away the broken square and filing a groove or slot down the round part where it went through the lock plate. Fit a piece of square iron or steel, of the size of the broken square, or a round piece that will make the square, to the tumbler by filing away one end to fit the slot filed in the round part. Hold it in place with a piece of binding wire twisted around it, and braze it with spelter solder or good soft copper or brass, then finish to fit the hammer.
Another way is to remove the end where it goes into the bridle and then drill a hole through the tumbler of the size of this end or bearing; make the piece to be brazed on with one end to fit this hole and put it through far enough to make the end filed away. When fitted, braze and finish.
When the trigger catch of a tumbler is broken or is worn away, it can be entirely removed by filing and a piece of steel fitted or held by a small rivet and then brazed. After being finished up and fitted to the trigger, the tumbler can be hardened, care being taken not to heat it sufficiently to melt the brazing material.
Describing Lines on Bright Surfaces.—Many gunsmiths find it difficult to make the pattern of work upon iron or steel, especially after the surface is finished. Yet it is necessary to have the outline of the intended form. For instance, if the pattern of a hammer for a revolver or a gun hammer, the sides of which are both flat (in fact the hammers of many breech-loading rifles are made in this manner), be required to be made on a piece of iron or steel that has been faced down, the method is to drill a hole for the screw or pin on which it turns, then fasten the pattern to the work by driving a piece of wire into the hole, and, with a sharp scriber, mark around the pattern, which is then removed and the work filed away to the line. If the hammer be a broken one, then care must be taken to have the pieces held carefully as they were before being broken. If the pieces be somewhat small and difficult to hold properly, warm them over a spirit lamp and smear the sides to be put against the blank, lightly with beeswax, and this will tend to hold them better in place and prevent their slipping.
To obtain a more permanent line and one that will show very distinctly in all its tracings, coat the surface on which the line is to be made with a film of copper. To do this take a lump of sulphate of copper, sometimes called blue vitriol or blue stone, wet it with water and rub over the bright surface of the work. The moisture will dry in a few minutes, leaving a surface or film of pure copper. Put the pattern in place and describe the outline. Upon removing the pattern the line will be found to be clear and showing very distinctly through the coppery surface. Three or four light rubs with the sulphate are sufficient to produce this surface, which is so very thin that it may be easily removed when the work is done with a fine file, or by rubbing with a bit of emery paper or emery cloth.