Gunsmithing Requires Innovation

Many of the questions I hear from hobbyists and amateur gunsmiths start with, "How do I…?" My usual response is, "I’ll have to look at it." This is especially true of repairs and restoration of old guns from factories that have been closed for several decades. In these cases the gunsmith has to be able to see the problem, visualize the solution, and execute the work in a professional and timely manner.

One of the main attributes of the professional gunsmith is the ability to make or modify parts to fit old guns when parts are unavailable. We all need the knowledge that can be gained from books, videos, and practical experience. Good sources of information are indeed our most important tool. However, sooner or later, in pursuing this obsession we call gunsmithing, you are going to encounter problems that are not addressed in any literature.

A perfect example of this arrived in my shop recently in the form of an old Damascus-barreled Belgian shotgun made by F. Dumoulin. The gun was in fair condition and had many of the normal problems associated with double barreled shotguns that area hundred or so years old. The stock was cracked and loose on the receiver, there was a chunk of wood missing from the toe of the stock, and the barrels were loose when locked in position.

As I say, common problems with solutions I have addressed in these pages before and you can find easily enough. Unfortunately, the forend was also missing. A quick search online revealed that F. Dumoulin went out of business around 1930 and a parts search didn’t even turn up a listing for The most pressing was a missing forend. the manufacturer. Faced with the challenges of replacing the forend wood and latch and the total unavailability of parts, where do you go?

The smart gunsmith might say "the trash." Considering this is the remains of what was an inexpensive gun a hundred years ago, he might be right. However, if you make your living repairing guns for other people, that might not be the preferred solution for your customer. In this case, the attachment point was still on the barrel and hinted at a solution. Most of the Belgian firearms manufacturers made guns for anyone with the money to pay for them and would stamp any name on the gun that the customer wanted.

They were commonly called hardware store guns. If you owned Frank’s Hardware

Following the rule to always work on the least expensive part, the forend iron was filed to fit. Once again, judicious filing mated the two parts. and wanted "Frank’s Long Range Goose Getter" or "Frank’s Firearms Manufacturing Company" stamped on the gun, with a minimum order and cash, you got it. Because of this, a lot of the parts for these old guns are similar but not necessarily interchangeable.

For this project, I found an old forend at a gunshow complete with wood and iron and proceeded to fit it to the shotgun. Disassembly of the forend was simply a process of removing the forend iron from the wood by unscrewing the fasteners that held them together, however, fitting proved more of a challenge. It appears the latch on the forend wood was the complete reverse of the iron on the barrel. The first step was fitting the forend iron to the barrel lump and the receiver.

The barrel lump and the extractor activator on the gun were larger than the forend iron mating parts and were fitted by carefully filing the forend iron to fit the shotgun. I always try to work on the least expensive part. In this case, the forend iron could be replaced if I messed it up so I did my filing on it. I coated the barrel iron with Dykem, laid the replacement latch along side it, and roughly traced what needed to be cut and shaped.

A hacksaw was used to cut it as close to the final form as possible and the fitting was done with a file. It takes patience, a lot of cut-and-try and cut-and-try-again, and a feel for the work. Slowly it came together. The fit is tight and completes the gun into a working tool once again. This would be a good time to mention file care. For safety’s sake please put a handle on every one of your files. In the heat of along bout at the bench it is far too easy to run the tang of the file into your hand.

The handle also gives you better control of the file and that is important when working in tight places. Far too many people seem to think files are indestructible. They are not. Depending on how you use and care for them, a good file can last a lifetime or be irretrievably ruined the first time you use it. The first rule of file care is to protect the file from coming into contact with another file.

If you’re one of those folks that just throws all your files in a drawer where they clatter against each other, I can promise you will be cursing at them and replacing them on a regular basis. If possible, hang your files on a rack so they do not touch each other. If that is not possible, make and use simple cardboard sleeves for each file before you throw it in that drawer. The second rule of file

care is to cut only on the forward stroke. Most of us learn to use a file by simply having one handed to us and then told to file apiece until it fits, proceeding to use it like a saw. The file removes metal with microscopic burrs that are located on the edge of the teeth. When you push the file forward those burrs scratch the surface of the metal and remove small pieces of it. When you draw the file back while maintaining downward pressure you bend those burrs into the valley between the teeth.

On the next forward stroke they take off less material until you remove the burrs completely or they break off from being bent back and forth. Soon you have a file that does not cut. The third rule is to use file chalk. When someone first told me to use chalk on the teeth of my file I thought they were joking. I had never heard of such a thing.

It was explained to me that by using chalk (yes, the same stuff the teacher used on the blackboard when you were in school) it would prevent, or at least reduce, pinning—the build up of file shavings in between the file’s teeth that causes it to stop cutting and causes scratches on the surface of the work. I couldn’t figure out how something as soft as chalk was going to stop sharp little metal chips from getting into the teeth and thought I was the subject of a prank. Kind of like being taken on a snipe hunt.

I tried it and they weren’t kidding! It actually works. Plus it means you spend less time with a file card cleaning out the chips, the file seems to cut just as aggressively, and it gives the work a smoother finish. You can steal some chalk from your kid, buy it at the local store, or go to that inexhaustible font of gunsmithing knowledge and supplies, Brownells, and buy sticks that are one inch in diameter and four inches long (#080-705-006AK).

Rule number four, clean the chips out of the teeth whenever needed with a file card made for the job. Take care of your files and perhaps you can be like a friend of mine that has used his files for 25 years without having to replace them. I mentioned earlier that I was working on a Damascus-barreled shotgun that should be hung over American Gunsmithing Association

the fireplace and not shot. Fortunately, that is what this customer plans to do with his Grandpa’s ol’ gun but, when finished, I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot it with light black powder loads. The reality of business and litigation requires me to warn the customer not to shoot the gun. Knowing that at some time in the future the gun may be passed on to someone else, I made up a "not safe to fire" notice and had the customer sign it. I kept a copy for myself and send the original with the customer.

Ideally the notice should stay with the gun and I normally tell the customer to roll it up and put it in the barrel. That won’t stop some fool from loading the gun without looking but anyone who thinks there is a foolproof way to do anything has not dealt with enough fools to gain a healthy respect for their ability to break things. This keeps them from touching each other and being damaged.

Of course, this is only one example of thinking outside the box, as my ex-boss loved to say when faced with a gunsmithing problem. If you work on guns for any length of time you are going to be called on many times to come up with solutions that just aren’t in the books. You will need to analyze the problem, determine if it can be fixed without comprising the safety of the gun, what needs to be done, and how and what you need to accomplish it.

If you have other gunsmithing friends or just friends that are mechanically inclined, let them look at it and suggest solutions. Many times two heads are better than one and they just might see a solution that eludes you. AG