Silver Mounted Naval Academy Pistols – Finished !!! After 54 years !!! by David Crisalli: Part 5

 Starting in on the silver work in earnest.  There are three major parts, and a few minor ones, that will need to be made in wax and then cast in sterling silver.  The major parts are the trigger guard, the butt cap, and the ram rod pipes.  The minor ones include a thumb piece, the butt cap retainer, and some “onlay" decorative pieces that will be soldered in place.  I decided to start with the ram rod pipes.  Once I have these I can install them and finish shaping the front part of the stocks.  I toyed with the idea of making them all out of sheet silver, but making two sets match exactly was going to be a challenge.  So I decided to make up a model in brass, vulcanize a rubber mold, pump patterns in wax, and then cast them.  Here is the forward pipe being machined…..

Once machined, I silver soldered on the mounting tab.

The tricky part when making a tubular object in a rubber mold is getting the internal diameter to come out properly.  If the rubber is allowed to fill the inside diameter, it will be difficult to get it lined up when the mold is closed to fill with wax.  So rather than fighting that, I machined a mandrel that fit the ID of the pipe.  The mandrel would be placed in the mold and wax pumped around it.  That would solve the problem of keeping the ID lined up and concentric but I knew that removing the mandrel from the wax would be issue #2.  While ponding what to do next, I went to Jack-in-the-Box for lunch.  I came back to the shop with a Dr. Pepper in hand and while cogitating on the problem of mandrel removal, I hit upon the straw I was drinking through.  The straw OD happened to fit perfectly inside the brass ram rod pipe model ( ) so I thought I could place a piece of the straw in the rubber mold, pump the wax around it, and then let the plastic straw part burn out with the wax prior to casting.

So here is the rubber mold being made….uncured rubber sheets are placed in an aluminum form….

The brass pattern, with the mandrel installed, is placed between layers of rubber and then placed in a vulcanizing press at about 275 F for about 45 minutes…..

Once the rubber is cured and cooled, I cut the mold apart with a surgical scalpel to remove the brass pattern and mandrel.  A pathway is then burned into the rubber to allow the wax to be pumped in.  A piece of the straw in installed in the mold and the wax is pumped in…..

Here is the result.  The straw preforms will be trimmed prior to investment for casting.  I will make 4 of these, two of which will have the tail piece silver brazed on for the rear pipes.  I will need to carve a model tail piece in wax, cast it as pattern, and then make a rubber mold of that by the same process.

Copy and photography by David Crisalli.

Folding Pocket Knife by Lonnie McMillian

Photography by Jan Riser.

Ceramic Bowl by Lisa Crews

 

Photography by Jan Riser.

Silver Mounted Naval Academy Pistols – Finished !!! After 54 years !!! by David Crisalli: Part 4

 The sterling silver parts for these pistols have some issues to contend with.  First of all, I have waited until silver is ~ $100 a Troy ounce as opposed to the $1.50 an ounce it was in 1972 when I started this…. 

Actually, there are not that many parts that need to be made of silver.  The side plates were easy to cut out of sheet silver.  The ram rod pipes can be made out of sheet or made of wax and then cast.  As shown previously, the butt cap I have a fairly good mold of and can cast those as well.  (Side note, the spurs on the cap that I made a mold of are too short and too curved, so some extensive modification will be required when I get to that point.)  Thumb pieces are fairly straight forward to make up in wax and centrifugally cast.  But, the trigger guard is a much more complicated issue.

I have one that I had originally intended to just make a mold of and then cast the resulting wax pattern.  However, during closer inspection, and if I extend the tail of the guard as far as it needs to go, I can’t cast it in one piece (the casting ring is too small to contain the entire guard)….so I would have to make it in two pieces and assemble.  Also not much of a problem.  But, in setting up to make the silicone mold of the guard I have, I realized that it is a tad too small and will get smaller again due to mold shrinkage and casting shrinkage effects.  I had a nearly identical brass version of the same guard and initially thought I could cut it into two pieces and modify each to account for the shrinkage.  So I cut it in the place where I could easily assemble the real guards and then determined that I could not easily modify the parts enough for size.

So I put it all aside for a few days to let my subconscious work on the issue while I did other things.  (My subconscious mind is usually much more productive that what’s left of my conscience mind  )  What I came up with is to make the guard in three parts…the bow, the tail and the forward finial.  The tail will be easy.  The bow looked to be a bit of a pain.  The forward finial I wanted to change to a nautical motif anyway.  And when all the parts are done, I may be able to assemble the wax patterns and cast the bow and the forward finial in one piece anyway and only have the tail to assemble onto the guard.

So I started with the bow.  I cut a piece of 1/8” thick brass the correct length and width and then annealed it.  With a lot of judicious pounding, swearing, filing, polishing (more swearing) I came up with a slightly larger bow that will accommodate both the slightly larger finished size I need as well as the molding and casting shrinkage.

Here is where I started….

Here is the brass cut to start making the larger bow…..

The new bow…...

Had some time to work on barrel engraving……here is the start……In keeping with an overall nautical motif...

Still not finished but making progress on the barrel engraving and gold touch marks….

I think I am done with the engraving of the barrels….I think…?…..I may do something around the muzzles yet.  But here is the progress so far.  Now to start all of the silver work….

Copy and photography by David Crisalli.

Pouch by Steven Lalioff

 

Photography by Jan Riser.

Silver Mounted Naval Academy Pistols – Finished !!! After 54 years !!! by David Crisalli: Part 3

 Had time to start making some of the silver parts for these pistols.  I cut the side plates out of 0.080” sterling silver sheet…glad I bought the silver a while back considering what has happened to the price of silver lately.

Finished the sterling silver side plates.  I don’t have them inlet yet…. That’s next. The Latin saying, “Non Sibi Sed Patriae” is emblazoned above the huge bronze doors on the US Naval Academy chapel.  It means “Not for self but for Country”...

Finished engraving the locks.  Just need to re-harden the frizzens…

Then got the locks mounted and the triggers adjusted…..starting to look like real pistols…

There are several types of rosewood (East Indian, Madagascar, Honduran, etc.) but I believe the stuff I have to be the true Brazilian rosewood (Dalbergia Nigra).  It is VERY hard, very dense, very dark brown / purple, has a characteristic and definite smell, and I have examined the pore structure in a piece of end grain under a microscope (very sparse which is a fairly clear distinction from other “rosewoods” that have a much more porous structure).  I have not done a solvent extraction test of shavings with a subsequent examination under a black light, but at this stage of the game, whatever the wood is, I’m going to finish both the English rifle and the pistols.  I just finished inletting the side plates and had to hone the inletting tools every few cuts.  When Freddie Harrison was still inletting barrels, I had him do the barrel inlet and the ram rod hole on the half stock rifle I am stocking out of the same wood plank.  He told me he had never had such a hard time cutting a barrel channel or drilling a ram rod hole.  Tough stuff.  Ill post another couple of close up pictures of the wood in a bit….

Pictures of the Rosewood…..

Finished the inletting of the side plates…..

While trying the decide how I will engrave or decorate the barrels, they needed to be polished.  Always a fairly tedious process, I got started by draw filing the flats at the breech end and then used various grit sanding sticks to get both barrels to about a 320 grit finish.  More to come, but I’m still undecided how the barrels will be decorated and finally finished.

Copy and photography bt David Crisalli.