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.