If you knows of a better hole...

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Being learned in the classics, I can't resist the temptation to post the work of the immortal Bairnsfather. It is a pretty general principle of any kind of technology that has a hole in it, that it is a good idea to make the inside first, and then the outside around it.

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I have a .297/.230 Cadet Martini by Auguste Francotte of Liége, which is fine as to internal parts (and just as good quality as the Greener and BSA copies), but it is extremely rough on the outside, and someone has ground the sides thinner than I really like with a cartridge of greater power. Today I took delivery of a piece of D2 air hardening tool steel, which I sent to have a suitable mortice mad by wire spark erosion. The cut is extremely accurate and less than a hundredth of an inch wide and the corners similarly sharp, with satin textured surfaces which wouldn't disgrace the outside of a firearm.

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It is a long-term project, for in the UK we have the interesting legal quirk that while a shotgun doesn't exist until the final pressure-bearing part exists, a rifle exists when the first such part is functional. Imagine the hammering armed crime is taking from that! In this case though, "exists" means parting in its ways from a remarkably sensible list of firearms, built up to 1939, which are uncontrolled antiques until you want to start shooting.

It should make the perfect non-lightweight small Martini action. The sides are 7mm. thick (unless I thin them with beading at front and rear like a lever-action Winchester.) It should be possible to incorporate a scope base into the slightly lengthened receiver ring, and/or make it better adapted to a compact tang sight. I planned to use the Francotte internals, but am not so sure I won't make the entire action, possibly with a side lever.

It could be done with the full size military Martini too, and I have most of the internal parts for one of those. It would be well worthwhile for anyone building (Bow your heads in awe!) a 21st century Farquharson.

[C. Latch]

I'm not 100% sure what you mean to do here, but I'm tagging to find out.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

To make a new and stronger Martini receiver to fit the Cadet action, although it is a project added to a long backlog.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

So...the action (obvious what that is) is going to go inside the slotted block at the top left which will become a shell around the existing receiver? And what is the other piece, top right for?

[Outpost75]

The only good thing I can say about British gun regulation is that it made it possible for lovely old pieces like this one to make it across the pond, for which I am truly thankful.

It was originally a .255 Rook, with shot out barrel, which had been inexpertly converted to .25-20, which is how I got it so cheap, and then I had John Taylor reline the barrel to .32 S&W Long using a Lothar-Walther liner, and Lucas Geiger did the exterior restoration.

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[Driver man]

This looks like a very worthy project and I will follow your progress with interest. We have here in New Zealand a firearm manufacturer of the quality and style you would enjoy called Soroka Rifle Company. The Soroka firearms are well out of my price range and enjoy a good reputation for quality and good looks and are I think, what you are emulating

[Petrol & Powder]

So the large block of D2 steel with the mortise cut in it will be the new receiver. What are you going to do with the block that has the hole and slot in it? Is that the piece that was cut from the larger block?

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Beautiful rifle, Outpost75!

[kywoodwrkr]

So the large block of D2 steel with the mortise cut in it will be the new receiver. What are you going to do with the block that has the hole and slot in it? Is that the piece that was cut from the larger block?
Would appear to me to be the slug from the large block.
You have a starter hole through which brass wire is threaded.
The wire EDM I am use to would have the large piece suspended via holder and submerged in ionized water for conductivity control.
This process under correct control can produce precision cuts to .0002.
Should point out cuts do not have to be at 90 degrees depending on machine having 4 axis movement.
I hope to be able to make a similar cut for an 1885 receiver and its breech block.
It's just a good thing I 'discovered' this capability after I retired instead of before or during my working days!
Kentucky pays the tuition(Donovan for senior students(65 or older)) to any state college or vocational institution.

[Nobade]

Yes, this one is well worth following. A neat rifle and another on the way!

-Nobade

[Von Gruff]

Will be watchijng this one with great interest. I have to second what driverman said about the Soroka rifle which would be the tp of my want list if the funds were available.

[M-Tecs]

One more on the watch list.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Would appear to me to be the slug from the large block.
You have a starter hole through which brass wire is threaded.
The wire EDM I am use to would have the large piece suspended via holder and submerged in ionized water for conductivity control.
This process under correct control can produce precision cuts to .0002.
Should point out cuts do not have to be at 90 degrees depending on machine having 4 axis movement.
I hope to be able to make a similar cut for an 1885 receiver and its breech block.
It's just a good thing I 'discovered' this capability after I retired instead of before or during my working days!
Kentucky pays the tuition(Donovan for senior students(65 or older)) to any state college or vocational institution.

Yes, the rectangular block is indeed the piece removed from the mortice. I intended it to show the start hole, texture and thinness of the slot, though the texture doesn't show up in the picture. I'll use it by more prosaic processes to make a new latch I need for my Spirlet revolver, for which I have already made the double-action hammer and trigger guard. This picture, with the memory of cruder technology and hands which could have put a concert pianist out of business, was constantly in my mind as I planned to do things the easy way.

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That is very interesting information on the process. I didn't know the wire was brass, or what the electrolyte was. The wire erodes as well as the steel, so it is unrolled on an automatic feed, a bit like slow MIG welding. There is also die-sinking EDM which uses a point electrode, and they can both cut complex shapes automatically from an AutoCAD or similar drawing in two or three dimensions. The latter is one dimension too many for me, and for this simple shape I just supplied a paper drawing and explanation of what I wanted.

It is a very interesting example of the way inventive people make inventions. Two wartime Soviet scientists were tasked with reducing erosion of tungsten electrodes. Eventually they had to report that it couldn't be done, but they could find a way of using better-controlled erosion instead.

British gun regulation is a result rather than a cause, and what I see is that it arises from a lack of interest of non-criminals in killing people, and so does a lack of interest of criminals in killing people. But we argued for and got a long list of obsolete but in some cases easily creatable cartridges, for which firearms up to 1939 would be considered entirely uncontrolled antiques. I've imported a good many from auctions in Australia, where they come under licensing, but I believe I have suppressed any feeling of schadenfreude about the situation there.

It will probably be quite a while before I produce results, as this joins quite a backlog of projects. But it will at least enliven my old age.

[Petrol & Powder]

I've seen videos of the EDM process but I haven't seen it in person. I assumed the block with the hole was the waste piece after the mortise was cut but the different color threw me off a bit.
The "waste" piece of D2 steel will also be rather useful.
The tolerances of that mortise are amazing. Cutting that type of hole by conventional machining could be done but EDM is a much more elegant solution.

Please keep us updated.

[Bent Ramrod]

Interesting project, Ballistics in Scotland. Making a receiver takes courage as well as skill. Everything else depends on it.

I have Capt. Bairnsfather's Fragments From France myself and really enjoy it, especially the tirades on Plum and Apple.

My Dad was in WWII and he said no matter how overstretched the supply lines, for some reason there was always plenty of Orange Marmalade around, and nobody wanted it.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I've seen videos of the EDM process but I haven't seen it in person. I assumed the block with the hole was the waste piece after the mortise was cut but the different color threw me off a bit.
The "waste" piece of D2 steel will also be rather useful.
The tolerances of that mortise are amazing. Cutting that type of hole by conventional machining could be done but EDM is a much more elegant solution.

Please keep us updated.

The sharp corners could be achieved by broaching, which means forcing through, under great pressure, a tool ground with a succession of wider teeth, which each in succession chomp a thin sliver of steel from the inside of the hole. I don't believe it would be any cheaper, and while a specialized Martini-making company might have a special rectangular broach made, others would have to mill away the metal between two square holes.

Part of my white elephant collection is a block of very hard wax (more like a weak plastic) made for carving lost-wax investment casting models. I had a local carpenter make a ¾in. square hole in it with his morticing machine, with some thought of making a miniature Farquharson. One problem is that there is significant shrinkage as the metal cools, and the final size between a shrinking outside and a growing hole is more than I can calculate.

A friend has an original copy of "Fragments from France", inherited from his grandfather, who appears in uniform as a major-general several rows back from Hitler and Chamberlain, in a group photograph of the Munich conference. (He was the military adviser, but he might have given the best military advice in the world, and I don't think anybody would have heard him.) I don't envy him his artillery Luger or pair of matched Adams revolvers from the same legacy, and I like my much cheaper sidelock Gibbs 12ga better than the Purdey with the shortened and re-lengthened butt. But I do envy him that book.

[Bent Ramrod]

BiS,

My copy is the Putnam compendium, 1917. I think there are a couple on Alibris, if you are interested. Wouldn't know where to find the real "originals," which were booklets that came out at intervals during the war.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

The first publication was normally in successive editions of "The Bystander" magazine, but an American edition was published in wartime. You would probably enjoy "The Wipers Times", an amateur newspaper published in the casemates under the 17th century ramparts of Ypres, at a time when any more modern building was an excessively dangerous working environment. They take a responsible but inconsistent attitude to military security, sometimes very coyly mentioning the war rumoured to be raging in Europe, never admitting uncomfortable conditions, but speculating as to a German submarine suspected to be operating along the Menin Road.

www.bookfinder.com (http://www.bookfinder.com) is an extremely useful resource, being a compilation of the major third party bookfinding websites and many independent booksellers.

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

Ballistics,

if you want to see a truly exquisite single shot action, direct your mouse to www.steveearleproducts.com and look at his Wesson #1 Long Range Action. Looks a great deal like the Henry. He is also making a Fraser, as well as the Wesson Midrange. Pleasing to the eye. I have one of the #1's that is being stocked. 450-.400-3 1/4" with a tapered full octagon barrel with integral milled rib.

Rich

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Yes, those are marvelous actions, even if they do subscribe to the current American idea that it isn't a black powder rifle unless it has an external hammer. I look longingly from time to time at an original Austrian Werndl lock I have, the second version which has its hammer inside the lockplate. It would take me a long, long time to make a mirror image version for a double rifle...

Magnificent as those are, there is an unequalled satisfaction in achieving things for yourself.