Gordon Robertson, WYVRN CSTGS, and (now defunct) Action Castings

[Naphtali]

Reading older Rifle magazines, I stumbled across a display advertisement of Action Castings. I visited the link which automatically linked me to WYVRN CSTGS, apparently owned and operated by Gordon Robertson. What piqued my interest is M1897 Westley Richards Farquharson single-shot action kits in varying stages of completion.

From the web site's blurb it appears castings were created and inventoried by Action Castings, which which went out of business because of poor sales. I anticipate poor sales occurred because castings offered were:

1. Poor quality; OR

2. Good quality material, but too grossly dimensioned as-cast; OR

3. Good quality material, acceptably dimensioned as-cast, but too incomplete for hobbyists; OR

4. Good quality material, acceptably dimensioned as-cast, good value, but poorly marketed.
***
I am very interested in Mr. Robertson's product's potential. Were I to purchase a Farquharson kit from him, what am I getting into? That is, what levels of completion are available -- not by name, but by describing what the buyer actually receives? What is the quality of castings offered? I wouldn't expect aircraft quality castings or castings that have been densified via Hot Isostatic Press. Pinetree Castings has set a reasonable standard for firearms investment casting quality. Are drawings supplied machinist's inspection drawings -- that is, dimensioned drawings that allow any journeyman machinist to finish the casting "to the numbers?"

[quasi]

I have never seen any evidence that these castings were actually sold and shipped to anyone.

[Buckshot]

.............Several years back one of the BPC silhuette guys who is also a hobby machinist bought a Sharps action kit from him. The parts looked very well cast (4140 chro-moly I think). Every few weeks he'd bring in a part he'd been working on. Unhappily he messed up the action broaching the corners for the breechblock.

..............Buckshot

[Bent Ramrod]

Perhaps the answer is 5. Most people sort of had a sense of what effort it would take to make an action out of castings and shied away.

I bought a set of Stevens 44-1/2 castings from Ken Bresien before he sold the operation to Paul Shuttleworth. I bought the more advanced set, with the holes spotted, the internal parts fitted, the barrel hole threaded and the castings X-rayed. It still took a couple weeks of evenings to drill and tap the screw and pin holes and to make the screws and pins. I still have the firing pin to drill for and fit, and the polishing and the heat treating to do.

I also bought a set of Ballard castings from (I think it was) Bison Mfg. Co. The castings only had the sprues ground off. Took most of a semester in the Machine Shop class I was taking at the time (and I came in three or four nights a week, 7 till 10 PM) to get the outside machining, drilling and tapping and the screws and pins done. The castings had a fair amount of metal to remove, but the big issue was all the supplemental holding fixtures and jigs I had to improvise and/or make in order to take the surfaces down evenly. The only way to hold that tapered tang to thread it is to make a tapered holder, which took much more work and time than the actual threading job itself. I used lathes, vertical and horizontal mills, the dividing head and a surface grinder. I also had an expert, fearless career machinist for an instructor and to pull me out of jams. If I'd done it on my lathe and shaper at home, it probably would have taken a half-year of evenings or more, even if I had lucked out and not messed something up. I still have most of the bench work to do on fitting the internal parts, all the finishing and the heat treating. I developed a lot of respect for the people who can set up factories and production lines, that's for sure.

I figure the rest of the work on these sets will occupy a fair proportion of my retirement years. I wouldn't have missed the experience, but of course I didn't go into it planning to have a rifle in a few months' time. I would have been really disappointed if that was the case. Anyway, it appears that those casting outfits, and Storey and Action Castings etc. saturated a pretty thin, if widespread, market, and then faded away.

The castings from Bresien were in essence semi-finished, and his workmanship was very good. The Ballard set I bought (and have also seen a set of Farrow, Borchardt and High-wall castings from either Bison or Tools, Inc.) are by no means the precision, minimal-machine-to-finish items that Pine Tree does for Ruger. There is a lot of stock to take off.

There have been a couple articles in the ASSRA Journal by people who have made rifles from castings, one of which was a Farquharson, if I recall. (I have the Journals all over every surface in the house and darned if I can find that one; sorry!) If I recall, the author farmed at least some of the machine work out, and I think he had to enlist a welder to repair something he'd done. Can't recall for sure, and I hope I'm not libeling the poor guy.

So I guess the upshot is that you have to have the machinery, skill, the ability to design and make workholding devices and a lot of patience. I look forward to the pride and joy of owning a rifle that I mostly made myself, but it's going to take a while.