maple leaf
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- SW Ontario
So I've been toying with the idea of making a hand cannon for awhile now.
Here is the original design based off of one in a museum:
However, I lacked the equipment and machining skills to make this. So my only option was to bring it to a local machine shop, which would have charged me about $70 for just the barrel. Being the cheap guy I am, I knew I could probably make something similar for a lower cost. Lucky for me, I was doing an order with Track Of The Wolf down in Elk River, Minnesota. Since, my order was small and the shipping was crazy high. I decided to add some items to my box at no extra shipping charges. Specific to the project, I had them scrounge up a piece of four inch .54 rifled barrel and a flared breech plug tang. They were really great to deal with, and even found me a barrel piece that was already tapped to accept the breech plug
So I lucked out even more and saved some money or time. The tang and barrel piece landed to my door, cost $15. Also, going this route will allow me to build up some skills before I try to tackle a flintlock build.
Here are the two pieces mentioned:
The muzzle of the barrel was not level, as it was a discarded piece from someone else's flintlock build. So I had to take some time to file it down level:
I wanted to test my hand at crowning. Part way through, I decided I would give a go at some decorative barrel coning as well. As a side note, accuracy of the arm will not be compromised as long as your crowning and decorative coning is 1/2" or less in muzzle depth.
I cleaned up the roughness a bit after taking this picture:
My buddy was injured and going nuts at home, so I decided to head over to his place and pick his brain on the build. He has built a few flintlocks now and I think we spent 3 hours or more drinking tea and chewing the fat, then we did in his shop drilling one hole in the tang:
Notice how long that breech plug is? Well, I cleaned it up alot with a dremel tool and about four hours of hand filing. I now know the most common sound of a gunsmith shop
In the end, it fit perfectly.
Before drilling cannon fuse hole:
The remainder of the drilling and counter sinking was done at home in my cheap Crappy Tire drill press and vise:
My other buddy wanted to learn how to proof a barrel, so off to his farm I went. This worked out well, as I live in town and doubt the neighbours would like hearing this being tested.
We set it all up and I charged it with 180 grains of 3F powder and a huge length of cannon fuse. After a successful and undamaged test, I did it two more times with 90 grains of 3F. Still no damage, so the fun continues. Time well spent! As a side note, I bought the cannon fuse from Rust Wood Trading Company. They were excellent in helping me out! As a side note, drill your cannon fuse hole approximatly 1.5 times larger than the diameter of your fuse.
Next came the desire to attempt for the first time some plumb browning. See the links below for more details.
I used NorthCoastBigBore's instructions and recipe. It worked quite well. I put on 8 coats of this and was very pleased.
- 1st coat
- 2nd coat
- 3rd coat
It looked great, but it was too brown for my liking, so I added more depth to it by adding some Brownell's Oxpho-Blue. I bought a 4oz bottle along with the cannon fuse from Rusty Wood Trading Co. for another project, but dipped into it for this as well. Unfortunately, it got too dark to take any more pictures. I will be adding a few more coats of blue onto the barrel tomorrow. So far, it looks amazing!
I'll keep everyone posted on how this progresses.
maple leaf - Handgonne ~ Replica Of A Hand Cannon said:
Here is the original design based off of one in a museum:

However, I lacked the equipment and machining skills to make this. So my only option was to bring it to a local machine shop, which would have charged me about $70 for just the barrel. Being the cheap guy I am, I knew I could probably make something similar for a lower cost. Lucky for me, I was doing an order with Track Of The Wolf down in Elk River, Minnesota. Since, my order was small and the shipping was crazy high. I decided to add some items to my box at no extra shipping charges. Specific to the project, I had them scrounge up a piece of four inch .54 rifled barrel and a flared breech plug tang. They were really great to deal with, and even found me a barrel piece that was already tapped to accept the breech plug
Here are the two pieces mentioned:

The muzzle of the barrel was not level, as it was a discarded piece from someone else's flintlock build. So I had to take some time to file it down level:

I wanted to test my hand at crowning. Part way through, I decided I would give a go at some decorative barrel coning as well. As a side note, accuracy of the arm will not be compromised as long as your crowning and decorative coning is 1/2" or less in muzzle depth.



I cleaned up the roughness a bit after taking this picture:

My buddy was injured and going nuts at home, so I decided to head over to his place and pick his brain on the build. He has built a few flintlocks now and I think we spent 3 hours or more drinking tea and chewing the fat, then we did in his shop drilling one hole in the tang:


Notice how long that breech plug is? Well, I cleaned it up alot with a dremel tool and about four hours of hand filing. I now know the most common sound of a gunsmith shop
Before drilling cannon fuse hole:

The remainder of the drilling and counter sinking was done at home in my cheap Crappy Tire drill press and vise:


My other buddy wanted to learn how to proof a barrel, so off to his farm I went. This worked out well, as I live in town and doubt the neighbours would like hearing this being tested.

We set it all up and I charged it with 180 grains of 3F powder and a huge length of cannon fuse. After a successful and undamaged test, I did it two more times with 90 grains of 3F. Still no damage, so the fun continues. Time well spent! As a side note, I bought the cannon fuse from Rust Wood Trading Company. They were excellent in helping me out! As a side note, drill your cannon fuse hole approximatly 1.5 times larger than the diameter of your fuse.

Next came the desire to attempt for the first time some plumb browning. See the links below for more details.
maple leaf - Browning A Barrel Post said:
NorthCoastBigBore - Simple DIY Rust Browning Post said:
I used NorthCoastBigBore's instructions and recipe. It worked quite well. I put on 8 coats of this and was very pleased.
- 1st coat

- 2nd coat

- 3rd coat

It looked great, but it was too brown for my liking, so I added more depth to it by adding some Brownell's Oxpho-Blue. I bought a 4oz bottle along with the cannon fuse from Rusty Wood Trading Co. for another project, but dipped into it for this as well. Unfortunately, it got too dark to take any more pictures. I will be adding a few more coats of blue onto the barrel tomorrow. So far, it looks amazing!
I'll keep everyone posted on how this progresses.
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