Building A Modern Hand Cannon *FINISHED* (Pic Heavy)

maple leaf

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So I've been toying with the idea of making a hand cannon for awhile now.

maple leaf - Handgonne ~ Replica Of A Hand Cannon said:

Here is the original design based off of one in a museum:
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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:
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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:
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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.
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I cleaned up the roughness a bit after taking this picture:
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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:

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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 :p In the end, it fit perfectly.

Before drilling cannon fuse hole:
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The remainder of the drilling and counter sinking was done at home in my cheap Crappy Tire drill press and vise:
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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. :runaway:
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.
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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
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- 2nd coat
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- 3rd coat
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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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Is this going to be mounted on a long pole in the style of a hand gonne?

Slightly different, because this has a tang and not a concave hole for attachment. I will be carving out inletting for it. Any suggestions for inletting is appreciated.

Stock is basically keeping this shape. It's a nice piece of hickory wood that needs some inletting, sanding, staining, Tru oil and the metal butt plate put on:
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I've only inletted some stocks I had to repair for a few folks so far. But the trick of sooting the tang and action was a BIG help in getting neat well fitting work.

Because the recoil won't be wholly in line with the stick I'd suggest you consider a "cradle" design for your handgonne. Sort of like the ones shown on THIS PAGE. It'll mean a touch more work to inlet the barrel and tang into a slightly higher rear step to take the tang. But with a pinned support strap as shown or an external slip on and pinned ring along with the two screws you'll be that much more certain that it's not going to flip away into the bushes.
 
I've only inletted some stocks I had to repair for a few folks so far. But the trick of sooting the tang and action was a BIG help in getting neat well fitting work.

Because the recoil won't be wholly in line with the stick I'd suggest you consider a "cradle" design for your handgonne. Sort of like the ones shown on THIS PAGE. It'll mean a touch more work to inlet the barrel and tang into a slightly higher rear step to take the tang. But with a pinned support strap as shown or an external slip on and pinned ring along with the two screws you'll be that much more certain that it's not going to flip away into the bushes.
I appreciate the comments and the link. It gave me some ideas.


Hey Maple Leaf that's really neat - thanks for posting and glad my recipe worked out for ya.

Nice job!

NCBB

Thanks again for the recipe, it works really well when the metal is heated with a propane torch :)

Here are two pictures of the bluing complete and ready to be put in some oil. It looks better in person than the pictures can show:
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I forgot to include a video of Larry from Midway inletting the tang on a shot gun. He's using inletting black. And so could you. But not having any when I needed it I made do with sooting the metal with a candle flame. I found that transferred soot to the wood and showed me where to pair away in a very nice and relatively mess free manner. His advice about a small and very sharp chisel is a wise one. And watch the grain direction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq5fUpYmyyY
 
I forgot to include a video of Larry from Midway inletting the tang on a shot gun. He's using inletting black. And so could you. But not having any when I needed it I made do with sooting the metal with a candle flame. I found that transferred soot to the wood and showed me where to pair away in a very nice and relatively mess free manner. His advice about a small and very sharp chisel is a wise one. And watch the grain direction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq5fUpYmyyY

Great stuff thanks.
 
Personally I haven't had much luck with the soot and just buy inletting black now; lipstick and shoe polish worked a little better but the inletting black has worked best for me.

I tried using different types of soot and candles but it just never gave me the density, coverage or transference.

I know folks do use it with success, that's only my experience.
 
I've used a candle and ran the bottom of the barrel through it to soot it up and it works just fine.
 
Personally I haven't had much luck with the soot and just buy inletting black now; lipstick and shoe polish worked a little better but the inletting black has worked best for me.

I tried using different types of soot and candles but it just never gave me the density, coverage or transference.

I know folks do use it with success, that's only my experience.

I've used a candle and ran the bottom of the barrel through it to soot it up and it works just fine.

Thanks gents. I have a reprint of an old gun smithing manual from the late 1800's that recommends candles or coal oil (kerosene) lamps for sooting. I'll try both and see how it goes.
 
I use a coal oil lamp with no chimney for sooting metal. I think the metal has to become warm before the soot starts to stick well. I don't prewarm the metal, just hold it in the flame until well covered with soot. I also use motor oil for the same purpose because I can wipe it on with my finger much faster than I can soot the metal with a coal oil lamp

cheers mooncoon
 
Probably where I went wrong, just figured "soot was soot" - I did try it by burning old engine oil over the candle by heating it up on a plate, it coated the part but I couldn't see the pattern well enough in the wood to work with it; but at any rate now I've got enough inletting black for a couple rifles. A small amount goes a long way and the imprints on the high spots are very easy to see. I'll try that oil lamp one day for interest sake - I must just be missing something in the technique.
 
Well I finally got back to working on this project a bit. I started on the stock work:
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I sooted the barrel with kerosene lamp. This is a traditional method and it was cheap, easy and effective!

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Here is the first fitting. Not too bad, but there is still wood to remove to make it fit a bit better. This is my first stock inletting and I must say that hickory wood is a pain in the butt. It is so hard, and takes forever to shave wood from it. I'm kinda regretting not using maple, but too late to turn back now.
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More to come as the project progresses...
 
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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. :runaway:
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.

What projectile did you use for the proofing?
 
Well I got all the inletting done, and decided to attempt my hand at some decorative carving. This is a bit hard to see, but I did some stuff around the tang. After all this stock work, I sure hope it doesn't crack when I test shoot the cannon gun when she is done!

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I also didn't like the feel of how the butt of the stock felt, so I reshaped it a bit, using a hand saw.

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Next up was the attempt at making a simple butt plate. I made a template from an old cereal box and transcribed that onto a sheet of 26 gauge steel I had in the shop. I cut the metal using some tin snips. I had an old box of some Dominion Tack and Nail #6 shoe tacks (made in Galt, Ontario). So I used them in the fastening of the plate steel to make a butt plate. I took a nail and a hammer to the steel to make starter holes, which helped when fastening it to the stock.

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After all this I filed down the butt plate and sanded the stock so all of it was smooth and tight.

Next up is staining. I did a test stain on the stock using Minwax "Gun Stock" wood stain, however it was too orange in colour for my liking on this very light hickory stock. So off to the store for some Minwax "Jacobean 2750" wood stain. This hopefully will make the stock a bit darker and give it the look I want. More pics to come as the project unfolds. Ahh, I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel :)
 
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