Presentation Box Colt 1851

SIGP2101

SIGP2101

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Location
Ottawa
I made this one myself. It took me about 25 hours to complete it. Everything is solid walnut.
I am pleased with end result. I thought I would share. No power tools are used in this project, it is all hand made only. Little imperfections are desirable.

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Awright, now.

Some ground rules...


If yer gonna do something like that....

TAKE PICTURES ALONG THE WAY!!!

Pretty please!

WOW! Looks great! Nice work, Sir!

Cheers
Trev
 
It is the labour of love for me. Idea is to build couple more of these boxes. Speed up the process, and streamline procedure. I want to built 10 to 20 examples and hit gun shows. Only thing I don’t know if there is a market for them. I can make them to look and feel like they been built in 19 century as they suppose to be, not the modern reproduction with cheap material. Next project is Luger box.
 
Nicely done fine looking craftsmanship. If you are making them as "period" reproductions you might want to consider using mahogany for the boxes and also making the case slightly thinner--it looks like your material was 3/4". The few originals that I have seen appeared to be slightly thinner. I will dig through my photos and see if I have any examples.

44Bore.
 
44Bore said:
Nicely done fine looking craftsmanship. If you are making them as "period" reproductions you might want to consider using mahogany for the boxes and also making the case slightly thinner--it looks like your material was 3/4". The few originals that I have seen appeared to be slightly thinner. I will dig through my photos and see if I have any examples.

44Bore.
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You are 100% right. I have Colt Heritage book that shows bunch of these original boxes. I think I can clone any. Material goes from simple maple to mahogany, and anything in between. But I haven’t found two that would look the same. Even the hardware that they used was not standardised. That gives me a bit of freedom to build to my likening. I appreciate sturdy looking box as this one is. But definitely there are a lot of things that can be changed/improved.

Thanks
 
I should think that there would indeed be a decent market for some nice cutom cases like this.

What would one be worth?

Cheers
Trev
 
Wow that is amazing workmanship. I would expect that anyone with a pistol like that would want the box. I may have to get off my butt and start on a display
(I think they are called shadow boxes) for my FS Dagger.

It sure beats a plastic pistol case.
 
SigP2101: Nice work. I am also just about done my box but mine is more of a range utility box. I made mine out of cheap pine and oversize so I could carry all that is needed for a BP revolver in a range session. In the lid I have a place for a full pound of powder in the can and a flip up loading stand. It is my first attempt and man does it show, the next one I want to make for my brother will be different with some improvements. For the amount of labor it takes it would be hard to make much money from them, they sell (mind you they are cheap ones) in the states for about 70 bucks, but real hard wood would be over 100 I would think. Put one on ebay and see what it would go for, who knows, things go stupidly high sometimes on there and you might be able to make a big profit. On a step by step picture of how to make one go to
http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=250257&highlight=1851 he outlines each step in the making of a box.

I love the lock, where did you get it?
 
hunter64 said:
SigP2101: Nice work. I am also just about done my box but mine is more of a range utility box. I made mine out of cheap pine and oversize so I could carry all that is needed for a BP revolver in a range session. In the lid I have a place for a full pound of powder in the can and a flip up loading stand. It is my first attempt and man does it show, the next one I want to make for my brother will be different with some improvements. For the amount of labor it takes it would be hard to make much money from them, they sell (mind you they are cheap ones) in the states for about 70 bucks, but real hard wood would be over 100 I would think. Put one on ebay and see what it would go for, who knows, things go stupidly high sometimes on there and you might be able to make a big profit. On a step by step picture of how to make one go to
http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=250257&highlight=1851 he outlines each step in the making of a box.

I love the lock, where did you get it?
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Certainly that is an idea, but the box like this would not come out cheap. It is labour intensive, and first class hardware was used. There are no “made in china” parts involved in building this box, and no power tools used. Why no power tools, simply because hands leave some character to it, and it so clearly distinguished from machine industrial work. Little imperfections are always present, and there are so common in boxes build in 19 century. There was no plywood used and there was no veneering applied to this box. It is been chiselled out of solid piece of walnut. Even dividers inside this box are made out of the same solid wood. No fast drying stains used on this box but just 8 coats of Tung oil. Inside compartments are covered in two kinds of felt, top and the bottom is real wool felt, very hard to find and very expensive, compartment dividers are covered in self adhesive felt you can get in craft stores.
I don’t know yet but idea was to built 10-20 of these boxes over the winter, and hit local gun show just to feel if there is a market for them. But every firearm would require custom built box accordingly. It will be a very hard to standardise/streamline production line. With amount of hours put in building something like this which will eventually go down with more boxes built, I would charge anywhere between 250-300 CAD for the Colt box, Luger Box would be probably 30% cheaper because it would be smaller and simpler and it would involve some machining to reflect appropriate time. (my next project)
If people show some interest I may even get involved in building these boxes. The thing is I have full time job and two small kids with all that goes with it. I was able to build this one box within one month working only 1hour at the time during the evening. It was nice and relaxing work before bead time.

Thanks for your support, all of you. It is encouraging to see that people with real fine sense of quality (colectionars) see something worthwhile repeating. If anyone becomes interested in this project please drop me a line. It would be very curious to se how much of the interest this could generate.
 
Just need to find people that will pay extra for hand built wood work, in an age where everything is made in China and cheapness is the common goal people just don't appreciate the extra effort that it takes. If you love woodwork and have some extra time go for it and hopefully you will find a niche in the market and all the power to ya. There is a guy down the street from me that retired about 2 years ago and his son asked him to repair a dining room chair for him. He took it to the garage and built another leg exactly the same as the broken one and as he said "it was just to easy". He started playing around with wood chisels and doing little projects for his wifes friends and before long he has a whole garage full of woodworking stuff and wishes he had found this "hobby" about 4 decades ago. You should see some of his relief work, looks like a photograph in wood. I think my next one I want to go the same way you did, take my time and I have always loved Birds Eye or Purple Heart wood. Keep up the work and like anything as you do more and more you will see how to do things easier and quicker.


Forgot to answer my question, Where did you get the lock from? Checked on Ebay and I guess I don't know what to search for. I have looked in the various hardware stores and nothing, maybe a cabinet store or something like that.
 
Plenty of people are looking for quality and willing to pay. They are usually the ones that are dissapointed, as most anything built to a low price ends up looking it, for the most part.

I am still looking for a decent quality jewellery box for my wife, as a gift. I have found many(!) cheap and nasty boxes, and some very huge and expensive ones ($2k+, a bit much for my budget). So far, the best one I have found is on fleabay, but it is made in China, so, without being able to see it firsthand, I am REALLY unwilling to commit to one, lest I find myself with a POS, even at the price level it is at ($300+US). It is not the price that is holding me back, just that I cannot assess the quality.

I would suggest that a couple boxes, ready to go, to fit Colt SAA revolvers would be a good bet. Lots of them around, and lots of guys have nice ones.

Were I in your shoes, I'd be asking the guys that sell the high dollar guns, what the demand would be. They would have a better idea of who is willing to spend what. I would also get my head around how to get the dimensions correct, without having to be responsible for the safekeeping of someone else's collectors piece.

A couple nice business cards would be a good investment, as would a couple decent pics on a website.

Cheers
Trev
 
savage112 said:
Absolutely gorgeous set. I would love to own that myself.
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Then you can order box from me, and by the time I finish it you will get rest of the set I am sure. :rolleyes:

On the serious note if I could get 10 interested people in this project cost per box will be lower for sure. It would require me to go out only once to gather all material needed, to cut it and order the hardware. That way all costs are spread evenly among you guys and cost goes down as well as number of hours wasted per box.

PM me if you are interested.
 
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