Selby S. Webb - Gunmaker - A Pair of Revolvers

[tiriaq]

Selby Webb was born and lived in Ohio, 1862 - 1954. He was a machinist, but quit his job at age 66 after a disagreement with his boss. He started making guns, over 120 of them, pretty much for the rest of his life, certainly into the 1950s. Most were single action revolvers or tip ups, most were .22 or .410. He made at least one .410 revolver.
His .22 revolvers predate the Ruger Single Six.
I have two of his .22 revolvers, which happened to turn up in a Central Ontario auction. The middle gun is a handmade .22 auto made by an A Newton.

Because Selby Webb's guns were individually hand made, I thought gunsmiths might be interested in a photo study of his work.
These photos are of the upper revolver. The lower one is similar, but far from identical.
The following photos are of the barrel and receiver. I do not know how the barrel is attached; there is a set screw on top. Perhaps it is screwed in. I do not know if the frame was carved out of a block of steel, or fabricated. Webb was a machinist, and it is apparent that tooling and jigs were used in the manufacture of his revolvers.

 

[tiriaq]

This is the loading gate. Made from 3 pieces. It is retained and controlled by a detent and spring which come up through the bottom flat of the receiver.

 

[tiriaq]

The hammer, with hand.

 

[tiriaq]

Locking bolt and trigger. He used a music wire trigger and bolt spring, rather than a flat one.

 

[tiriaq]

Trigger guard and mainspring. The trigger guard bow is a separate piece attached to the front strap.

 

[tiriaq]

The backstrap is an assembly of several pieces: the top cheek piece, the strap which is folded at the bottom of the grip, and a reinforcing insert. You can see traces of rivets which secure the cheek piece to the strap.

 

[tiriaq]

Webb must have made jigs to facilitate cylinder machining. The base pin is retained by a set screw.

 

[tiriaq]

The ejector housing appears to be made from a single piece. I had to make an ejector assembly for the other revolver; I cheated and made the housing from two pieces. It was still challenging.

 

[tiriaq]

The grips are neatly carved from walnut and checkered.

Webb's pieces are well marked, using dies, not individual stamps.

 

[pmatuk]

interesting ,appears all parts were made in house and didn't use others parts .He must have been a very patient man

 

[tiriaq]

The action is very conventional. First click holds the firing pin back from the cartridge. Second click is half ####, cylinder can be freely turned for loading/unloading, third click is full ####.
Action is smooth and crisp. Indexing is accurate. Webb knew what he was doing.

 

[tiriaq]

I'm assuming he didn't rifle his own blanks. Everything else is one-off. As I mentioned, the other revolver is very similar, but not identical. I had to make a locking bolt and ejector assembly for that one, and have a lot of respect for his work. |He wasn't assembling guns using other people's parts. After I got the guns, I spent quite some time on the 'net searching for information about him. Found one photo of him holding a really large revolver; I assume it was a .410, from the length of the cylinder.

 

[tiriaq]

A couple more:

 

[pmatuk]

looked at the pics again ,still say he was a patient man .There appears to be a lot of hand file work which you can see he did not use a shaper mill .Again being able to make multiple single action revolvers and the cylinders that time correctly and other types of actions in a home shop without CNC is Admirable ,humbles a modern gunsmith/gun mechanic who refers to building a firearm by unboxing parts and assembling them akin to IKEA furniture

 

[trevj]

Thanks for posting those pics. Great pictures, btw.

Interesting to see how some parts got the shiny treatment, some not so much, depending on their purpose and visibility.

Interesting to see the way some of the fabricated and built up parts are done too. Fella had some mad patience and skills!

 

[tiriaq]

Here are photos of the other revolver. Note the dates on the right side of the receiver; his birthdate, and what is probably the date of the revolver. He was 89 years old when he made this revolver 67 years ago. This one had a broken bolt - you can see the scuffing which resulted on the cylinder - and was missing the ejector assembly. I cheated and made the ejector housing from two pieces, and used ballpoint pen springs; didn't have a long, soft, small diameter spring on hand.

 

[FLHTCUI]

Very Cool Guns...
Rob