I am embarrassed to admit that it was some 2 years ago (!) when I promised myself and all of my loyal readers that I would embark on a new project: the rendering of a 1861 Remington revolver in wood (what else?) with construction details so that anyone else who was interested could do the same thing. I’m not sure exactly what intervened but I am finally achieving that goal. Here is the goal! Good looking isn’t it! No, this is a real one, but you’ll see my finished gun soon enough.
The
Real Thing!
What
I was looking for and how I found it
I wanted to recreate something that was old to go along
with the 45-70 Springfield “trapdoor” rifle, circa 1884, that I had carved back
in 2009. Originally, I thought that I would
do the 1851 Navy Colt Revolver based on its historical cache but I soon decided
that the lines of the Remington were more pleasing and, after all, this is
“art”. While the Colt came first and
introduced the whole idea of placing the rounds into a rotating cylinder that,
once fired, would shift the next round into position when the weapon was
re-cocked, it just didn’t have the “look” that I was after.
As I always do, I spent a great deal of time rooting
around on the Internet looking for views of the gun from all angles. Actually, this process also helped some in
the selection of the gun to be carved. When
I viewed the Colt and the Remington side by side, I could see why the Remington
also did well in the market. It was very
handsome and the upper strap (the portion of the frame that lies above the
cylinder) added to its ruggedness and provided the users with the option additional
“punch” because it had the strength to be “packed heavy”, unlike the Colt. Through a bit of Internet snooping I
discovered that all cap and ball revolvers required daily dis-assembly and
cleaning to prevent fouling. One of the
reasons why big name gunslingers e.g. Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickok chose the
Colt over the Remington was that it was easier and quicker to clean. And, in their line of work, the less time
they spent “out of operation” the better.
OK, that’s a valid argument but I still think that the Remington is
“prettier”. :-) The 1861 is often
referred to as the 1858. Actually, as I understand it, they are actually the
same piece. The 1858 date I often used
because that is when some of the patents involved were dated.
Now, if you jes’ happ’ned to be packin’ this here piece as
you strolled on down Main Street towards the Longbranch Saloon, you’d very
aware you had it with you. This thing
was enormous! It measured 13.25 inches
long from the tip of the handle to the tip of the barrel and it weighed in almost
3 pounds (!) (Actually, 2 lbs., 13 oz.).
The overall
barrel length was a respectable 8”. It is no wonder that a cowboy’s spurs jingled with this monster was
strapped to his leg:-).
It is my understanding that after impressing everyone in
Dodge City, most hand guns were generally relegated to a place on your saddle
when you left town. As long as it was
handy for use, it didn’t need to be pounding on your leg the whole time that
you traveled. No matter how cool it made
you look.
While I obviously never harbored any illusions of making
this weapon capable of actually being fired, I did want to make things as realistic looking as possible. The loading lever
moves, the cylinder rotates and the center rod can be removed to free the
cylinder.
What
I found in the way of Research Materials
Much to my delight, due to its popularity with
collectors, there is a wealth of photos if you just Google “1861 Remington Cap
and Ball Revolver. The biggest help that
I found was a really fine line drawing of the gun (see below). Given that drawing, I could scale almost dimension
off of any photo. Make yourself a couple of full size prints of the
line drawing. You’ll be referring to
them a lot during the process.
Someone sent me this exploded view. I filled in some of the names (as I know
them) that we will be talking about later.
Exploded
view
Cutting
out the Frame
I cut the frame out of ¾” basswood. The job is pretty straight-forward so I won’t
belabor it here. Just go slowly. There is
not a lot of “meat” associated with the top strap, so be careful while shaping
it.
Unlike the real revolver where weight was a consideration,
I did not cut out the area inside the handle. Once I had determined the position for the
screws that would be used to hold the handles on, I drilled out the hole in the
frame to ¼” diameter. I pressed in a
6-32 x 7/16” or 6-32 x 1/2" hexagonal threaded standoff widely used in the electronics
industry (see http://www.keyelco.com/userAssets/file/M60-2p71.pdf). In
case you have never seen these things, they are like an elongated machine nut with
threads running the whole way through.
It is an easy press-fit into the soft basswood and as long as I remember
to tighten the two screws carefully and equally I don’t need glue because the
two screws pull against one another. Its
hexagonal profile keeps it from rotating in the undersize round hole.
This brings us to what I call the “cheek pieces”. I’m sure that there is some “real” name for
them but I sure don’t know what it is.
They form the portion of the frame that curves around the rear of the
rotating cylinder to help prevent anything from dislodging the percussion caps
from their position at the end of each of the chambers. Because the ¾” thickness of the frame is not
quite thick enough to include I glued two small chunks of basswood to the frame
and carved them to shape. The right-hand
cheek of most modern revolvers includes a “loading gate” to give access for
inserting cartridges. The 1861 has a rounded
notch to give the loader just enough finger room to snap the caps in
place. Despite this design feature, I’ll
bet that many “misfires” were due to the inadvertent loss of a percussion cap.
Drilling
the Frame for the Barrel and Center Rod
I drilled two holes in the front of the frame. This job requires a good drill press vise to
keep them in position and square to the frame.
The upper hole accepts the threaded portion of the gun
barrel. The actual diameter of the
thread is about 5/8”to allow for a 0.44” bore, but since this is not intended
to be a “firing” weapon I brought that portion down to ½” so that I could use a
common Forstner bit to drill out the frame and leave more wood in place after
drilling the frame. If you look at
figure 1, you can just catch a glimpse of the threads right in front of the
cylinder. I figured that a little extra
“meat” left on the frame would be good and that it is pretty well hidden.
The second hole is for the center rod that serves as both
the containment and the pivot for the cylinder.
Drilling this one is more difficult that you might expect. You will need a much-longer-than-usual 1/4”
drill bit and even then you might end up grasping it be the very end to reach
all the way into the back side of the frame.
Here’s a drilling guide to help you located the holes in the frame.
Frame
Hole Drilling Info
End
of Part 1
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