anvil

1917 Cylinder Swap

More going on to swap cylinders than you might imagine. The idea was to substitute a cylinder that could run 45ACP, without moon clips, properly headspaced. OH, and you cannot change the length of the arbor, or the star, or the chambers. And all 6 chambers must be in correct headspace, and it cannot shave lead, and the finish must match......

What could possibly go wrong? Last note, don't screw up a 120 year old NOS cylinder. 

Time for some football     &n...

QA #16 Maintenance vs. Service

Taking care of  the customer is more than just fixing their gear. 

Pardon the audio, some moron forgot to hit play on the mic. That, would be me.

DA 45 iiiinnnnttttrrroooo

  Just couldn't hold it together.....filming for an Anvil, S&W revolver timing and cylinder change. Back under the cameras thumb. Cool stuff coming, looking into a live stream on Utreon, a .50 BMG build, maybe a drilling. 

  My Citadel interns are doing the research for the "History of the Chronograph" video, which should be very interesting. 

  The DA 45 video will take 3 sittings to film, however the final product should be interesting...

SEWE, and a full size onesie

Brownells gave me this jumper for Christmas, so why not.......

I will be in the Gaillard auditorium 18 to 20 February, doing my "I'm a Gunsmith" schtick.

Drop by if you're in town. I will NOT be dressed in this clown suit.

                                          &nbs...

Rust Blue with Bob and Mark

Our last rusting video is old, poorly filmed, poorly explained, and just plain sucks. This one is better.  It is meant to be shown on his site, so it has no Anvil ident on the head or tail. The one you will see on YT will have that missing detail. 

Cant thank y'all enough for the patience as we reconfigure operations . Thanks.....

                       &nbs...

GUNDIE nomination

WE have been nominated for a GUNDIE award in the "Best Gun Reviewer" category. This is a Patron WIN, because my content would suck, or just be non-existent, with out your support.

 https://www.thegundies.com/category/best-gun-reviewer

I think this link will work, so vote early and vote often. We are up against some STIFF competition, but if it aint stiff, it aint worth a F"#&@@, ...

Messages and Emails

Just getting back up to speed, and I see 18 messages in my Patreon inbox, and 347 new emails in my mail.....thanks for you patience. I will get there

                                                      mark 

New tang screw....TIMING IT IN

Ever wonder how custom gun screws are timed to torque up just as the slot aligns with the long axis of the gun? This is how I do it, right, wrong, or indifferent

1. The screw is fabricated to length; Leave the head and threads long enough to work with. Remember, we have to hang onto this somehow!  Ensure the countersinks and bottom metal threads are what you want, then fully torque to the need. Get it tight.

2. Cut, grind the bottom to just above flush. Leave...

Anvil107(probably): DCM 1911 checkout and parkerize

3, and if you squint, 4 different colors of phosphatizing on the same collection of parts. In this episode, we show the process of making everything really dark grey. You know, like it was supposed to look.....

This is a recent acquisition from the DCM. As received, it was clean, straight, and properly toleranced. A really nice example of a representative WW2 government .45; all we did was make it look good. 

Nearing the end of a VERY involved project

BEFORE photos of a Joseph Manton double gun from 1797, if I dated it correctly. The gun and its box have been in the Charleston area for a long time. As presented, it had been converted to percussion, presumably in England, as the trade label in the lid was only used by Manton in the 1811/12 timeframe. Fortunately, both flintlocks were still with the set. The wood has been repaired many times. Damage was caused by handling, saltwater immersion, mercuric chloride spew from percussion cap overs...

Anvil 108: 1910/21 Bergmann Bayard rework and run

Nothing mechanically "wrong" here, just a deferred maintenance save from the scrap pile. Oxidized WD40 balled up like snot, and a finish that had been destroyed at least twice. Like the Hahn, we were just trying for the 3 foot away smell test, and I think we got there.

Yes, this is 108, 107 is being filmed and edited concurrently and will be dropped first, during the Christmahankwanzzicus break. They just line up better from a teaching standpoint.

The plan is to demonstrate 4 type...

Kennedy addendum, full length

Finally got this up, the description of the work AFTER the first 3 hours were shot and edited to am hour and a half. Thanks for waiting, and more on this rifle and several others just like it to come.......

                                               &n...

1918 Mag Dump

This a snippet from an old Anvil that we are getting ready to re-drop. Thought you might like not having to find it. This is Ian McCollums 1918 and several museums have been in contact with us, not believing the rumors that they even existed.

And again I say, "Kicks like a dyslexic 3 peckered billy goat"

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Finally Shooting the Kennedy

I took a couple more weeks but we got the Kennedy running like it should and we filmed an update today that we are editing right now. We snipped out the shooting segment for you guys here to enjoy in the meantime. In the meantime we grabbed the shooting segment and put it up first.

Anvil 106: Whitneyville/Kennedy Reconfiguration

        This is a long one. 5 shop video sessions to get back to the point where it was worn out, and discarded long ago.  Of significance is the geometry involved in stoning the trigger and hammer, and how little force is actually needed to do this. We have resisted the "opportunity" to show a trigger job prior to now out of apprehension that this will be screwed up, and I will get blamed......

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I'm OFFICIALLY old now.....

Grandkid watch is secured. A normal birth of an 8 pound boy happened an hour ago, so now I'm an actual old guy.

He was born in the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month. On Veterans day. 

Go figure.

                                       mark

now back to work for m...

Whitneyville Kennedy ReBarrel

This one took 4 sittings and we aren't done yet, but I think today is the day she eats again!

The old barrel had been cut back so many times as to be useless, and is pictured above the relined octagon barrel and new, repop mag tube. The forend was an absolute mess, and the hammer hook/trigger interface was unsafe. The center of this episode is the forend repair, and we discuss the math/geometry of the trigger setup. We filmed the complete stoning setup, and did a trigger job. I have bee...

Extra inertia on the reset block

Lead weight, to insure reliable trigger reset with .410 tubes in a 12 gauge gun. This was the gun we fixed the bedding on for Anvil 105

Sawmill Instructions

We were given this tree.....in West Virginia. How to cut it up into small enough chunks so it can be hauled back to Charleston? What I'm asking them to do is waste 2/3rds of the tree so I can have the best out of the middle, but that's what we need. If a picture is worth a thousand words, than a video is worth 10k.

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Odd pics dump

Funny how a 450 BPE looks a lot like a .45/120. They dwarf the 43 Mauser and .45/70 next to them and not squeamish rounds in their own right. 450 BPE for a double rifle in for repairs as mentioned before.

A good friend asked if he could stash and old used truck next to the shop while he prepped it for a move upstate to his shooting preserve. Dude.........

Checkering, post refinish....

The party that sanded and oiled this stock did a beautiful job. Right up until he pulled out a checkering tool........

This is a very high grade Superposed, engraved, 32 line per inch checkering. As is normal during any correctly sanded refinish, the edges of the checkering pattern were damaged and needed a clean up to remove this damage and accumulated finish. The fun starts here and continues to photo 2. There is a black pencil line drawn across the upper third of the pattern, as view...

Repair closeup

This O/U is currently at the competition we mentioned in Anvil 105, so I asked for a few photos to show the completed task. The project is NOT finished however, it will be back for the last 15 or so oil/polish evolutions, then a good waxing. There is really no practical way to get a good finish with any system in less than a week, and we knew that going in.

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FYI.....

Between range day prep, a trip up home to see the Mom's and several gunsmiths, and a pending Grandkid (my first), the schedule of work is HOSED. As this moves through, expect renewed vigor in the posting/interest scale...

In no order

1. 1910 Bergman/Bayard handgun fire/neglect recovery

2. .450 Black Powder Express double rifle recovery to operation (with retina reattachment sequence as a bonus)

3. Whitney/Kennedy rebarrel/conserve/reset/unhose. NOT a Lego gun!

Th...

Anvil 105: Over/Under Stock Repair

Very high round count competition shotgun needed some stock work. Being good at fixing problems is not necessarily a good thing if you don't fix the root cause of the failure. In this case, the bedding finally set back enough to stress the head end wood, and it blew off a spall. Cracks are also beginning in several places, all caused by the same bedding failure. 

This was a target of opportunity video, as the unit was needed a few days later for a tournament. As such, the glass bed...

Q&A 13: Why we're running out of gunsmiths

10 Penny Ringshank Nail........

........is NOT a correct material to fabricate a replacement firing pin from.  These parts are to a Whitney Kennedy currently under surgery in the shop.

 First photo shows the 2 piece train after I dug the now straight nail out of the lever/locking block piece. 

 Second photo shows the inter-relationships. The lever/locking block must be fully closed for the hammer blow to be transmitted, so this acts as an out of battery safety.

 3rd photo is a clos...

IV8888 Range Day, Redux

   2nd range day this year. We brought gear that went through the shop this year, for a mix. Lots of vendors and their gear, lots of YT and other platform creators. Many contacts were made, much business was conducted. 

  Many thanks to our patron base, as the opportunity to repair and film this gear was provided by YOU.

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Steyr AUG Retest

Just a quickie, no episode. This blew through the shop for maintenance and is already gone. I thought you guys would enjoy. I know I sure as hell did.

New ending for Anvil 104

Got the Burgess to work. Just the ending, and it will be compiled into the actual episode. 

mark and Bruno thank you for the support

Reichsrevolver headed out

On it's way out for a movie set. Finished the conservation, fabricated a replacement for the missing/broken loading gate spring. Ammo is full length sized 44 mag, cut down to .960 inches. Using  a .429 projectile, I have been able to cram in an impressive(?) 20 grains of 3F. These cases are unprimed and empty for shipment out to set. It cleaned up well, is in time and ready rock....6 times at least. Forget about reloading this thing in the thick of things.

    &...