Author Archives: rexnewkirk

Here is a video my buddy Meryl took of me casehardening my Stevens 44 1/2

Today I case hardened a Stevens 44 1/2 I am building with 2 barrels (38-55 and 22 LR) with a nice english stock blank. I blued the barrels and casehardened it. The mix was 2:1 wood:bone charcoal, heated to 725 C for 1 3/4 hours and 15 minutes at 700 C. The water was aboutContinue reading “Casehardened a Stevens 44 1/2”

I just finished a Ballard in 38-55. It is from a Ken Briesen barrel blank, the action is a Ballard 1 3/4 iron frame (notice how the double set trigger plate sits below the action. I picked up a chunk of wood from a local gun shop. It already had another stock cut out ofContinue reading “Ballard #1 3/4 in 38-55”

I purchased a 50 cal Woodsrunner from Kibler. It has fancy maple stock but was a B-grade discounted due to a stain on the stock and a small crack infront of the lock. The stain pretty much disappeared when I applied the Aquafortis. The crack I filled with Brown CA glue and you have toContinue reading “Kibler Woodsrunner”

My buddy and I ground a couple bags of lump charcoal today for me to use in casehardening. I mixed 2 five gallon pails of ground lump charcoal with 1 pail of bone charcoal. That should do me for a while now. Check out this little video showing the grinding process.

I purchased a nice Hepburn a bit ago but decided to rebarrel it and caseharden it. It is now a 38-55 with a Ron Smith Gain Twist Barrel and I casehardened the action. This is a sweet rifle and will be great fun to shoot.

I bought a very nice Highwall in 40-70 SS. The action is from 1887 with a Badger barrel. The action was polished nicely but still in the white so I casehardened it this weekend.

Stevens 44 with Swiss Buttplate

I finally finished the fowler I was building. There are a couple of spots on the barrel that seem to be resisting browning fully but I will try to encourage them to rust over time and hopefully they will blend in with the rest of the barrel. I also have to make a longer rangeContinue reading “Finished the 20 Gauge Fowler”

This week was busy at work with some teaching in the evenings and such but I did get in the shop today for a bit. I am doing a few repairs but set my lathe up and tapered some barrels. Three of the barrels are half octagon so I cut them to the large diameterContinue reading “Profiling Barrels”