1860 Army Blackhawk

Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
Stainless steel is great. It holds a polish nearly for ever. It holds scratches nearly forever too. After a good buffing, a dull factory hammer comes up to a mirror shine and is ready for jeweling.

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And a simple but functional modification to the loading gate. Its a thick chunk of metal....rather like an acorn with a hinge. A bit of work on the backside makes room for the thumb to be inserted and flip the gate open. Its not a visible modification, just one that helps guide the thumb in to place to positively get it open....its nice when you are wearing gloves on a cold day.

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Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
I spose I can start polish and blue on the small parts and cylinder this weekend. The sauce is in and so are the studs needed for the ejector rod housing. But the bloodwood could be from 5 to 21 days from order before it even ships. Slow boat from South America I spose. Got some finish work to do on the brass triggerguard too so, might as well get a bit of synergy by working two issues at once.
 

Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
Ruger parts are cast. There are parting lines. On the hammer, they are left on the face. Where the nose rests on the frame and where the step impacts the transfer bar. The left side is taller than the right. That means the frame and transfer bar is hit by the left half of the hammer each time it falls. I'll even it out so that it doesn't eventually pound a dent in the left side of the impacted parts.

Here it is....the face of the hammer, as received from Ruger is the only part of the hammer not machined...its left as cast on the replacement parts. (On my factory hammer, the nose and step are polished/fitted for an even blow) You can see the mold parting line down the center of the nose and step. It has sharp edges which would need dressed down anyway.

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About half way thru the stoning of the hammer and we see, the left is taller than the right (The low spot is in the center). I'll stone it down even and then do final checks for transfer bar pinch and firing pin protrusion and make any needed adjustments to either or both of the nose and/or the step.

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Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
And the hammer stoned to the 90% level. Shortened the nose a bit to improve firing pin protrusion and no pinch. Last steps will be to pull the hammer and make a few swipes on an Arkansas stone to even it up and final spot check it into the frame/transfer bar with a touch of Prussian blue.

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pattersonj11

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Sharps, are there ways to preserve the raw steel from rusting without getting rid of the silvery luster? I really like your colors. A painted horse in the pistol world I guess. Just curious for myself if I want something similar in style down the road.
 

Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
I could put it up in matt clear baking laquer and it would look French Grey but it wouldn't hold up for spit. I'll blue it. There are some folks that have Blue Blackhawks that install Stainless screws/ejector housing and grip frame. Not sure I like the look. I think the stainless ejector on the blued barrel ruins it for me. I do however like the look of a well blued gun but with the frame worn back to a greyish hue.
 

Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
Well, thanks. I appreciate your kind words. On a separate note, I have a 45 Colt inbound. Not sure what I'll do with it.
 
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Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
No work on this one today. Went looking at a new house with 20 acres of hardwoods on it....lovely I want it! But gotta sell my place first. In the meantime, I scrounged up an old 45 caliber muzzleloading jag that no one uses anymore. I think I'll machine it down into a solder in plug for the trigger guard front screw hole. That'll let me redrill and countersink the hole about a half a diameter to the rear and get everything lined up with the frame thread. But first, I'll start early tomorrow morning prepping the cylinder and all the small parts for rust bluing. The garage is 90% humidity and perfect for rust bluing but it sure slows down the drying of the fresh primer and paint I put on the floor of John Lee....his original rubber mat and tarpaper are all inna garbage now. Prolly gonna finish with some mossy oak camo insert floor mats and maybe a black rubber pad over the hump or maybe a camo pad over the hump. I ain't decided yet but the ol blue 65 truck needs a touch o camo.
 

Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
For rust bluing. Small parts are spray degreased after polishing. In this case, the parts are new, unpitted and polished to dull 150g to 220g and then matted with a wire wheel. They are ready to rust blue.

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Larger parts with lots of hiding places for grease and gunk, spray degreased then boiled once in clean water. After which they will need a final polish or wire brush to remove instant rust from boiling.. In the case of the cylinder, a wire brushing of the flutes and a 150g finish on the surface of the cylinder (some light freckeling on the surface just a bit deeper than I want to polish out.....so, mute them a bit in a matt finish.)

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Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
Instantaneous rust from the cleaning boil. I polish it back off....handling everything with a clean barrier between my hand and the part. No oil now, no spots later.

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Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
Parts cleaned, polished/brushed and ready for rusting. Humidity today in the garage is 85%. Perfect for fast rusting. Should be able to do several cycles today.

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Everything is handled clean from here on no matter how bad it looks. (Rust in the bore questions/plugging holes questions...refer to answers in other build threads please. Short answer is No and No.) No finger prints now, no finger prints at the end. First coat is wet and doubled and then left to rust for one hour. (All subsequent coats will be nearly dry. Rust inducer is also a rust remover. Initial cycles of rusting will be one hour, several three hours cycles alternated with 12 to 24 hour cycles. If the humidity and schedule stays up/uncluttered....could have all the small parts shown fully blued, carded and oiled by Wed/Thur.

And the first kiss of pilkingtons produces instant rust and a lot of black iron oxide, which is what we want.....due to the high humidity.

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Same for the other carbon steel parts.....all but the ejector rod cap screw I made up....its going to fight rusting....hope it ain't stainless!

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Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
Good news is all the parts are rusting nicely, nothing made of stainless! 20 minutes after wiping on the second dry coat of pilkingtons, a nice even and fine grained bloom of rust. I'll do first boil about 1130 to 12 and we should be able to rust and boil twice more today.

Good Southern humidity and no damp box needed to make rust.

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Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
Pretty apropos using a muzzleloading cleaning jag to fill a hole in a muzzleloading pistol grip.

Tapping the existing hole 10x32 to hold the jag for soldering. Just enough lip to catch one thread and solder will hold the soon to be modified jag in place permanently.

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Meantime all the small parts are back in the iron pot on their second boil and I'll get them carded and rusting again before modifying the jag to fill the hole. But, the thread is good and I can screw in the jag snugly for soldering later.

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Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
We'll finish up the install of the 1860 Army Colt grip frame to the Blackhawk and repair a stripped hole in the frame at the same time....mighta been one reason for the good price!

Off to the shop, muzzloading cleaning jag cleaned with the wire brush and then installed in the press and cut off the excess then turn the head down to the right size to just barely fit in the hole and countersink in the Army Colt front hole.

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You can't see it but I have heated the new plug and tinned it with solder, threads and head. The fit is tight and it'll need some help pulling solder into the gap so a bit of it on the part in advance will draw more in by capillary action. Rosin core lead solder is fine for this job...there are no shear forces to worry with and the screw samwiches the plug.

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After soldering and filing and a bit of sanding on both sides, the plug is in with just a light ring of solder in the gap....buffing will make it nearly invisible and much of the ring will be under the new screw head when completed.

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The forward screw hole is stripped in the frame. A small bit is used to mark the new location for the replacement screw. The screw hole on the ruger is about 1/2 screw diameter rearward of the now plugged colt screw hole. Its a 6x40 screw on the ruger and rather than tap it 6x48 and have it strip again, i'll take it up one size to 8x40 when I'm done.

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After the new hole in the grip frame is drilled and then the stripped hole in the frame is drilled, its assembled, lined up and tapped 8x40 clean thru.

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After adding a countersink for a fillister head screw in the Colt Grip Frame, at the correct angle, the screw head is thinned and domed and the slot deepened slightly. Its then run in so I can mark it to see how much to remove. Nicely, all the holes line up and the 1860 Army Colt grip frame is so close to the same width of the ruger that almost no work was needed to fit it to the perfect width.

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Installed, the grip frame is rock solid. The front screw is nearly perfectly timed front to rear and I'm loving it. Nothing to do now but finish work!

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Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
Pretty much got the nosing done on the top strap. Its the look I wanted....barrel appears to be mounted in a sleeve with a topstrap growing out of the sleeve.

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And the first of the parts that needed touch up bluing and/or small area bluing (the inside of the hole I drilled in the Story Ejector to make it a Ring Ejector button) and the cylinder pin are done and resting in oil while the remainder of the small parts continue to rust and blacken.

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Overall, a good deep black. More black than grey and I'm pleased. If the rest turn out as well, it'll be a pretty good looker.

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Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
I think Pappy's gonna like it. He gets it the day before we go on the first hunting trip! In a Frontier floral carved cross draw Tom Threepersons holster.
 
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Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
The small parts and cylinder look pretty great this morning after another boil and carding. The high humidity and air temps have really helped the process along. With luck, the bloodwood will arrive today/tomorrow and I can get rolling on the grip panels.
 

Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
Ruger soup. Final boil and blackening for the cylinder and steel ejector rod housing.

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Clean up supplies. Even at this stage, oil and grease for last and don't fingerprint it while carding...it'll finish uneven. Clean the tools, clean yer hands, barrier between hand and steel and card off the loose oxides. When that is all done, then grease/oil and set aside to rest a day.

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If you never thought of rust (bluing) as rust resistant and durable, look at the blued gun screw on the left. It was blued before. Its been thru 6 boils, numerous exposures to acid based rusting agent, left in an 85% humidity garage for days....and it looks pretty decent. Bluing steel is a finish that will pull the whiskers off the faces of them folks that paint guns.

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On the right half the loose oxides carded off with 0000 steel wool.....the left half to be completed.

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Again, left half as boiled and right half carded. The bronze tone and sometimes, little silver flecks I've always taken as an indication that the steel has had enough and won't get any blacker no matter what.

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And for those that just refuse to believe....after a very light cleaning with a brush and no oil to hide any flaws, the interior of the cylinder is a good and clean and shiny and not blued and not pitted or even freckled as the day I first dunked it in the hot water.

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A mix of Rig grease and Hoppes 9 oil in and on every surface and let it rest for 24 hours.

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Another shot inside the cylinder. This time from the front and oiled. Perfect. Ready to fire many many rounds and look good doing it.

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Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
No work for tonight. GoodWife bought Jiffy Pop wif butter and made sweee tea. So, we's watchin the Way of the West on Amazon prime....good and scary what Amazon can do. Got an email today..."We noticed ya had lots o trouble streaming The Way of The West the other night so we's refundin yer money and when ya get it fixed ya can watch it again."

Its cool they refund the money on an incompleted flick unasked. Its scary that they: 1. Know when I have trouble streaming the shows. 2. Send me emails in broken English jes like I types.

But, the bloodwood arrived. Only two days late cause the package was small and UPS dropped it with USPS for a 48 hour delivery delay.

Dense and heavy and very tight grain it polishes to a moderate shine with sandpaper only. It makes awesome knife handles and finished with Tru Oil or a Clear urethane it will not brown....at least my 15 year old handmade bloodwood handled skinner ain't browning. I spect its like any wood, darkens with age, even pine turns a lovely toast color but this should stay red longer than I'll be around.

Gonna make nice looking grips. And if the saw is sharp enough to resaw it into thinner slabs, maybe a nice bloodwood lidded presentation box.

But its sure it'll be a pair o heavy, dense, very strong grip panels that'll go on that brass frame and should look kinda purty with the black color of the frame.

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Wetted to show the hints of yellow that come out when finishing. Might needta order more for a table top.

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Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
I hope she behaved herself cause normally when out and about she's ornery as cat poop. We got a refund on the 300 megablaster router that was recommended....seems ya need at least 750 microputzes to stream video to the TV! So, we's getting the one with more push. We ditched cable and land line for satalite internet only and a roku. Pretty much loving it and 4 months into it, don't miss the networks or the cable tv or the house phone that we didn't use at all. The mohu antenna leaves something to be desired but I spect it needs to be up higher since we are kinda down in a hole.
 
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Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
Time to make the grips. Started by stripping down the gun and bagging all the parts. Got another small handful of stuff like the pins and screws and loading gate that I can start bluing tomorrow evening. For now, all in the house work cause its too darn hot to be inna garage or the workshop.

So....a tracing of the grip frame and I label both sides...helps me get left and right correct as I want to select the outside and inside of surfaces of the wood and not make a mistake and have em reversed later.

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Once cut out I lay the template on the frame to see if it lays well and to make sure its a whisker bigger than the overall grip.

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Lookin at the end grain, it ain't sawed from the middle of the tree and the curve is not sharp so I'm not too concerned which side will be front or back from a warping perspective....ordinarly, if it shows a good curve I put it concave shape facing inward cause that's the likely direction it could move.

But, neat pores in the end grain. Might be neat if some of those dots show thru as the wood is shaped from blocky to curvy....maybe it'll look like a strawberry.

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Just a quick look on the gun and the camera washes out the colors but the darkest red is next to the black frame. It lightens a bit moving back and down to a golden streak near the bottom rear of the grip. I'll position the template on the wood to make sure the color gradients are the same on the left and right sides....that is, dark at the frame and becoming lighter and a bit golden as you go back and down. Course, as I pare away the excess wood, the colors could change and throw off my plans....wood can be fickle.

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That's it for the night. Sippin Woodford Rocks and relaxin with 750 new megagiggles and the Roku is runnin free movies on the big screen again with no stopping to load and load and load.....
 
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Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
45 colt arrived. A bit worse than I thought. A 1974 Blackhawk. Barely a new model. Freckled all over the frame and progressing to light pitting. Ugly Pachmeyer grip. Loose on the cylinder pin. And very likely not cleaned in or out since 1974.

On the good side. After a quick clean and inspection... Perfect bore. Shiny cylinders. Betcha it was carried daily or at least stored in leather.

Not sure if its a keeper. Might be best to clean, inspect and sell or trade it. If it shoots good....I don't know. Its for sure going to take more effort in freckle removal than its worth!

Maybe I should bead blast it. Oh well. Let it sit. It'll gel later.

I hope it don't get looser with cleaning. I think I'm gonna drop it in a tub of gasoline or kero or maybe onna them big tubs o carb cleaner (the smell good kind) and let it soak for a week or two.
 

Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
After some rough cut out...over to the drill press and 80g drum for some rough shaping.

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A bit of a stub was left on the bottom of the grip so I could thin the board on the jointer to just shy of 1/2" thick then taper it on the belt sander. All the initial thinning and tapering is done on the back to get a panel that is flat and sits on the brass frame well.

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First fit adjustment, before the panels are sanded to metal, is the 90 degree corner at the top. Kiss with files or sandpaper or whatever on the high spots till the grip mates to the frame.

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With the stub cut off and the upper corners fitted its time to stop and make up a cross bolt and drill the trigger guard for a grip pin down low.

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The 1860 Army Colt grip panels are 1/2" thick at the bottom of the frame. These Bloodwood panels will be close to the same....perhaps a bit smaller.

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Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
First step is setting up the trigger guard with a locating pin. It helps with making the grip panels and keeps em from rockin around later.

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Pin is then used to transfer a mark on each grip panel for drilling.

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Panels stuck on and looking like a pretty good fit.

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Transferring some marks from the frame that when sanded to will leave the grips still a bit large.

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Using the coil spring as a guide, I marked locations inside each grip panel and drilled for a 6x32 brass grip panel screw. I then used an 8x32 nut, drilled out #27 drill and rounded and countersunk with a flat reamer to make up the washer for the screw head. Here its in place with a small blob of acraglas to keep it in place forever.

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Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
For the opposite side, a 6x32 brass nut is rounded and tapered and fitted to a 1/4" hole for a light drive fit. Once its right, I countersink the left grip panel and drive in the threaded washer. Once driven in, it'll stay in.

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Initial shaping was conducted on the bench sander belt and with drums and a file and then with a jitterbug. The nut is in place and the shape is coming along well on the back strap for the left panel. The inside loop is where all the hard work is.

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Similar work completed on the Right side along the backstrap and up top near the hammer.

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That don't look like much wood but that 1/16" inch with proper shaping too will take all the time and make all the difference on this grip frame.

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Getting there.

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nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
This is slightly off topic. Is the barrels on those pistols originally dovetailed or is the front sights screwed on?
 
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