Why I've not made many knives lately

K

KenH

Well-Known Member
Nov, 2020 my step S-I-L made me an early Christmas present of this:

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His Dad found it at an estate sale many years ago and used it as a wall hanger. I didn't have a clue what it was, did research and found it's an Winchester 1876 lever action rifle in 40-60 caliber. The bore looks good, what's left seems in decent shape. I started looking, couldn't find any original parts at a reasonable price so ordered some Uberti parts for their reproduction 1876 rifle. Every Uberti part I used had to be hand fitted to the original action by grinding, filing, etc. I had to make part of the firing pin, make the toggle links, and some screws. I wound up with this:

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I've still got a good bit of work to do, but it's shooting and action is smooth. I'm shooting "cowboy" loads around 1400 fps using 16.0 grains of Lil'Gun powder and 210 cast bullets.

It's been fun, 2 months ago I'd never even seen a toggle linked lever action rifle, but less held one in my hands. Maybe now I can get back to knife making some {g}
 
Thank you for nice words Sean, I've got to make another forearm. I made that one from a chunk of scrape walnut laying around that I used as a test piece. I didn't have the endcap and didn't realize the wood was too small at the end, so now it's time to take my time and make a forearm that fits better.
 
I've been hearing it's hard to find ammo these days - I cast bullets and reload all my center fire stuff other than .22 caliber 5.56mm so didn't realize just how hard it was to get ammo. From what I hear even the components are (primers 'n powder) are getting hard (and expensive) to get.
 
Man that is just cool. Good for you, it's one of a kind now. I actually am getting very interested in what it takes to make black powder (legally) from raw materials. I really would like to build my own black powder shotgun from scratch one day.
 
Chris, have you seen that thread on making black powder on cast bullets forum? There are several folks there who make their own black and do a really good job of it. They've got the process figured out, even using willow charcoal.
 
KenH said:
Chris, have you seen that thread on making black powder on cast bullets forum? There are several folks there who make their own black and do a really good job of it. They've got the process figured out, even using willow charcoal.
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In truth, I have not even started researching the project yet because I just do not need something else to tool up for. I found a kit which would let me turn my single shot shotgun into a black powder (not smokeless) shotgun but it uses 209 primers as the only source of ignition. The primers are almost impossible to get right now so I shelved the project for now.
 
Chris, I'd not thought of those shotgun to black adapters before. I had to do a bit of research. Simple the way they work, and doesn't mess up the shotgun for normal use later.
 
That's a nice job you did there Ken, it's nice to take something that old and restore it back to operating condition.
there are a few places you may be able to find brass for that or dies to form some from other cartridges.
I've been looking at possibly getting into making black powder for that cannon I'm building and found that you can buy everything but the charcoal from ebay, I just don't know how comfortable I would feel doing it, putting all the ingredients in a tumbler with lead balls to mix it all up...the process just sounds a little shaky to me verses just buying the stuff in a can and calling it a day.
 
opaul said:
That’s is a very nice project. I admire your skills.
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Thank you for nice words Opaul, I did a lot of fiddling 'n learning on this project. Here's one problem I had, when moving the bolt out of battery to rear ejecting point, about mid way it's movement stops. See image:

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By putting finger (or thumb) on bottom of bolt to lift up slightly the movement easily slides to full rear position as it should.

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It took me a while to figure that one out. I found my neighbor has an original 1876 that his great-great-grandpa purchased new and has been handed down to him. He was kind enough to loan me the rifle to remove side plates and lever to see how things work on a toggle link lever action. I'd never even seen one before this project rifle. I fiddled around for a couple days trying to figure out the jam problem - finally I measured the firing pin diameter of the original Winchester, then the Uberti. OK, the Uberti pin is .010" larger in diameter causing the jam. The slight downward movement of the bolt as the toggle links pull bolt rearwards cause the bolt to drop a tiny bit throwing the firing pin out of alignment with the hole in the action.

I made a new firing pin the same diameter as the Winchester pin (Winchester is a one piece firing pin while the Uberti is a 2 piece firing pin). That solved the problem. Every Uberti part I've purchased has needed some type of modification. Even the finger lever is different - the screw hole is .008" larger diameter than original Winchester lever. This image shows a lever I made from some scrape aluminum I had. Now I've got an Uberti lever that is loaned to me.

This is a fun project - I've learned more than I ever thought about those old lever action rifles.

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Steve, it all depends on how much black powder you'll be using each shot (how many lbs/yr). As mentioned there is a thread on cast bullets forum that's pretty long on how folks make black powder at home - safely. While the idea is interesting, I'll just buy my black since I use less than a lb/yr.
 
Thank you for nice words Ted. and I do agree, just take a look at my scrap barrel if you wish to see lots of mistakes revisions :)
 
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