Condition: Very Good – 451 Pages
This four volume set is the joint effort of Western Kentucky University and the National Muzzleloading Rifle Association to translate, organize and present armsmaking techniques from the mid-1770’s. Filled with invaluable and timeless information that still applies today. Each volume is dedicated to a different faction of creating a working firearm from raw materials with the aide of handmade tools, a forge, rifling machine and foundry. All volumes are enhanced with numerous pictures, drawings and schematics.
Volume I, printed in 1985 – 84 pages and written by Gary Brumfield, is an essay dedicated to flintlocks used on Colonial American rifles: raw materials, tools and technology.
Volume II, printed in 1987 – 92 pages, contains the following:
- Two Virginia Rifles as Documents of Traditions, Shop Tools, Processes and Technology by Wallace B Gusler
- The Golden Mean Proportion in Baroque and Rococo Firearms Design: an Art-Historical Approach by Barry C Bohnet
- A Patchbox Release Mechanism by David Wagner
- A Barrel Crowning Tool by David Wagner
- Making and Using a Scratch-Stock for Forearm Moldings by Russel L Swanson
Volume III, printed in 1988 – 165 pages, contains the following:
- Handwork and Artifice Summarized – Essay Seven – Parts Five and Six – “The Gunmaker and the Gunstocker” by PN Sprengel, Berlin, 1771 – Translated by Maria von Nicolai and John Bivins
- The Brandenburg School of Gunmaking by George Schumway
- Includes the foldout sketch of PN Sprengel’s 1770’s gunsmith tools, work bench, rifling machine and gun parts
Volume IV, printed in 1991 – 110 pages, contains the following:
- Handwork and Artifice Summarized – Seventh Volume – Part Three – “The Gun Factory” by PN Sprengel, continued by OL Hartwig, Berlin, 1771 – translated by Maria von Nicolai, Gary Brumfield, Harold Gill Jr and Harold Gill III
- A Study of Lock Timing by Larry Pletcher
- A Wheellock Mainspring Vice from PN Sprengel, 1771 by George Schumway
Four Volume Set – Condition: Very Good.
