Dad's old Sharps...... When the file was king!

Eutectic

Active Member
On Ian's new lathe thread I had quite a story about an ol' Sharps rifle my Dad had. I was quite involved in the fitting of a new barrel of which I ground tooling to cut the Sharps threads on a lathe that was something else! I wonder if that is where the name (term) "engine lathe" came from??

I cut my long thread short leaving Ian with a 'filing story' that just isn't done anymore. I teased Ian I would tell him this 'filing' continuation when I got my Dad's ol' Sharps out of lock up. Lock up so good it would take a crook two days to get in!!! Trouble was that's what it took me and the old rifle is mine!

I got a lump in my throat first thing when I unwrapped the paper. My Dad had glaucoma in his 80's and I remember him on a greasing campaign greasing all his stuff he kept in a damp old garage. He knew his sight was so bad he would never shoot his stuff again. The Sharps was coated with RIG grease.... I mean EVERYWHERE! Wood, sights, So deep in the barrel you could barely see the deep rifling. Even inside the front Lyman 17 sight!! You could tell the person doing it could barely see.......

It needs a take apart cleaning! Dried RIG almost like cosmolene was wiped and wiped but solvent is needed. But I wanted some pictures for our buddy Ian........

Ian had come back with this: "What did he do, file a tapered barrel?" I was quiet.... not answering.... He was to close! I thought I knew but wasn't sure..... I had to look before I answered you Ian!

What I didn't remember first. He made new wood from walnut timbers as was his M.O.! I didn't know this! He made a vernier rear sight from scratch! Couple of welds... maybe some Wes Rego machine work (It looks like) And me! I forgot he gave me the elevation rail to mill a welded corner smooth he couldn't get a file in! (He had tried) I'm thinking he must of re-casehardened the lock plate as I don't remember any color. I HAD FORGOT HE FILED A NEW HAMMER FROM PLATE!

But Ian......
My Dad filed that 1 1/4" round barrel blank OCTAGON!!! Not only octagon.... BUT A TAPERED OCTAGON!" I thought he had but wanted to be sure before I dropped it on Ian! The barrel is 1 1/8" across the flats at the scalloped start (done with a round file) and is 1" across the flats at the muzzle. You can see faint mill file cuts where he squared the muzzle. I tried to photo it but the flash over-exposed it. I remember the barrel laid out with blue years ago and scribe lines full length for the eight flats.... It took him eight months to do it!

Ian....... that's filin'!

Pete
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Ian

Notorious member
Wow. Just wow. I figured it was already octagonal (mine is) and he wanted to put it on a diet by steepening the taper, I never would have though he did it from scratch. That's wanting an octagon real bad!

The hammer I'd work out with a plasma torch and angle grinder first, then belt sand what I could, then file file file, then work over with ATF and Emery cloth. Doing that by hand with just files would take me forever!

Looks like he could whittle wood pretty good, too.

I wish my Dad had taken care of the nice stuff he made, sculpture, paintings, carvings, clay models, pen and ink, all I have and ever will have is the stuff I confiscated from him for safekeeping over the years, including a few of his rifles that hung on the wall in a totally non-climate-controlled house. My grandmother's piano had to be scrapped from 45 years of cycling between 100+ and below freezing in that rotten shack I grew up in, plus lots of humidity which all totaled up to a cracked cast iron sound board. I replaced all the strings (rusty and wouldn't hold tune) and felts (eaten by various bugs) when in high school so I could play and compose music for the jazz band and literally cried a few years ago when I went to play it...and found the crack. When I was about ten, he carved a female figure, life size (she was about 5'2" plus hair and pedestal) out of a black cherry log that was nearly 2' in diameter after he chiseled all the sapwood off of it. He spent many months rasping, filing, sanding, and polishing the wood to a beautiful mirror shine. Having nowhere in the house to put it, and the university where he teaches refusing to display nude sculptures, he gave it to a friend of his who disappeared a few years later, probably fleeing the state on failure to appear charges for dope possession. No telling where it is now, at least Mom took a polaroid of it before he gave it away. So I'm happy you have your Dad's Sharps, and the story, and that it all was preserved.

Just one question: Now that you have it cleaned up, are you going to shoot it?
 
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Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Damn, that is some filing.

The ability to visualize something hiding in a block of steel, wood, stone, whatever is something I don't have. My wife certainly does.

There is an art to that kind of work and Pete, you dad mastered it.

Please tell me it is shootable, that rifle deserves to be fired.
 

Eutectic

Active Member
Please tell me it is shootable, that rifle deserves to be fired.
I have never shot it Brad.... My Dad did. My Dad was a fan of John Buhmiller's barrels.. Thinking back he had a 7mm, 2 in .30, and 2 in .45. He and ol' John hit it off and wrote long letters back and forth during a barrel ordering deal! They were both two peas in a pod it seems. Both small in stature but tough beyond measure. But they both had worked for the Great Northern Railroad; that probably started there friendship. Buhmiller was quite the African hunter. He was the reason the .460 Weatherby Mag. exists. He has written about .45's (like .45-70) having too slow a twist for 500gr bullets. Truth be known, he is the reason Winchester put 1 in 14" twist in the .458 Win Mag. Many don't realize twist choice isn't only stabilizing... It's straight-line penetration in game....especially big dangerous stuff! Why the .35 Whelen with a 1 in 16" twist is a poor choice. So I'm interested in what twist John gave Dad? I'm guessing 1 in 18"..
I had 35 bullets left in a box of Winchester 510gr .458 bullets. My Dad wanted them! Said he'd break the new Sharps barrel in some!
The barrel is chrome-moly and basically new... It kinda begs me to shoot it don't you think?

Pete
 
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Cherokee

Medina, Ohio
Great history with your Dad, I envy you. If its safe, got out there and shoot that rifle, I'll bet your Dad would want you to.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Beautiful job. When I was a teen, my neighbor was a real gun nut, going to Mech Eng school at UF just after
getting out of the Army as a machinist and helo door gunner with M-60. I learned to file in 8th grade shop class,
chalk, file card and all. He retaught me, more reminded me, and we made a few gun parts on his tiny bench lathe
and with files.
We melted down ice cube trays and cast an aluminum blank to turn into a thin v belt pulley to convert a 28VDC
surplus aircraft air compressor into a SCUBA air compressor in the late 60s when surplus was everywhere.

I can still file, but I doubt I have the patience to tackle a job like that barrel. Fine job, make sure that you write
that up somewhere and keep the story firm and true as that rifle travels down the centuries. It deserves to
have it's story told properly, as does your father, not lost and garbled as most family stories are.

I have a memory of a photo in Nat Geo years ago. A scrawny, ancient white haired and white bearded Indian guy
with only a cloth wrapped around his loins, sitting in red dirt holding a piece of steel with his toes and filing on it.
Beside him, 3 or 4 files laying in a neat row in the dirt. The shocker is that the object he is filing on is clearly an
80-90% done S&W revolver frame. The caption says he makes guns from scrap steel with files. I was mightily
impressed (the frame looked good, but it was a small pic) then and still am.

Also, I used to visit the Williamsburg gunsmith when we lived in Va, many years when I was a kid, and a couple times
later. I discussed making parts with the gunsmiths, and they showed me the raw blacksmith forged parts that they
turned into hammers and triggers with nothing more than files. Their rifling machine was on display in the shop,
all wood, except for a few metal fittings here and there. The spirals were cut into a log about like a good 8" diam
fence post.

A skilled craftsman can do a lot with a file, and with other simple tools. My ex-Army machinist buddy called
files "Mexican mills".

Bill
 

Eutectic

Active Member
John Buhmiller has written about .45's (like .45-70) having too slow a twist for 500gr bullets. Truth be known, he is the reason Winchester put 1 in 14" twist in the .458 Win Mag. Many don't realize twist choice isn't only stabilizing... It's straight-line penetration in game....especially big dangerous stuff! Why the .35 Whelen with a 1 in 16" twist is a poor choice. So I'm interested in what twist John gave Dad? I'm guessing 1 in 18"..
My Dad's Buhmiller barrel on the Sharps is 1 turn in 17". I'll get a land and groove reading when I finish soaking the dried RIG out!

Pete
 
F

freebullet

Guest
That's freaking beautiful!

I could not resist shooting that .