doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com The last Martini?

Very Sweet!

Finished the gun trunk carcase today. Still have to make latches and corners.

I'm new to wood carving and string inlaying. The strings and corner buttons are ebony.

I'm also new to small scrapers but love what this can do. These cuttings are .0006"

And the nitre bluing is done. The screws and pins came out a deep plum and should contrast nicely with case coloring which is expected to be back soon.

Dennis,
So, you are building a masterpiece to hold a masterpiece. What a wonderful display of different skills.
Mike

Congratulations on an amazing achievement and thanks for sharing it.

Great touches, nicely done, lots of interesting details, thanks for showing them.

Beautiful work, i really like the takedown system. Can i ask a question though ? Do the vee-threads on the barrel and action wear though ? Would acme or square theads be better ?

Bonny,
Excepting tapered cross pin takedown systems, I suspect nearly all are subject to wear and loosening over time. The original BSA tapered cross pin in my opinion is exceptional (also used on Fraser takedowns???) in that it both indexes the barrel to top dead center as it 'lifts' the barrel up and creates a firm lock between the barrel and action.

The keys to reducing the likelihood of Morris' system for this project (and his two-barreled set) failing over time is the care and fitting that he gave the barrel to the action. The proper 55 degree Whitworth threads were cut and lightly chased with a small triangular file to remove any roughness so that to begin with the barrel had a snug fit in the action. I suspect most Martini actions that are rebarreled short cut the Whitworth thread with 60 degree threads.

Secondly, Morris cuts his barrel threads right up to the face of the barrel tenon. Thus the actual contact surfaces of threads is maximized. His thread cutting tool is an interrupted 'V', that is one leg is shorter to allow a very close cut to the face. An image from the other Martini thread is attached to emphasize how close the threads get to the face. It is mesmerizing to watch him thread a barrel. His coordination of stopping the feed and withdrawing the cutter at precisely the right moment is amazing.

The third key is to work the barrel and action threads many times bringing the barrel into full contact each time with the action face thus 'wearing down' most of the high contact points on the threads. This ensures that thread to thread contact is significant. Once this is done an index could be established indicating the final barrel to action line up and chambering is next.

The question of Acme or square threads is purely academic for this project because you couldn't rethread the action.

I have cut many threads on lathes over the years, and to cut right up to a face like that manually is amazing. He must work alone, the chances of an accident if someone sneezed, or the phone rang, would be huge.

Stevens used V threads for many decades on their single shots and never had any issues with thread wear creating a problem.

Here's a takedown system patented by HM Pope in 1888 that solves the issues of wear also. This is on my cased 3 barrel Pope Ballard set in .32-40, .28 Pope, and .22WCF. It uses a tapered chamber area on the outside of the barrel to seat the barrel into the adapter on the action. The adapter on the action and the barrel threads have two different thread per inch, so when tightening the knurled ring it pulls the barrel into the action. When loosening the knurled ring it pulls the tapered barrel stub free so once it's unscrewed the barrel easily sips free of the action.