tributesinwood

Ivory Handled Six-Shooter

I couldn’t resist getting started on the Ranch-Hand’s six gun.  Looks like it’s going to be highly polished with an ivory handle.

I started in my normal fashion with carving half of the gun that will fit into the cavity that I carved in the holster.  The barrel of the gun is the second half of the six-shooter and will be glued in the cavity at the bottom of the holster.

Once I carved the basic gun, I used a small gouge to carve a few channels in the cylinder like you’d see on the real McCoy.  I then turned to the little aluminum duct tape trick and began burnishing this adhesive backed tape directly onto the carved wood.  Again, when I say burnishing, what I mean is that this aluminum tape is flexible enough that you can take a smooth tool and press it around mild angles.  With a light rubbing action, any wrinkles or seams in the tape pretty much disappear.

In the holster, the six-shooter is going to look pretty good with an ivory handle and a light coating of blue/grey over the aluminum tape to give it a gun metal look.  By the way, Emily is home now and those are her hands modelling the carving.  She likes Buford, too.

The final touch is the hammer and the trigger.  Both were made from copper…the trigger and trigger guard from flat stock and the hammer from household copper wire bent into a rough shape and then soldered and filed to the final shape.  The barrel was made from two sizes of tubing that were wrapped with the aluminum tape and epoxied together.

I’m pretty happy with the way that it’s turned out so far.