A couple of quick pics from the Bison parts I've been preparing for bluing. This one is a 56 Bison for B. Butler.







Gary

That's looking real nice Gary!

Sweet. I know those are a lot of work. Are those gonna be muzzle-stuffers, or are they going to get the slide breech?

I hear the Bisons are among Gary's favorites to work on.

-- Jim

Oh ooh! Looks like Jim is trying to get beat with the clue by four!

I predict you're seeing one of the last Bison ever made. The amount of detail work involved in one of those is amazing. And every minute of that work increases the chance of making a mistake or having something slip... I'll bet there's a huge satisfaction and sense of relief whenever a Bison gets boxed up for shipment.

BTW, folks should take a good look at it now and any other pictures posted before delivery. I'm sure we'll never see nor hear of it after delivery!

Now, now Jerry. If you live long enough, you are sure to run across an obscure reference to someone, who knew a guy at work, with a cousin that once bought a gunsafe on e-bay ... only to find a fancy airgun behind a false panel. Makes me all misty eyed and tingly. You see ... your cynicism is completely misplaced.

Actually ... great story from today ... (now that it's done) ...

Up inside the Bison receiver, there's a diagonal entry port which carries the firing pin and it's casing. On these guns, it comes from the hammer tube, pierces the receiver wall on a sharp angle, and terminates just short of the head of the valve head. Simple little operation to make and seal that ... haha. Anyway ... up in back of the valve seat, I must open the chamber larger, to allow proper flow of air around the mechanism.

I do this, while the receiver is straight (so it can be clamped up in the lathe). And, I did so for this gun. However; (I hate it when I hear that "however" part). However; I didn't provide enough clearance this time, and I don't know why. It had to be opened larger, and the operation was too delicate to just fumble around in there with a grinder. SO ... (I hate "SO" almost as much) ... I had to take the entire morning to make up a jig that would allow the now banana shaped (and about that size too) receiver body, to thread in. It had to tighten in such a way that the valve seat was running true, and in such a way that I could reach a cutter way up thru the bearing, and inside the valve body ... to do some precision machine work. Said jig would have to clamp a bearing onto the lathe bed, and spin the fixture in the lathe head. Lovely.

It worked. I hope I never use it again, and it will go into the drawer of forgotten tooling ... made for special purposes ... then forgotten.

I've been finishing the jig welding of this Bison now. Hope to finish this afternoon. Then, I can make the trigger levers and fit them into the trigger housing. It it seems these Bisons take way too much time to complete ... yeah ... it seems that way to me too. I do like the Bison rifles. They are just from a time when there were not as many people waiting, when I felt better, and when working to 11pm ... or all night ... seemed quite reasonable.

Back to it.

Gary

Lol, that is REALLY nice!!
If ornate was my thing, I abso-blinking-loutely would have to find the money to get on the list

Let's hope that Garys Bison parallel the American Bison experience. There used to be huge herds of them wandering around the continent, but nowadays...not so much. Nobody want's them to become totally extinct, but most people are fine without having a three-day-long herd of them crossing the street in front of us.

Folks may enjoy these looks back at other Bisons:

[www.glbarnes.com]

[www.glbarnes.com]

[www.glbarnes.com]

[en.wikipedia.org] (sorry, couldn't resist)

That's a lot of work, Gary. Well done -- they are very uniquely "Barnes."

-- Jim

Adn according to Wkipedia, Gary played pro football too, in the early 60's

Gary,

what sort of tool it is with which you carve metal? similar rotary pneumatic one as with wood...? I'm not familiar with that kind of work at all, though I'm interested in.

For this work, rotary pneumatic grinders. Die grinders. All different sizes of grinders all the way down to tools like dental grinders. Carbide and Diamond bits.

Gary