PROJECTS
THE MOTTY SPECIAL - Furniture manufacture
One of our interstate customers recently picked up a Number 1 barrelled action stamped 'Motty.' He decided to do a restoration in keeping with the history of these rifles. Most of these 'specials' produced by noted Sydney gunsmith Harry Motton, were used for competitive shooting in full wood format.
Shown here is a custom milled new walnut forewood set and an original walnut buttstock. The topwood is one of our 'range' specials - Note there are no cutouts for the rearsight, as a peep sight has been sourced for the project. Similarly the cutouts for the rearsight protector are absent from the lower wood for a clean look.
THE MOTTY SPECIAL - Timber finishing
Here we have the set, lightly stained and polished after check fitting. The buttstock was marginally darker than the new wood, having absorbed plenty of oil over the years.
In keeping with the 'aged' look, the areas around the handgrip and action were selectively darkened to replicate a well-handled appearance.
Several layers of Tru-Oil were used to seal the grain. Yes, some might disagree with this technique, but it suited this particular application.
Here is the finished project.
AUSTRALIAN 'SHORTENED AND LIGHTENED' REPLICA
Towards the end of WW2, the need for a shorter service rifle was considered, based on the experience gained in close quarter jungle fighting. A number of experimental 'carbines' were produced.
The one shown here is at the Australian War Memorial.
Original examples are increasingly difficult to find, and priced accordingly. I decided to build a 'tribute' replica to add to my collection.
Note the 5" shortening, hand scribed grips, charger bridge mounted peep sight and nosecap with no sling swivel bracket.
Seen here is the test fitting of the coachwood timber set prior to staining. The forewoods have been shortened 5 inches, to the original specification. Ian Skennerton supplied a copy of the original designs, which was an invaluable reference.
Machine routing the handgrip grooves leaves a radius at the end of the grooves, so these grooves were scribed by hand for an original look.
Note also that the rearsight protector cutouts have been deleted in the base design (not filled).
Here is the finished product, fitted to a deactivated action and barrel. The forewoods are lightly stained and coated with scandinavian oil to seal the timber. This blends nicely with a NOS Slazenger buttstock I had on hand. The finish looks similar to the one at the War Memorial, which has not seen a lot of use.
Using a variety of reference images, I modelled and 3d printed a peep sight which mounts on the charger bridge. 3d printing has advanced somewhat in the last few years, with incredible accuracy available. Feel free to get in touch if you would like to arrange production quality 3d printing of nylon parts using HP Multi Jet Fusion technology.
* I do not 3d print functional firearm parts.
