A Christmas present to myself

[ccdjg]

When I started making a reproduction of the Webley Whiting pistol in 2017, at the back of my mind was the idea to make reproductions of other pre-1950 British patented air pistol designs that never made it to market. These were the Webley/Clarke twist-grip of 1923, the Lincoln Jeffries Jr. overlever of 1926, the Arthur Henry Hill double action pistol of 1933, and the 1945 pistol from Frank Clarke Lead Products which was probably intended as a larger companion to their commercially successful Thunderbolt Junior and so would most likely have been called the “Thunderbolt Senior”. Those of you who have followed my threads on my pistol build projects will know that I have managed to complete the first three of these, leaving only the Thunderbolt Senior as a challenge.

Well I am pleased to say that I have now managed to complete the Thunderbolt Senior just as we are coming to the end of 2018, and in fact I only finished bluing it three days ago. The five repro’ pistols are collected together in the following picture, and the “Thunderbolt Senior” is shown bottom right. I have put a few pellets through it and it works OK, but I still have to road test it properly. I will be putting together a brief account of how it was made and how it performs some time in the New Year. Anyway, being able to achieve my five pistol ambition in time for Christmas 2018 gives me a great feeling and I can now put my feet up for a few weeks before starting something completely different.

[oldcurmudgeon]

Serious congratulations and excellent engineering and finished on time.
Very very well done 😊

[Abasmajor]

Hello John,

As I think I've hinted in the past, perhaps now that the manufacturing work has been completed, it might be time to document the history and subsequent reproduction of these unique prototype pistols in a dedicated book. I'm sure many others would share my excitement at such a prospect.

In the meantime, have a well deserved break while you think about it over the holiday.

Happy Christmas.

Brian

[pnird]

Abasmajor has the right idea - a book detailing your methods and your negotiation of all the major and minor problems would make a great present to the people like me, who tinker round the edges of things instead of getting really stuck in, like you do! Great work, and a Merry Christmas to you!


John

[RichardH]

Abasmajor has the right idea - a book detailing your methods and your negotiation of all the major and minor problems would make a great present to the people like me, who tinker round the edges of things instead of getting really stuck in, like you do! Great work, and a Merry Christmas to you!


John

I’ll put my name down for the first copy fascinating to watch you engineer stuff from flawed patent drawings.

[Troubledshooter]

Very well done, John, and I hope you enjoy your well deserved Xmas break.

[Garvin]

Another extraordinary feat, John! It looks very Webley-like.

[cinedux]

Next one up will be a BROWN Pneumatic(that'll get him cutting an ear off! ;-)Compliments of the Season,trev

[Leonardj]

Truly awesome accomplishment, John.
You set the bar high and successfully met the challenge. Congratulations.
Pencil me in for a copy of that book if it becomes a reality.
Best wishes !

[Garvin]

Next one up will be a BROWN Pneumatic

I'm not so sure, Trev. John seems to be of the view that 'if it don't have a spring, it don't mean a thing'.

[cinedux]

his 'creative comfort zone"! But I fear you are right. The Prof is the culmination of 'the evolution of a spring/piston airgun collector". Watch out for an Attenborough series. Imagine an 'evolutionary tree of the airgunner",there I am,on my knuckles grasping one of the lower branches.......and John,way up in the canopy! Doesn't it show how tricky airgun designing is.Think I'd go for a Thunderbolt Senior.

[micky2]

l take my hat off to you John. what a great piece of engineering skills on all those pistols.

[dvd]

Hats off to your manufacturing skills!
An account of what made you produce these fine looking pistols and the engineering challenges you encountered along the way, would be very interesting.
I too dabble with machine tools and and can appreciate the level of patience, commitment and expertise you possess.
Congratulations

[Craig-P]

Tremendous work

[Binners]

Outstanding skills, you are one of the gifted....