This is the ‘home-stretch’ of this build. Lot’s done, and little left to do at the end of it.

Side-plate and mainspring in place.

This view shows the parts, including the trigger and trigger return spring in place. The trigger is actually the piece v=cut our of the frame for the trigger.

Here is the hammer In the cocked position.  The half-cock notch is recessed so that the trigger cannot be pulled.

The mechanism complete and assembled. After adding a .062″ music-wire firing-pin I did the first firing test, shooting into a 5-gallon bucket of water. Not wanting to get splashed I placed a piece of cardboard over the bucket. This did keep me from getting splashed but it didn’t stop about 1/2 gallon of water from wining up on my shop floor…

Walnut stocks fitted. Both the handgrip and fore-stock are each made of three sandwiched pieces glued together. This allowed for a very snug fit- the pieces actually stay in place without screws.

With the chamber opened. The fore-stock serves no practical purpose I can think of; I just thought it looked cool when I sketched the pistol originally.

Semi-finished. Difficult to tell in the picture but I have lightly cold-blued the frame and barrel, mostly to protect them until the sights are mounted. I sanded the grips and did a bit more shaping. The fore-stock has a single screw through the bottom to secure it. For the hand-grip I debated whether to use a single screw from the bottom or a cross-screw; you can see which won. The stocks are finished with a penetrating acrylic finish;it’s essentially a super-thin superglue but it creates a durable, water-proof finish that dries in under a minute. In the past this has proven quite durable.

Though not visible in these pictures the block on the top-front of the barrel has been hollowed to place a front-sight. I have not settled on the design of the rear sight; I have both fixed and adjustable concepts that I am playing with.

After the sights are mounted I’ll refinish the gun with a darker blued finish. Currently there is no extractor; while I can do some very limited milling on the drill-press I cannot achieve anything like sufficient precision for fitting the extractor. Once I get the correct power-supply set of for the milling machine I’ll attend to that.

The 3/8″ barrel-liner will also be replaced eventually; the chamber is very ‘sticky’ owing to the lack of a proper reamer. I’ll polish it as best I can, but I am dubious that i can achieve a satisfactory finish. right now empties must be driven out with a brass rod inserted into the barrel. This means that right now the barrel is secured with glue; once I fit a new barrel-liner with a properly reamed chamber it will be silver-soldered into place.

I’m very satisfied with the trigger; in the half-cock notch it is quite impossible to ‘pull through’ and drop the hammer. At full-cock the trigger-pull is extremely light and breaks sharply, and while there is significant over-travel it doesn’t bother me. Eventually I may fit an over-travel screw if it becomes an issue.

This build is going to be in-progress for some time to come, but it is finished enough now that it will be going on the next range trip. I’m really pleased with it, and with the progress that I have made so far. It feels great in my hand and points naturally. Once it’s fully refined and finished it’s going to be a really nice little pistol.

Since, aside from a few details, the gun is essentially complete this is the end of the build series, though there will be updates as more work is done. I am also looking into getting video and/or more detailed photos of future builds; a friend has offered to be a photographer/videographer for the next build so we’ll see what happens.