Continental Soldier

The colonial period, the birth of our nation, has always fascinated me.  In my younger years I had the opportunity to apprentice under my uncle and eventually became a colonial period gunsmith.  The flintlock firing system for rifles and hand guns started in Europe in the early 1600’s and continued until the mid 1800’s in America.  The percussion cap firing system was introduced in the early 1800’s and continued to be in use until the 1870’s when the metallic cartridge style ammunition was widely adopted.

The flintlock rifles known as the Pennsylvania Rifle and Kentucky Rifle were the most commonly used by the Continental armies in the 1770’s.

The Continental Soldier carving below was inspired by the book “Continental Infantryman of the American Revolution” by John Milsop and can be found on Amazon.com.

Initially, the block of basswood is shaped in preparation of tracing the pattern onto the wood.

Several sample pictures were found on the internet on the Land Of The Brave web site and a composite drawing was made on the wood block.  Excess wood around the drawing was removed using a band saw.

The block is rough cut along the various lines to establish the legs, arms, head, and hat.

 The various portions of the figure continue to be refined by carefully carving away excess wood.

 Details of the uniform and accessories are carved into the figure.

 Gradually, more details are carved into the figure.

Painting is always fun. I use Ceramicoat paints from Hobby Lobby.  Here I used Royal Navy Blue, White, and Black for the body and hat.

 Making the flintlock rifle was a bit harder than I originally thought.  At first I tried to make it with basswood, however, the basswood was too soft and would split along the grain very easily.  I finally settled on using walnut.  You need a very sharp knife when working on small objects so that your cuts will not tear the grain and splinter the wood. The metal parts were made from a large metal paper clip that I pounded flat with a small hammer and anvil. The bayonet is also made from a large metal paperclip pounded flat.

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