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England during the Hawken years. The fore-end cap was likewise English in styling. The
Percussion lock and the simple lockbolt plate on the opposite sidelock panel were also typical
of the understated English styling of the day.
At least as far as anyone knows- that flat to the wrist trigger guard is only rarely seen on original
Hawken rifles. But I love it! It makes a handsome rifle.
So what would you expect on an absolutely traditional Hawken rifle? You would expect very
plain maple, smooth sanded but finished dark with a blackish varnish, no figure showing
through. You get an octagon barrel, often tapered, sometimes slightly swamped and sometimes
straight on a few, with a browned or blued finish. Likely most browned barrels were originally
blued, now faded to brown, which is what antique rust bluing techniques do over time. You
would see very low sights on the early guns, only the very later having higher ones, such as we
moderns like to see. Only the Modena rifle has a truly high rear sight. The front sight would
have a copper base and a real silver blade, of whatever shape the last shooter left it in. I never
saw an adjustable sight on a Hawken, only on the later Gemmers. You would expect a case
hardened finish on buttplate, tang, breeching, lock and trigger guard. You would expect a silver
plated finish on the forend cap. All the screws would be blued, as well as the keys. Roundels
would be real silver, if any. The sidelock escutcheon would be plain blued iron, sometimes real
silver. There might be a capbox with crude engraving or the rare patchbox with none, both
almost always in iron except for a few light calibered rifles obviously never meant to cross the
mountains.
So what are you going to get on a modern reproduction? The real question is what errors we
modern makers fabricate into our reproduction, and as an aside, what we forced to do because
of concern for economy or difficulty of manufacture? First and most prominently, you will rarely
ever see case hardening on a modern reproduction. If you do, it will be done with the modern
gas based method rather than the heat soak in bone charcoal that the Hawkens probably used.
The issue is that the colors are subtly different. Some of us substitute blued finish for case
colors, but most builders just use a browned finish. Second, the barrel will inevitably be
browned, not blued as were most of the originals. Third, the stock wood will be chosen for color
and figure, usually will have been carved on a modern multi-place CNC carving machine to
98% shape and will be finished with modern oils and stain to enhance the figure of the wood
rather than disguise it. Fourth, German Silver will be used in place of real silver. Fifth, the nose
cap will rarely be silver plated. It will end up blued or browned or it will be a German silver sheet
stamping. Probably most important, the furniture will be lost wax investment cast, rather than
fabricated from sheet and brazed or sand cast as were the originals. All of these techniques,
other than for the fancy stock, are either used to lessen costs or are simply not available to the
worker.
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