cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/9697959

The so-called Blanchard lathe [actually, it’s a shaper since the cutter is a rotating wheel] works much like a modern key-cutting machine with a stock blank [a rough gunstock form] in place of the key blank. An iron master form, in the shape of the musket stock, slowly rotates allowing a guide wheel to roll over it and to direct, in turn, the cutting wheel as it makes identical movements on the rotating wooden stock blank.

https://www.nps.gov/spar/learn/historyculture/thomas-blanchard-and-his-lathe.htm

  • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppetEnglish
    2•3 hours ago

    Wow! That’s amazing! I guess I always thought that they were made with like saws and hand sanding and stuff.

  • OptionalEnglish
    9•8 hours ago

    Fun fact - this method would be adopted and optimized by Peavey to make guitars in the 70s.

    🤘

    • @PugJesusOPMEnglish
      3•7 hours ago

      Really? That’s awesome! Funny how technology can find new applications over the years.

      • OptionalEnglish
        2•4 hours ago

        Yes although just to clarify, I don’t mean that-specific-version-of-the-machine, but the modern equivalent.

        Here’s Hartley Peavey talking about how they came up with the idea and what it was to implement it in guitar manufacture.

  • kersplooshEnglish
    5•8 hours ago

    I immediately recognized that top pic from the Springfield Armory museum. It’s definitely worth a visit for anyone passing through central Massachusetts.

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppetEnglish
      3•3 hours ago

      I just found a video of that exhibit on YouTube, but unfortunately I’m unable to find a video of this thing in action.