I’m William Baxter, a passionate artist who finds inspiration in capturing the fleeting beauty of life.
This is a place to compile information from the wheellock forum and to provide myself a place to search and store my research material.
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Reference Material
Books and Manuals
Historical Reference
How to – Class coming soon!
I have always admired functional art. Art disguised with another purpose…
Mix intelligent, inspiring, and creative art with black powder and noise. I was hooked!
As I have experienced, “Art is not an object. It is the excitement inspired by the object.”
When I go into a museum, I don’t say “I want that!”, I say, “I want to build that !”
After a health scare a few years ago, I decided to do what I said I would do “later” in life, and started to develop the skills necessary to create such objects.
Wheel locks and flintlocks are simple in function. However, it is the highly ornate, almost over the top, decoration pieces that inspire (actually yell at…) me to build one.
These ornate masterpieces are at the top end of the spectrum of engineering and art.
It takes a unique combination of skills to design, develop, and decorate these objects of precision and beauty!
Besides the engineering skills necessary to make the object function, additional sculpting & engraving skills must mastered. Yet it is the ornamentation that is most prominent.
One is drawn to art visually. Therefore, the “Art” needs to be as, if not more, precise in its design & execution than the engineering. Visually it has to make sense.
To get this right.. One has to do research.
What’s New in the Archives
NMLRA – Gun Seminar 2025 – Wheellock Building Class
Books
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Gun Running in Arabia – The Introduction of Modern Arms to the Peninsula, 1880-1914
James W. Fiscus Portland State University Fiscus, James W., “Gun Running in Arabia: The Introduction of Modern Arms to the Peninsula, 1880-1914”(1987).Dissertations and Theses. Paper 1624.https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.1623
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Guide for Drawing the Acanthus and Every Description of Ornamental Foliage
I. Page ILLUSTRATED with Upwards of Two HUNDRED wood-cuts AND FIFTY-THREE ETCHINGS ON COPPER, DESCRIPTIVE OF THE WARIOUS CHARACTERS ALLUDED TO.
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THE GUN AND ITS DEVELOPMENT
THE GUN AND ITS DEVELOPMENTBYW. W. GREENERAUTHOR OF “modern BREECH-LOADERS,” ” CHOKE-BORE GUNS,” ” MODERN SHOT-GUNS,” “the BREECH-LOADER, AND HOW TO USE IT,” ” SHARPSHOOTING FOR SPORT AND WAR,” ” THE BRITISH MINIATURE RIFLE” NINTH EDITIONRewritten^ and with many Additional IllnstrationsCASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD.LONDON, NEW YORK, TORONTO AND MELBOURNE1910ALL RIGHTS
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Quicksilver Deposits of Steens Mountain and Pueblo Mountains, Southeast Oregon
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 995-B A CONTRIBUTION TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGYQUICKSILVER DEPOSITS OF STEENS MOUNTAIN ANDPUEBLO MOUNTAINS, SOUTHEAST OREGON By Howell Williams and Robert R. Compton
How to Articles
Peter Kunz
Historical Reference
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Biblical Creatures The Animal as an Object of Interpretation in Pre-Modern Christian and Jewish Hermeneutic Traditions
Interfaces – A Journal of Medieval European Literature Volume 5, 2018
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Hermann Historica – The Karsten Klingbeil Collection
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ANTIQUE ARMS AND ARMOUR Tuesday December 13, 2011 – 3.00 pm THE KARSTEN KLINGBEIL COLLECTION THOSE WHO HAVE MET KARSTEN KLINGBEIL WILL AGREE THAT HE CAN BE RATED AMONGST THE FOREMOST COLLECTOR PERSONALITIES OF OUR TIMES, ALWAYS PURSUING HIS INTERESTS WITH GREAT VIGOUR AND PASSION. An artist at heart, he nonetheless felt compelled towards a…
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A Revolution in Arms: A History of the First Repeating Rifles (Review)
Robert B. GordonTechnology and Culture, Volume 48, Number 2, April 2007, pp. 457-458 (Review)
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A particular wheellock pistol in Turin
Marco Morin The weapon appears also interesting from a technical point of view since it has aparticularly safety system, used only rarely and, to our knowledge, only on pistols ofGerman origin.
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A CURSED, ABOMINABLE DEVICE?
The True, Shared History of Knights and Firearms Dr. Tobias Capwell FSA, Curator of Arms and Armour • The Wallace Collection