Moroccan Afedali Snaphaunce rebuild

As mentioned in "Anyone shooting N. African snaphaunces?", I'm rebuilding a Moroccan Afedali Snaphaunce musket I picked up from a FFL friend for $200 USD, with the goal of having a working/firing shooter when finished.

So far, I've completely disassembled the gun, but it's absolutely filthy, covered in the grime and rust of 200+ years of use and abuse, and a number of items (notably the stock) will need replaced. Some major cleaning and determination of what will and won't be reused begins the next chapter in the story of this piece.

-Bob

Hi Bob

Again, congratulations for getting the whole thing dis-assembled. For some of us, this will be a really cool project to watch.

STOCK: Unfortunately, it does indeed look/sound like the stock is toast. You will probably see a large, single nail in the center of the rear of the butt stock. That butt stock is actually two pieces and was made that way. See if you can pry the nail out. If not, just cut the head off. The end one or two pieces should the come off. If the wood for the one or two pieces is in OK condition, it can be reused with the new stock. If not in good enough condition, you have the pattern to make a new one(s).
You might have also noticed that there is no ramrod hole in that super thin stock, but a narrow chiseled groove cut the full length of the stock. At the rear of this groove, back by the lock area, you will see that the chisel cut makes a slight right-hand turn. Keep that in mind going forward with a new stock. This slight curve (along with the barrel bands) is what held the thin ramrod in place. Of course, today, that groove could likely be cut using a small router.
The reason for keeping that rear butt stock section is that it will be extremely difficult locating a stock "blank" wide enough for a one-piece stock.

Rick

The ramrod groove can be seen in cross sections of the aft (L) and fore (R) stock pieces. I feel the stock is unacceptably thin between the barrel trough and ramrod grooves, so I will offset the ramrod ~2-3 mm lower so that the new stock is thicker there.

The aft butt stock was attached with 2 nails and pried off easily. The upper and lower butt stock edge/corner guards are in pretty bad shape in the corners. Since the wood stock and brass barrel bands must be replaced, I also plan to replace both edge/corner guards with a single piece of brass as wide as the stock where it contacts the shooter's shoulder, tapering forward of the fold as it does now. I will duplicate the shapes along the upper and lower edges and emboss a pattern on the shoulder plate similar to that on the aft most barrel band. A dark wood stock with punch embossed decorated brass barrel bands and shoulder/corner/edge guard will look impressive, yet not overly ornate for a working piece (it was not a show piece).

Question: Any idea what type of wood was used for the stock? I'm not a wood grader or carpenter, but the bulk of the stock appears to be made from black walnut, though the aft butt stock looks like maple. The original aft butt stock is in good shape so I will just reuse it.

-Bob

I've cleaned the outside of the barrel, starting with a razor scraper and continuing with various sandpaper grits (80, 100, 150, 220, and finally 400) and scotchbrite pads to get rid of the built up rust and grime. Lacquer thinner was used at times to clean up remnants of the tar-like goo used where underside of the barrel contacts the stock. It's fairly obvious where the barrel bands were, as there's no pitting in those areas and there is pitting elsewhere. I've done nothing to the bore aside from verifying no charge existed. The breech plug is intact and touch hole area is pitted and needs filled and redrilled; both were left as-is.

I don't have a bore gauge of any sort, so I used what I have, and found that a drive socket with a 0.467 in (11.85 mm) diameter slides down the entire bore fairly easily, while one measuring 0.517 in (13.13 mm) does not. That indicates a ~0.5 in bore (50 caliber), though it could be 12 mm or perhaps some else (?).

I spoke with Bob Hoyt last week, explaining what I have and my intention to restore/rebuild it to shooting status again. I told him I want him to inspect it, and either rebore and hone it to the next largest caliber, reline it to its original caliber (?), or reject it as unfireable for whatever reason(s). While hoping to rebore and hone, I'll accept having to reline it, and certainly hope it's not rejected as unfireable. He will also fill the pitting around the touch hole as well as the touch hole itself.

Question: What was/were the caliber(s) of the barrels used on these guns?

-Bob

Hi Bob. REF your Post #3:

Great job getting that rear butt stock piece off. AND ! even better you can reuse that piece. I'm not good with I.D.-ing wood. But I believe most of these stocks were some type of European walnut. But, in this case, assuming the new stock will have a dark - almost black colored - stain like many originals, I would just go with regular American walnut. That dark color will cover up any/most of the wood grain anyway. That butt stock end piece you removed, will want a lighter red-ish brown color. The two different colors were common. Those iron reinforcements for the butt stock corners look like the could be reused, but do look a bit beat-up. Those could be made new out of brass or iron. Speaking of which:
Reinforcement Corners and Barrel Bands: This took me the longest time to find something out. LOL Apparently, once sheet brass, steel, etc. gauge gets thinner, below some point, they don't call it sheet but shim stock. You will note how thin the original barrel bands are. That's so they will have a small amount flex pulling them snug around the barrel, for-end stock, and ramrod. Typically, the sheet brass commonly available for our hobby patch boxes, inlays, etc. is too thick. So you want to source shim stock. About the same thickness as the original rear barrel band. Ditto for whatever thickness the reinforcement butt stock pieces are. Much easier to bend shim stock.
There is actually a couple of options you can do with the barrel bands. You can go with the 8 or how ever many were originally on the gun as you can tell where they were originally placed by looking at the barrel. OR, you can go with say 3 longer bands and maybe a short one at the muzzle. This would also be authentic and an even stronger for the thin forearm. I'll most a photo of mine showing the longer bands. (mine has only 2 long bands due to the shorter barrel).

Rick

Hi Bob. REF Post #4:

Good job cleaning the outside of the barrel. Yes, you can see where the original barrel bands were fitted. You can replace those in the same locations or go with the other option above. I don't recall ever seeing that tar-like glue used on Moroccan guns for bedding material. Hmmmm....strange. Although the Afghans were occasionally fond of using it for their gun stock inlays. Terrible stuff. LOL

Glad you were able to talk to Bobby Hoyt. Great guy but not the easiest to get in touch with. When I send him a barrel I usually also write a long note of what I want - or better, just have him call you when he is ready to start on your barrel to confirm what you would like in case he forgot. Did he give you a time line ? No need to try and lean the bore. He will take care of that and plug the existing vent hole. He once told be that he never had a breech plug he couldn't remove. (I try to help him out a bit by squiring a little Kroil oil, or other on the breech plug area before shipping him the barrel so it has time to creep in while the barrel is waiting it's turn) The breech plug integrity should be OK. He'll be honest and tell you. If your lucky, he will tell you that you can get away with just burnishing. He'll be honest about that also. If not, the new liner is the way to go. If, by chance, he calls you and mentions that the muzzle end has a slight swell, he'll ask you if you want to keep the swell. Tell him NO. You just want regular, straight cylinder bore. That will make life easier for both of you. LOL

The calibers of these Moroccan muskets I've seen seem to run anywhere from about .50 caliber to about .65 caliber. On occasion, you'll find a .45 or a .70. If your barrel does require a liner, you want the next most common smooth bore caliber up or down. He will tell you your options. With smooth bore barrels you need to use a ball size 2-3 calibers smaller than the nominal bore size. As an example, I had Bobby make my liner in .55 caliber. That may sound odd at first. But it allows me to use either .530 or .526 round balls which are both readily available at TOTW. You can always order a mold later if desired. In any case, you will get a barrel back from Bobby that's ready to re-drill the vent hole and shoot.

Here's a pic of my Hoyt liner Moroccan barrel when I got it back. Bore wise, essentially a new barrel inside the old.

Rick

Stock:


Barrel:


Cleaning:

Cracking:

-Bob

Hi Bob

For what it's worth dept.: When I would send a barrel to Bobby Hoyt I would wrap the barrel in a long piece(s) of A/C pipe insulation. Then slide it into a piece of schedule-40 white PVC pipe with female threaded end caps glued on both ends, and male threaded plugs just snugged in. That way, Bobby could just ship the barrel back to me in the same container.

Looks like the lock cleaning turned out well. Now you have a better idea of what you're dealing with. In my experience, I don't think the Moroccan lock makers ever hardened anything with these locks. It seems they didn't have the actual knowledge of tempering/hardening. Especially spring temper. That's why I believe is one of the reasons for the over-strong mainspring. To compensate for the lack of correct spring temper. The other reason, is due to the lesser quality of flint available locally. The flint was just sub-par compared to the English black and the French amber. I had a new mainspring made for one of my Moroccan locks a few years ago along with the frizzen (battery) hardened. Can't believe how much smoother it operated. It was interesting that your lock actually held in the cock position. About 90% of these locks you encounter do not. The toe of the sear that protrudes through the square hole in the lock plate and catches on the inner edge of the hammer is usually worn down from use (again, not hardened). That stress crack on the frizzen may have been (?) from a period half-sole job that is starting to separate. My only thought for this and the other small cracks would be small tig-welding and filing. Worth a try. Once that frizzen is repaired, it probably won't need any additional hardening. The heavy mainspring and a sharp flint will usually make the sparks you need. But it also tends to eat up flints soon. LOL Forge welding might (?) be another option for the frizzen. There is only one guy I know who can do that - assuming he says it can be done from looking at a photo. Worse case scenario, I probably have a spare frizzen I can donate to the cause. LOL
By the way, if the mainspring ever breaks, a new one can be made. Especially if you have the old one to use as a pattern.

Rick

Wrapped in a length of pipe insulation and packed in a stout mailing tube I already had, I shipped the barrel today. My letter to Bob Hoyt was included and is attached here.

Since cleaning all of the lock parts and thinking more about using new vs original fasteners, I've decided to use as many of the originals as possible. That decision is primarily based on the need to either 1) drill the fastener holes oversized so they can be tapped to the next larger standard size or 2) have TIG welds fill in those holes, then and re-drill and tap them for similar sized new fasteners. Either way involves more drilling, tapping, and TIG welding than I prefer to have done on the original lock plate.

I looked at the frizzen on-edge very closely, and it appeared to be the "half-sole" mentioned. So I used a Dremel grinder bit to clean up the face below the sole and got showers of sparks, as anticipated. Touching the same bit to a point above the sole produced far less sparks. Though the frizzen isn't under anywhere near the stress the mainspring and dog are, there is at least one screw that needs some additional TIG weld and maybe the mainspring and dog, so I'll add repairing the frizzen cracks to that.

-Bob

The pan cover opening mechanism is one area that needs some work. As mentioned in my last post, the head of the screw holding the pan cover arm retainer is almost non-existent and needs a little TIG weld to build it up so that a deeper slot can be filed.

Also, the pan cover arm is pretty worn, not thick enough, and the lower hole is both over size and worn, so the actuator arm driven by the cock doesn't engage well and slips. The screw is long enough, but has very little shank and no shoulder were it contacts the plate, and if the arm screw is fully tightened the arm can't move. Not exactly a reliable mechanism to open the pan when fired.

I intend to make a new, thicker arm and an even thicker (i.e. 0.005" thicker) bushing that can be fully tightened such that the arm is free to move. The new arm will also reduce the current slop where the arm is pinned to the pan cover. All-in-all, I think the refurbished flash pan cover mechanism will operate better and more reliably.

-Bob

Hi Bob

Glad you had a fiber tube handy for shipping. Shippers tend to hate "round" tubes as they tend to roll off of conveyer belts and have to hand carry them to their next processing point. But we don't care. It's the best way to ship barrels. Especially long ones.

As I recall, over half of these locks I've examined over the years have had the frizzens half-soled due to likely hard use. By now, you've seen how these locks lack what we might call "refinement". LOL I've always found it amazing that the locals continued to make and use these locks up through at least the mid-19th Century. A lock that begun it's development in the late 16th Century.
Malleable iron tends to spark well. But wears down fairly fast if not properly hardened. The likely reason for so many of these locks showing up with half-sole frizzens.
The pan cover arm is often a problem. The material used for the arm is often too thin and will eventually bend. I've found that the higher quality guns often came with locks having a bit better refinement. But it's hit or miss. These locks were made in small local shops. Likely with a minimum amount of tools. And it shows. And yes, "slop" is the right word. LOL
I once read a period account from a then British officer's diary who mentioned that the locals said there muskets would not continue to operate unless the lock internals were well greased. I can believe it. Even when the lock is functioning well, I've found they do seem to like a small amount of grease in the moving internals. Especially on the lock plate behind the push rod.

Did Bobby Hoyt give you an approximate turn-around time to get your barrel back ? Anyway, good time to work on the lock while waiting for the barrel to return. Looks/sounds like you're doing a great job.

Rick

Bobby quoted 4-6 weeks, and I told him that was OK with me. I intend to R & R the lock while the barrel is out and hope to bench test it before the barrel is back. I will also order a walnut board for the stock, and brass shim stock for the barrel bands, aft butt stock plate, and edge guards.

Cleaning the barrel and lock parts has taken easily 12+ hours (not including getting the tools and supplies to do it), but I've really enjoyed every minute of it.

For the TIG work, I'm currently trying to find someone local that will do good work at an acceptable price. It looks the hourly cost for in-shop work done on carbon steel runs ~$100/hr, and I think what I want shouldn't take more than an hour.

-Bob

4-6 weeks is about right for Bobby as I recall. When you order the stock blank make sure it's wide enough to accommodate the butt stock - less the end cap that will be reused. You will likely want the stock about 2" thick to accommodate the big lock. And the length long enough to about an inch or two past the muzzle of the barrel. Too long is of course better than too short. But you've probably figured that out already. Speaking of the stock, you have a couple of options.
1 You can carve the new stock completely from the blank. OR
2 You can send the stock blank. barrel, and ramrod out and have the blank cut for just the barrel only and the ramrod hole drilled full length. It would save you a TON of work. I've done this twice. Sent a stock blank (there are many vendors who carry stock blanks) and a barrel to Pecatonica and it was about $150.00 plus shipping both ways with a 3-4 day turn-around. Highly recommended.

Rick

Rick-

Having Pecatonica River Long Rifle Supply do the initial work on the new stock should work very well for me.

It so happens that I’m driving to Ottawa, IL (~1:15 hr south of their listed Rockford, IL address) in late Sep and will be there for a little over a week. I can bring everything with me, drop it off when I first arrive in the area, and pick it all up before I drive back to Texas. Even if the barrel isn’t back from Bobby before I leave for IL, I’ll just ask him to ship it directly to Pecatonica.

Not only will I save on shipping, I can also meet the folks doing the work.

-Bob

Hi Bob

What a great coincidence. LOL I'm guessing Bobby should have the barrel back to you just before you're ready to leave. Fingers crossed everyone !! Don't forget to take the ramrod also, in this case.

Rick

relyon59 said:

The ramrod groove can be seen in cross sections of the aft (L) and fore (R) stock pieces. I feel the stock is unacceptably thin between the barrel trough and ramrod grooves, so I will offset the ramrod ~2-3 mm lower so that the new stock is thicker there.

The aft butt stock was attached with 2 nails and pried off easily. The upper and lower butt stock edge/corner guards are in pretty bad shape in the corners. Since the wood stock and brass barrel bands must be replaced, I also plan to replace both edge/corner guards with a single piece of brass as wide as the stock where it contacts the shooter's shoulder, tapering forward of the fold as it does now. I will duplicate the shapes along the upper and lower edges and emboss a pattern on the shoulder plate similar to that on the aft most barrel band. A dark wood stock with punch embossed decorated brass barrel bands and shoulder/corner/edge guard will look impressive, yet not overly ornate for a working piece (it was not a show piece).

Question: Any idea what type of wood was used for the stock? I'm not a wood grader or carpenter, but the bulk of the stock appears to be made from black walnut, though the aft butt stock looks like maple. The original aft butt stock is in good shape so I will just reuse it.

-Bob

Click to expand...

In my view all this work is contary to preservation which should be as it was ,not some notion we have ,I've gone to great lengths to restore hopeless floating bits to preserve and have examples (.Note Post number one) Restock wood its hardly lickley be Black walnut , walnut or maybe argoniay grows in Morrocco and may serve for stocks .Not a lot of forestry in that region your gun comes from I was only two months in that region mostly at Agadir but I did visit the Taroudant region . I watched them building wooden fishing boat in the Docks of Agadir when I was guest of the French Harbour Master who had been sailing in the Carribean in his youth and had a great library of sailing ship books in English. Sailing ships being one of my interest's . If I wasn't making guns Ide be making model ships !.(Other than a few hours on the' Royaliste '& the 'Rose' Frigate) my only crewing was steam ships one the' MV Kirk B 'a Cayman Island tramp I helped save in Puerta Cortez Honduras (Hurricane swept wild night ) so worked a passage to Kingston on her ,
& as Fireman of the" SY Akuna" Ex' HMAS ''Gladstone' a delivery job Brisbane River to Singapore .Steam & black powder are related eliments you cant just push a button you got to coax them to get the best results . Roming Rudyard

After doing further research, I now believe the stock was made from common walnut (Juglans regia), not black walnut (Juglans nigra). Though the species is of farther eastern origins, common walnut was used extensively in western European muskets in the 16th - 19th centuries, and most likely what the original stock was made of. It's somewhat expen$ive.

-Bob

Hi Bob

My guess is that the wood used for these Moroccan musket stocks was probably closer to European/English walnut. A bit different than North American/Black walnut. Today, European walnut - especially in long lengths - can cost twice what standard curly maple cost. But in your case, making a new stock for a shooter, any quality walnut should do. Especially if you plan on using a very dark stain like most originals I've seen.

I still can't get over that your lock sear would hold the hammer in the cock position. In all my years I've only held on that would. These locally made Moroccan locks must have been in a constant state of maintenance/repair.

rickystl said:

Hi Bob

My guess is that the wood used for these Moroccan musket stocks was probably closer to European/English walnut. A bit different than North American/Black walnut. Today, European walnut - especially in long lengths - can cost twice what standard curly maple cost. But in your case, making a new stock for a shooter, any quality walnut should do. Especially if you plan on using a very dark stain like most originals I've seen.

I still can't get over that your lock sear would hold the hammer in the cock position. In all my years I've only held on that would. These locally made Moroccan locks must have been in a constant state of maintenance/repair.

Click to expand...

Yes a well figured bit of Walnut can be very expensive but regular slabs of it are no problem you need only get a old tree and get it sawn into slabs . Watchout for nails people felt it was benificial to beat up & knock nails into a live tree Some Jingle like'' A dog a wife & a walnut tree the more you beat them the better they be '' Ive put Dog cant recall what the saying said . Locally walnut even if long down and all sap wood rotted to mush but the heart wood kept good we have & I expect small sawmills will cut up with a portable band saw .Old ugly furniture turns up in Op shops& for fore end you don't need much .Not all black walnut is much different to the English stuff its all down to where it grows and in what sort of minerals the soil had . I used to ask after Sycamore (Much like maple) the office may tell you " We don't have any " But just ask the crew the office think only of wide sound boards but shakes & knots the office might not consider good but we can get round the shakes ect and get stock blanks out of a plank. Try established Cabinet makers they might have a bit . Try the local' Menz Shed' we get all sorts of wood given us even a bit of ' Brazil Wood 'leaden stuff but used to stock Scots pistols not that the' Shed 'produces these but I do.
Regards Rudyard

Often we see any number of antique guns with original finish that is, or has eventually turned that very dark, almost black color. If you hold it under the right light, it sometimes gives off a slight purple-like heugh. I was once told many years ago that the original stock stains that turn much darker was due to the use of animal lard in the stain mixture. But I've not been able to confirm this.