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  1. K

    Is it a 1750s Rifle?

    Unfortunately I'm not at liberty to publicize any photos. And, I'm not positive at all that he may have been Swiss. Could have been German or French for all I know! Stockel notes a Fessler, no first name, in Bern ca. 1750. This was really the only guy I found within Stockel who could...
  2. K

    Is it a 1750s Rifle?

    Roger I never took it as an insult a'tall. Thanks very much for the kind comments! Undertaker - I believe the Fesler/Fessler in question may be Swiss. Stockel lists one or two in Switzerland but no details given. Being in Europe, you are in a far better position than I to find any such...
  3. K

    Is it a 1750s Rifle?

    Ps, this piece hs never been up at TOTW. Not sure what you handled? but it was not this. This went straight to customer. Pss - Undertaker, if you are in Germany, might turn up something interesting if you look around a bit and see if you can find arms of any type with either lock or barrel...
  4. K

    Is it a 1750s Rifle?

    Thnak you VERY much for the kind comments guys - I very much appreciate it. I would personally appreciate MORE argument as I think I may thrive upon it. It also shakes things up down and out of the woodwork. Most of this early stuff is interpretational anyway, but I try to educate myself and...
  5. K

    Chris: Oerter ~ Chris: Spring : 1775

    The lock is entirely, utterly and absolutely 100% original to the gun. Wood movement and shrinkage does a lot. There a quite a few pieces of missing ribbon as well and the box stands pretty proud. This gun is essentially as untouched as they come - a true 'attic' piece.
  6. K

    Vent liners as original equipment

    Shumway's Rifles in Colonial America Vol. 1, rifle # 43 carries a very small gold vent liner. Too many 'what ifs' to determine whether it is original to the rifle at the time of construction but the lock is in awfully good shape and the exterior breech of the barrel is not terribly corroded...
  7. K

    Oil Varnish

    This is a classic 'common brown' or 'cheap brown' varnish. The resin loosely termed as 'rosin' by stringed instrument players is a rather crudely refined generic conifer resin extracted from various species of pine. It will add a gloss to the oil and not much more - it is a very brittle and...
  8. K

    Buck County Ramrod Thimble

    A large percentage of the Bucks rifles w/ a long or decorative skirt made use of a two-piece soldered deal. The pipe was made as a standard pipe and the skirt soldered-on and filed-out. Some of this work was executed so well that you cannot determine that it was soldered without removing the...
  9. K

    Finishing stock with wood scraper only

    You shouldn;t have a problem scraping around the carving because the whole stock should be scraped down first, before any carving is executed. The longer you can work out your scraping strokes (calm down, calm down :rotf: ) the better the stock will look when finished as there will be less...
  10. K

    Need help with original flintlock, marked *SDB*

    And incidentally, if you feel like taking more pictures I would love to see them. Hint hint. Can you get a really clear shot of the carving? And the SIDEPLATE!! bottom of the guard? What type of inlays are down the forearm? The engraving on the box is very interesting and not something...
  11. K

    Need help with original flintlock, marked *SDB*

    Well this is really interesting. My first thought when seeing the box was that it looked like a very rudimentary form of a much more elaborate, pieced box that Samuel Baum used on occasion. Now that I see more of the rifle, I would have to definitely say that it looks upper Susquehanna to me...
  12. K

    Need help with original flintlock, marked *SDB*

    I'd like to see more pictures, especially the cheek side and the sideplate. Any carving? Looks like there's something around the tang - like to see that too. Can't tell much from the clips posted but it looks like a neat gun. Wood looks like maybe refinished or ??? Awfully clean wood.
  13. K

    Barn Gun / Schimmel

    Something else I forgot to mention: I don't know whether there is any way to completely explore or dig for documentation in regards to one theory which has currently gained some ground amongst collectors, that being that many of these *appear* to have been kept in barns and that perhaps the...
  14. K

    Bedford County, PA Flintlocks

    What a great rifle. That piece has got to be John Dunmyer/Dunmeyer - Somerset County. Probably one of his earlier pieces too, ca. 1850-60. Aside from the initials on the very characteristic lock, the box is pracically a signature in an of itself. And the sideplate design screams Somerset...
  15. K

    Barn Gun / Schimmel

    As I see once more, you either get it or you don't. There is no place for a discussion of the term 'barn gun' outside of SE PA. I don't know nor pretend to know why this is. I did not inven the term 'barn gun' and I don;t know who did. I don;t know what these pieces were called in 1790 or...
  16. K

    Barn Gun / Schimmel

    This is why a discussion of these things always deteriorates: for some reason, semantics become ridiculously important to the discussion and it's all down hill from there! I don't much care what we call them so long as everyone engaged in the discussion knows what we're talking ABOUT! These...
  17. K

    Barn Gun / Schimmel

    I've probably examined about 75 of these things at this point ranging in date from ca. 1790 through about 1840. I could count on one hand the number that carried evidence of rifling.
  18. K

    Peter Barry

    Hey guys - there were TWO Annville Peter Berrys, father and son. The idea that Peter Sr. who died in 1794/95 was a gunsmith is now largely assumed to be unproven myth. Peter Jr. died in 1835, and was first taxed as a gunsmith in 1786. He is consistently taxed as a gunsmith but his father...
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