Search results

That was for the paper patched Pattern 1853 Rifle Musket onwards. I agree that a patched round ball is another matter and the Board of Ordnance was quite satisfied with a bees wax/tallow mix up until then. Varied in India for local alternatives to tallow such as coconut oil or linseed oil in...

The British army changed from tallow/bees wax to just pure bees wax and found it worked fine in all conditions around the world. It leaves a coat that prevents following fouling adhering easily and cleans it out when the next shot is fired.

The soft brick Polish was at the soldier’s expense. If too short of funds then they were reduced to rubbing two soft bricks together and using the actual dust. The trade polish was actually from deliberately under fired clay and ground fine and made as a commercial product. Sold in small ingots...

A lesson in understanding case hardening:

Being a ‘non gun’ is what allows them to be exported within Indian export laws. In Europe (and indeed India) they cannot be sold without passing government proof tests if the touch hole is drilled. They routinely pass these proof tests. They are functionally very much actual guns. In the USA you...

Other than the different cultural practice of working on the floor rather than at a bench it does not differ at all. Were they rifling with the pre power period method the rifling bench would not at all differ from those used today for hand rifling. Baden Powell in the 19th century recorded...

No comfort to you but the wood yard in the next village to me in France does do any interesting trees that are offered. Bulk of their business in oak sleepers and firewood but he has a store of interesting stuff tucked away in a spare building and sold me a thick slab of the centre of a cherry...

We should note that the original post quotes from a reputable source and that weeding out dangerous weaknesses is what official proof testing is supposed to do and, in this case it worked. Proof houses all have many failures amongst all the arms sent for testing across all types. That there was...

Indian muzzleloaders are classed as full firearms with all the associated export paperwork etc. if the touch hole is drilled. Hence they leave that for the recipients to do. Otherwise the costs would make the price too high. Indeed very difficult to achieve at all given Indian laws and...

I have waited two years for some parts so I understand the issues some have but he has made the stuff and made it available, albeit with delays. It is his business and he has the right to run it as he will and I, for one, am grateful for the opportunities it gives to get the makings of so many...

And this is why they have proof testing. The system worked. Not all fine hand made American custom firearms pass a proof test when exported to a nation with proofing laws. Not many fail but it does happen. Again, this is why they have proof testing.

What is all this fuss about? A gun went to a government proof house and was proof tested. It failed. That is why sensible countries have government proof houses. It weeds out the failures. The system worked. In the USA it would have just gone on sale to the public as was.

Those imported into Europe pass the proof tests including the British and German government proofs which are the most severe. Otherwise you get what you pay for. Want better wood, higher finish, finer made metal work and lock parts? They can do it but you would pay the extra prices into...

This is a modern reproduction made in India recently. Originals were made in England and Russian army copies in Belgium.

OT and unmentionable but, for a full service load, I just use air as a filler in my Martini Henry but I leave now before I am both chastised and castigated by the moderators. But not before noting that both the Swiss and Austro Hungarians armies deliberately kept a small air gap on their muzzle...

It does not matter what material one uses for a barrel. As long as you make the barrel suit the material. Old time cannon were made of cast iron and worked fine with balls weighing by the pound not the grain yet people would be incensed it one made a musket out of cast iron. Wood, bamboo and...

Ah hockey. Like rugby but with a 3 foot stick in hand. When I was a teenager I was shocked by the foul language and vicious violence of the girls school sides we played against. But then playing girls schools was the whole point of forming our hockey team.

The air gap is not going to contribute any significant amount of oxygen but it may allow the serpentine powder to open up to allow the deflagration front to advance more rapidly. But I am of the opinion that the aim was to have a thicker breech to contain an adiabatic deflagration, closer to...

Apologies of this has been posted before but I could find no trace. It gives a view that popular ideas about the matchlock in Japan are mythological and suggest alternatives in context of Japanese history. I do like, in the first comment, the reference to Japanese pirates. Contrary to laws about...

Their ‘ague’ was poisoning from the zinc fumes as some of the zinc in the molten brass sublimed into the air I would imagine.