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Hi, I am up in Scotland... I will push this out to my club and see if there is any interest? I have one of these and it is a handy size to fit in a box. (I have a long land as well, and I had to weld an extension box onto the top of one of my cabinets!). It always is a focus of interest on a...

Did you measure your barrel before and after proof firing it or were you just happy it stayed in one piece? A lot of folks are not aware that most proof testing processes are not just a survival test. You should really measure both the internal and external dimensions before and after firing...

Static electricity will most certainly ignite gunpowder.. I have watched demonstrations of this on several occasions at the UK Military College of Science. I grant you that igniting glazed, corned GP is probably the hardest thing to do, but igniting GP dust is much easier. As has been pointed...

... I would have him down as more of a flint lock man! :)

Are you using Pyrodex..? If so.. that is your problem! Pyrodex contains potassium perchlorate, which leave Chlorine ions in the bore, which are the worst for promoting rust. It was the presence of chlorate in primers that caused them to be corrosive, and resulted in countless pitted barrels...

Sorry.. disagree! Excess oil will not make any difference to the formation of rust. Particularly with modern oils such as Sheath/Barricade only a very small quantity is needed as it binds to the metal surface. These compounds also have a vapour phase effect that will protect metal surfaces...

If you look at where antique guns rust, most serious corrosion happens where the stock is touching the metal. I have lost count of the number of rifles where you find a line of rust pits along the "tide line" at the edge of the wood. You also find deep pitting at the lower end of the barrel...

I would be wary of using real turpentine for cleaning or preserving anything metal. Depending on the source of the turpentine, they can be quite acid and can also contain long chain polymers that dry to a form of varnish! It's great for wood, but not metal! Stick to chemically pure solvents...

Humidity is the main factor in the storage life of gunpowder. Moisture gets adsorbed by the grains and affects the performance. Potassium nitrate attracts moisture (not as badly as Sodium Nitrate) and will eventually break down the structure. High moisture content also affects the burning rate...

The need to use hot water to clean the bore comes from the use of chlorates in primers and caps.. it was very difficult to remove with oil based solvents, but would dissolve readily in hot water.. There is however another effect of boiling out barrels that is worth considering, and that is the...

Most of the stuff I do has round barrels, but the principle is the same.. I have made a series of what I call "scorp" scrapers out of spring steel strip (has to be spring steel - mild steel will not harden!). Bend 90 degrees an inch from the end, grind back to an edge and harden and temper to...

.. or even a pair of pliers with a long bolt or length of drill rod across the handles!

No, you are correct.. Colour case hardening leaves a pattern of colours on the surface, which if you remove with an acid wash, will not come back. Case hardening is a heat treatment process that creates a zone of carbon rich iron on the surface of the object that will harden when quenched. By...

It is now a requirement that firearms in UK are given a number before they are proved. It is not illegal to own an unproved gun, but it is illegal to sell it. I make a small hidden mark with a large random number, as I like to mess with the heads of future historians!

I am aware of NDT being used on Artillery and other larger items, but usually on breech rings and similar items. In UK practice, it is assumed that material faults in barrels would be found by proof testing, which has proved to be extremely reliable over the long period it has been in use. I...

I would suspect that they have been made with one of the HS alloys that has chrome in it. This will not brown whatever you put on it.. Hardening will not affect the colour.. this is dependent on the chemical characteristics of the steel! Originally these parts would have been made from Wrought...

I think the derivation is from a loose bundle of something. The Latin term "Facine" describes a bundle of sticks, held as a badge of office in ancient Rome to show they had authority over the citizens. This is where the term "Facist" comes from. The term was also used to describe bundles of...

"****" dear boy.. "****" But ******* are great.. I had some for tea yesterday with Peas and Mash!

Provided the fuze has not rotted through, a shell is pretty much hermetically sealed. There is nothing in Black Powder to deteriorate provided water is not allowed to get it. Water will destroy the physical makeup of the material and dissolve out the nitrate. Never drill into ammunition with a...

In a similar fashion to what happened in the US, gunpowder mills were bought and sold several times in the early 20th Century. The last dedicated black powder mill in Scotland was in the village of Roslin, south of Edinburgh and closed in 1954. Originally begun by the partnership of Hay and...