Flask or Horn?

[Lancer]

Hey all,

I have a pair of Harpers Ferry pistols as well as a display case for them. I am redoing the display case and was wondering if I should put in a small priming horn or a powder flask ? Were powder flasks common for the early 1800's or would a small horn be better :hmm: ? If a flask would work, does anyone know where I can get a decent one? DGW has some but I'm not sure of their time period. Any help on this would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Lancer

 

[Zonie]

Most of the powder flasks that were used during the time when the Harpers Ferry pistols were used by the military is described in the book "The Powder Flask Book" on page 8 & 12: "...Only the military flasks were relatively standard. Of these there were two usual shapes after the early round flasks had passed out of vogue. One was the flattened horn shape with the small end cut off and a flask mount and nozzle added. Sometimes these flasks were actually made of horn, ... In other instances they were made of wood covered with leather or were made just of heavy leather. In both instances the mountings were usually iron.
The other major design was a modified triangle with the base flat, the sides slightly concave and the apex cut off..."

Needless to say, finding something like this would take a major effort and the cost would probably be worth more than your pistols.

All of the currently made commercial flasks duplicate the flasks that were used with the Cap & Ball revolvers of the 1836-1870s or later designs.

I think that if you want to include something to hold powder, a powder horn would be more appropriate.
zonie