Flintlock Touch Hole Pick

[Cruzatte]

Don't use one of those sold as a traditional kind that has the twisted square corners made by heating square stock and twisting it before cooling.
They work like a square reamer, and will enlarge your vent hole over time.

I've owned several. And ain't none of 'em ever been able to fit into the touch hole on my rifle. So I quit using 'em.

 

[Rifleman1776]

hole that I burned

Interesting technique for that. Did you burn the hole to avoid the risk of a drill coming out the side?

 

[Zonie]

This is kinda off topic but, the hole for the vent pick is just a little bit above the carved surface of the stock and it is running parallel with the surface.

To drill the hole I would have needed a 3/32" drill bit about 12 inches long so the drill chuck wouldn't hit the wood.

Rather than doing that, I used a coat hanger wire with the end heated red hot and pressed into the wood.
It took several heating's but eventually, it literally burned the hole into the stock.

This technique was often used "back in the day" for making holes such as this.

The vent pick is a little bit smaller than the hole so I bent it slightly to keep it snug when it is pushed into place.

 

[Elnathan]

Is the hole through the cheekpiece method of carrying a pick something seen on originals, or something you came up with? In addition to the inlays designed to carry picks, I've seen little wire loops under the cheekpiece and holes drilled in the bottom of the stock behind the triggerguard, but have never seen or seen mention of holes in the cheekpiece itself.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Thanks. That is interesting, both from an historical and crafts point of view. It is posts like that that keep us who know it all realizing we do not know it all. :wink: :grin:

 

[M. De Land]

I like and use soft black wire with a curl wound on the end for a purchase handle. The tip is made into a hemisphere to push out the fouling plug and not harm the barrel on the opposite side of the flash hole.
It also is left in the flash hole at loading to act as a flash hole safe/plug and to leave a hole through the compressed powder charge when withdrawn to fire, to better facilitate ignition from the pan flash.

 

[smo]

Would that be tie wire like used for hay bales?

 

[M. De Land]

Yes, but must fit the flash hole relatively snugly. It will also act as a gauge to flash hole erosion.

 

[Zonie]

I built those guns years ago but as my memory serves me, I'm pretty sure I found a photo of a original gun that had its vent pick installed like that.

Unfortunately, I can't find the picture even though I did quite a bit of digging thru my books.

For now, I guess we'll just have to say, "Ole' Zonie must have thought up the idea", but I think it is a good one.

 

[smo]

Thanks :hatsoff: