Old black powder.

[Rudyard]

Dear Feltwad have you forgotten the Gevalo powder considered a powerful powder plus the big boxes of A5 FO triangle a grey 'soot' we called it but it was fine powder .Incidentally there is a renowned explorer/ New Zealand Company Surveyor, Thomas Brunner his family in Oxford where principals in Imperial chemical Industries viz ICI .Though Thomas died in NZ and left his house to E Kehu his faithfull guide, In my village is a carved Gateway depicting both and I am maintaining it being involved with the' Gate way' construction as what might be called Engineer originally ( To the close by Kaharangi National Park ) I have his lists of kit he bought for himself & E Kehu plus one Maori guide E Pickawati and their wives ( Who never had their names mentioned !) three guns boots, cloth shot & powder flasks ect ect plus his dog which being hard pressed they ate , all circa 1850s. I can send you a photo via your E .
Regards Rudyard.

PS the gun shop up South Street was Robert Ropers .

 

[GREENSWLDE]

We only seemed to get C & H when I started as a school boy with a Dean Adams and Dean 54 bore 5 shot with the rare Rigby rammer bought for 7/6d from a friend. Was good for Rooks on the allotment with No.6 shot. about 10 yards from the shed. Black Silver was my favorite in the Flint Gun. No.1 would self prime from the barrel which save time when pigeons were coming fast. Still have some 1 & 2. Swiss is a close second..

 

[jimhallam]

Dear Jim My first wage was just under 3 pound a week & powder was 7 & 6 pence a pound ,Shot being 2/6 pence from Smiths at Newark. Maybe you shopped at the' Bishop of Beetwell Street ' Frank Hall in his deer stalker & breaks . or Turners' West Bar with that long Twigg duck gun on the beam , or maybe the good shop up South Street ? hanged if can remember his name but remember the bullet hole in his cabinet. You might have been involved with Sheffield Branch MLAGB ?. Small world ( glad I hav'nt got to paint it !) ' Bulmers selling service' in York was always worth the trip he sold Martini ramrods for 6 pence each still have one or two .I bought a LH flnt gun & a 50'' long barrelled flint gun off Bulmer .The local Derbyshire farm I shot on owner said to me "Wi can see thee cumin afoore wi can see thee". Dyson started in his loft at Honley later he did me his first flint conversion just a tired lock not the gun.
Regards Rudyard

Dear Rudyard
I was living in Matlock, so used Hall's in Beetwell Street, Chesterfield. The old man with his "junktique shop" and his son John in the gunshop next door. I understand that when the shops closed John moved to a workshop nearby and made some very good cannons. (I suppose that I should say "cannon"). I was never a member of Sheffield Branch MLAGB, just the local NE London branch. I didn't have much time to shoot, as I was studying, and also was a Solo Cornet with the Matlock Town Band, as well as playing 5-string banjo / guitar / autoharp & dulcimer in the College Folk Music Club. I often wonder how I managed !
I am still a member of what may be the most active branch -- SURREY.
I am now thinning down my personal collection -- down to "only" about 140 now, but the problem is that it is very specialised and the UK is not the place nowadays. I used to have tables at the MACA (Baltimore) Show and the January Vegas Show --- and stuff that was left on the table was consigned to Amoskeag (Manchester, NH) who I trust more than any other major Auction House.

ATB
Jim

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Here's an earlier thread.
Apparently it's Scottish?
Maybe sold in the United States for a while as "meteor" brand?
Curtis's & Harvey's Powder

LD

 

[Rudyard]

Dear Rudyard
I was living in Matlock, so used Hall's in Beetwell Street, Chesterfield. The old man with his "junktique shop" and his son John in the gunshop next door. I understand that when the shops closed John moved to a workshop nearby and made some very good cannons. (I suppose that I should say "cannon"). I was never a member of Sheffield Branch MLAGB, just the local NE London branch. I didn't have much time to shoot, as I was studying, and also was a Solo Cornet with the Matlock Town Band, as well as playing 5-string banjo / guitar / autoharp & dulcimer in the College Folk Music Club. I often wonder how I managed !
I am still a member of what may be the most active branch -- SURREY.
I am now thinning down my personal collection -- down to "only" about 140 now, but the problem is that it is very specialised and the UK is not the place nowadays. I used to have tables at the MACA (Baltimore) Show and the January Vegas Show --- and stuff that was left on the table was consigned to Amoskeag (Manchester, NH) who I trust more than any other major Auction House.

ATB
Jim

Dear Jim. Thinning down,Ime on number 193 new made (Only a few kept rest spread globally ) just using up stock while Ime able . I have two violins cant play either but sing all day to the dogs and much is in the folk style, Dogs seem to like it . I used to do Manchester/Glastonbury Newburg & Allantown regular with Phil Ackerman a trader often met up with Mick Long over buying. I try reduce but keep making more . Amoskeag could be use full still have stuff in the US. Its a pain getting guns out or in nowadays used to be so simple . Greenswlde's start was naturally more up market. I had a relic '.Webley Bentley' type never tried shot in it . The' Bishop of Beetwell Street' he could be brusk or very agreeable cant recall the Junkiques shop sounds more Johns wife stuff
.Regards Rudyard

 

[jimhallam]

QUOTE -- "Amoskeag could be use full still have stuff in the US."

AMOSKEAG are in the old Waumbeck Mills in Manchester, NH --- where some CW rifles were made. Jason Devine (and wife Melissa) run a tight shop -- - with excellent staff. Their cataloguing is excellent and their trading is on honest principles. I have been dealing with them since their first Auction in 1997. I cannot recommend them too highly.

 

[GREENSWLDE]

Dear Jim. Thinning down,Ime on number 193 new made (Only a few kept rest spread globally ) just using up stock while Ime able . I have two violins cant play either but sing all day to the dogs and much is in the folk style, Dogs seem to like it . I used to do Manchester/Glastonbury Newburg & Allantown regular with Phil Ackerman a trader often met up with Mick Long over buying. I try reduce but keep making more . Amoskeag could be use full still have stuff in the US. Its a pain getting guns out or in nowadays used to be so simple . Greenswlde's start was naturally more up market. I had a relic '.Webley Bentley' type never tried shot in it . The' Bishop of Beetwell Street' he could be brusk or very agreeable cant recall the Junkiques shop sounds more Johns wife stuff
.Regards Rudyard

I don't think my start was that up market. Only 7/6d. If had had the bunce I could Have had Two for 13/-.
I also had to work for my pocket money.1948 & I was 14..