Original Hawken finish?

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longcruise

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We probably don't need another Hawken topic at this time but all the Kibler Hawken banter ha got me thinking about what actual finish was applied to the Hawken and other contemporary plains rifles by other makers. It seems as though long drawn out applications of slow curing oil finish would have been antithetical to production but maybe it was used after all?

Are there any examinations of original finish that would give us a clue?
 
Don't know, but it would be hard to say that any finish still on an antique is really the original finish. My guess is that it was some blend of linseed oil and beeswax as those would have been in use for centuries and fairly commonly available.
 
I have two books on them and the finish is not mentioned. Since varnish was in existence at the time I'd guess it was a mixture of varnish and oil, either tung or linseed.
 
If the first commercial varnish was developed ca 1820, it could have been available to them, but I think it was more likely a home brew. Resins and driers could have been rare on the frontier, maybe something like turpentine and pine rosin.
Now I wonder what the revolutionary muskets got.
 
If the first commercial varnish was developed ca 1820, it could have been available to them, but I think it was more likely a home brew. Resins and driers could have been rare on the frontier, maybe something like turpentine and pine rosin.
Now I wonder what the revolutionary muskets got.



Varnish making seems to go back well into the 16th century. Maybe they made it??
 
I've had the opportunity to look at the finish on 3 Hawken rifles in the lab (not my lab--a grad student friend). From what we could determine via microscopy/spectrometry, the finish consisted of linseed oil, lead, and some type of plant resin. There were no signs of a "ground" (like shellac or linseed oil) used to seal the wood or fill the pores in the wood (maple in all three cases). (We were only able to do a chemical analysis on a sample from one rifle; last I heard that paper is still awaiting publication.)

Varnish is an old idea, and goes back at least 2,400 years. Varnish was originally just a carefully-heated preparation of a drying oil (e.g. linseed oil), metallic dryers (e.g. lead, in the form of lead carbonate or lead oxide), and resins (e.g. rosin, copal, shellac). Linseed oil, lead, and limestone were all commonly available in the early US. By the 1820s, pine pitch, rosins and colophony, shellac, copal, a couple of balsams, and mastic were available in St. Louis either directly or via order from eastern suppliers. Varnish-making was a known skill, learned as part of an apprenticeship (at least in the case of luthiers, some painters/finishers, and fine-art painters).

Based on the results of examination of the finish on the three Hawken rifles, I think it would be reasonable to conclude the likely original finish on all three rifles was varnish. Unless something is found in business records or some old narrative or interview, it will likely never be known if the finish was purchased or shop made.
 
This may shed some light, and I am voting for Linseed oil

Then again, why does it even matter? Anything you use today will be modern

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/historic-gunstock-finishes.79520/
I like linseed oil. However your talking over a month to apply it and needs regular reapplications
Slop on, leave sit a week, buff
Then once a day for a week once a month , once a month for a year
I just don’t think any maker would ease his time.
All my guns are oiled, one painted and oiled, but I think good buggy varnish was the old way
 
Look up the furniture and cabinetry finishes of the period you want know about, a shop made stock is closer in quality to local made furniture than to a violin. There were lots and lots of varnish recipes used going far back in history and as with most craft skills each recipe was a guarded secret by those who used it. The word varnish also was more of an umbrella word than it is today.
Shellac powder might have been available (I'm hazy about time it was used) and cut with local white whiskey would have provided a very quick drying and hard finish.
 
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We probably don't need another Hawken topic at this time but all the Kibler Hawken banter ha got me thinking about what actual finish was applied to the Hawken and other contemporary plains rifles by other makers. It seems as though long drawn out applications of slow curing oil finish would have been antithetical to production but maybe it was used after all?

Are there any examinations of original finish that would give us a clue?
Varnish
 
Varnish (homemade of many recipes) seems to have been more common than I had thought, although the term can mean almost any relatively clear wood finish, and each artisan may have used different oils, resins, driers, ect. in differing proportions.
Since both (or four of) the Hawken brothers had previously worked at the Harpers Ferry Armory, I searched for finishes used at Harpers Ferry, and amongst other interesting results, this article seems pertinent; https://www.muzzleblasts.com/Library.MBO/V5N2.MBO/Articles.V5N2.MBO/A1.V5N2.MBO.shtml
As were these on wood finish in general- https://prorestorers.org/notes/earlyFinishes.htm and https://johncanningco.com/common-historical-wood-finishes-when-where-why-used/
And since the shop was in business from about 1825 through Gemmer's closing it in 1915 a wide variety of finishes is possible; even while Samuel Hawken still ran the business (prior 1955?) commercial finishes would have become available that were not available when the shop first opened.
 


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