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Dear Cyten I still await your barrel length need of the W' nut though if its very long you can allways scarf ie join two sections as they did I have the California address some where still .
Regards Rudyard
I thought I had sent it already, but just did again, thank you!
 
Here is the only picture of a short Tanchica I've found to date, could be the same as Rick's!

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A photo of an Albanian man with a Tanchica from 1908 by the adventurer Edith Durham who traveled Albania extensively by herself.
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Honest example of a Shishane in Bulgaria
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Bulgarian restoration
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Ottoman Gendarmerie in 1900, Shishane serving alongside Peabody-Martinis!
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Kurdish Gendarmerie in 1895
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A very interesting page from a 17th century document on Chinese firearms describing a "Lu Mi Chong" or "嚕密銃" which is a Turkish Matchlock that was tested and ultimately adopted in a slightly modified form by the Chinese.

Zhao_Shi_Zhen_Matchlock_Comparison.jpg
Very interesting pictures. Did you noticed, the Gendarme at right of Center, cut the buttstock of his Martni-Henry to resemble a Shishane?
 
Hi Wulf !!!! Great to hear from you again. Are you talking about the third gun - from the right ? By the way, I still have photos of your stuff in my library if you want me to post anything.

Cyten: If you are looking for a new stock blank, try to find one about 3 inches thick. You'll notice the rear of the butt stocks taper wider to at least 2 1/2" Tough to find wood that thick. That rear butt section I added started with a short, 8" long piece of European walnut that was 3 1/2" thick. Got it from Wayne Dunlap. He didn't have any stock that thick, so he glued two pieces together. Worked fine for just a rear section piece. You might measure the thickness of your original stock.

Rick
 
No, I did not make any of those guns. But I did make a lock similar to the third from the right....mine was/is a little more fancy. I had that
lock sitting on my book case till I decided to make an Algerian Miquelet using it..... not a good choice....didn't spark well. I wish I coulld
send you a picture but that is something I neve mastered.....sorry,,,,unless........That's great..... Then see the Miquelet lock I am making and
the wheel lock already made.....
 

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This one has a rear sight too. Being a solid part of the barrel breech would make it very rugged.
Hi Sam

Sometimes the rear sights (pistols or shoulder guns) were forged on with the breech of the barrel as you mention. Other times the rear sight is forged as part of the breech plug. I've seen it both ways. Note the grip on this pistol is styled after many early Spanish pistols.

Rick
 
Nice!! I like the barrel band, almost looks like a human face. I read where Christian gunsmiths would place a subtle face on the gun of a Muslim customer, because it was against the religion to portray any living being in art. I don’t know if this is true or not.
 
Hi Cyten

WOW!!! That is interesting. First I've seen. And that Boyliya is in incredible condition. What a prize.

Hi Sam

I'm not sure either. I do know the Greeks were fond of adding a simple engraving of a human face near the breech of their barrels. And they would often make their triggers in the shape of a human.

Rick
 
Nice!! I like the barrel band, almost looks like a human face. I read where Christian gunsmiths would place a subtle face on the gun of a Muslim customer, because it was against the religion to portray any living being in art. I don’t know if this is true or not.
You can’t show Muhammad, but there are ottoman portraits of Suleiman the Magnificent from while he was alive, so I assume in this period it was fine to have faces of living people.
IMG_9813.jpeg


Interestingly, Charles V’s BFF, Titian, made a portrait of his greatest enemy, Suleiman
IMG_9814.jpeg
 
You can’t show Muhammad, but there are ottoman portraits of Suleiman the Magnificent from while he was alive, so I assume in this period it was fine to have faces of living people.
View attachment 266021

Interestingly, Charles V’s BFF, Titian, made a portrait of his greatest enemy, Suleiman
View attachment 266022
Bit of a digression from the thread topic, but to my understanding, even back then the matter was a point of contention. More pious movements were against essentially all drawing in general, but those seem to have been seen as outliers and not very well regarded in classical Ottoman society. Still, you can find some miniature manuscripts where someone's scribbled out all the faces with a pen, or just smeared off the ink by spitting on the figures and then rubbing them away.
 

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