Patch box or not

[Peter B]

I am building a fowler with a 4 foot barrel, swamped and choked in .62 caliber. I have decided to make this a simple and clean smoothbore but was wondering about putting a patch box on it in a simple form. The gun will represent the period of around the time of the F&I wars. All steel mounted. Any comments on this idea.

 

[tg]

You might be hard pressed to find a fowler of that time period with a patchbox and steel/iron mounts.a high dollar import gun might have iron mounts, but I don't know about a patchbox if you are trying to stay in tune with what we have in the way of historical evidence.

 

[rich pierce]

I'm with TG on this one if the gun is a fowler. To me that usually implies certain things about the architecture, barrel shape, furniture, etc.
Is the barrel round, octagon to round, or octagonal? If you want to make a long barreled smooth rifle then a patchbox could be appropriate as could a cheekpiece. I would only use iron mounts on a F&I War period fowler if it was being made to look as though it was made in Europe. There are next to no existing Southern fowlers from that period as all fowlers in the South in that time seem to be imported. Plenty of fowlers were being made in New England and NY and Pennsylvania, with local variations and styles and intended uses.

 

[Mike Brooks]

If this is a classic french or english fowler I'd not even think of using a box. iron mounts also point to a high end gun, so some carving and engraving might be in order.
Even if it's a colonial fowler I'd still probably not go with a box.

 

[Okwaho]

It really goes against the grain but I'll just have to suck it up and say that these three reprobates are eminently correct in their opinions.There is,however, one fowler with a box. Tom Grinslade in "Flintlock Fowlers" P.96 illustrates an early club butt fowler {Ca.1710} with a box and discusses it as the only known American fowler with a box.It is a classic club butt gun with a three screw lock{7 1/4" long} which has a dog catch similar to British guns of the 1600's,weighs 14 lbs and has a 61 1/2" barrel in. 80 caliber.I totally agree with Mike that the higher the grade of European gun the more chances are that it will be iron[url] mounted.In[/url] the late 17th and early to mid 18th century brass was generally used on the lower grade guns although with emergence of the Berain style in France {Ca. 1680}
there are some fine French fowlers with brass mountings.
Tom Patton

 

[Peter B]

:bow: Okay so what you are saying is that the brass mounted fowler is less expensive !!!! Wow! I would have thought the steel mounted one would have been less expensive.

Okay so brass it out and go with no patch box at all. The barrell is Oct to round by the way. I am doing the F&I period also. What about putting a sling and swivels on it from TOW. Stell is okay for that is it not.

P :hatsoff:

 

[Stumpkiller]

Steel was a high ticket item before electric blast furnaces. It melts at a very high temperature and had to be forged in small sizes, not melted in huge crucibles and poured out as is done now. You can't melt iron or steel in a conventional oven or forge using wood or coal. It requires coke (or electricity) to get the temperature hot enough.

Brass melts at 1,700º F +/-
Iron is 2,786º F
Steel is about the same, but requires a mix of several metals and carbon.

It's one thing to forge a long, straight piece like a trigger bow in iron (which can then be filed thin), or wrap a thimble around a mandrel, but a 1/16" thick flat patchbox lid made of steel would be a lot of work for a 1750 gunsmith.

 

[Okwaho]

To somewhat qualify my post. I agree with Stump here but very simple iron mounts are found on many lower level guns such as the fusil de chasses with their plain iron mounts simply forged and requiring little grinding or filing and crude iron mounts on some American guns .Where you really notice the difference is with the fine English pistols and fowlers with a lot of open work.There are also some awesome French guns of the 16th through the 18th centuries with open work, inlay,chiseled mounts, plus chiseled external lock parts and barrels that you wouldn't believe possible in iron/steel.I didn't mention it as to your project but the very best English pistols were silver mounted.Look at "Battle Weapons of the American Revolution" by George Neuman and Tom Grinslade's new book{an absolute must on American fowlers}and you will see some excellent examples or go to the archives on this and the long rifle boards and look at some of Mike Brook's iron/steel mounted English fowlers.The bottom line quite simply is that the better American fowlers most of which were made in New England were brass mounted just as were the Kentucky rifles because as Stump pointed out casting brass isn't all that hard to do and you can do more with cast brass which is easier to smooth and file into the finished part.
Good luck
Tom Patton :hatsoff:

 

[Peter B]

:thumbsup: