Patchbox

[Dude]

Appreciate it, Dillon! Hopefully they have it in brass since everything else is brass on the gun.

Did you follow any instructions on how to inlet the box? I'd think it would be a pretty difficult job. Did you use inletting black - or whatever it's called - to tell you where to remove material?

 

[Dillon W.]

I’m sure they’ve got brass too. I know for a fact I’ve seen a brass one on track of the wolfs site.

to be honest I’ve just been sifting through the web and YouTube for a couple of years looking at inletting stuff and vids. I really just had an idea in my head of what I wanted it to be and just went for it. I didn’t use black. But it probably would have made it less painstaking. And considering it was a finished gun I got it as close to flush as possible and filed and sanded til it was perfectly flush. I wound up refinishing the stock but I wanted to anyways because the stain on the stock was too dark for my liking. I put a hunters star in the cheek rest the week before I did the patchbox and I took all the furniture off and sanded the bluing off and put a patina on it all by putting all the pieces in boiling water and white vinegar mixed 50/50. I did a lot to it.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Thanks dude! I got it from muzzleloaderbuilderssupply.com

it’s the hawken pineapple patchbox and the kit was pretty cheap too. You get the lid and the bigger metal piece and both springs for about $30. It even came with screws but they’re zinc plated Philips screws and to be honest they’re entirely too short. So you may want to pick up some solid brass slotted screws 1/2” in length

While it seems reasonable to have brass screws in the patch box, the most common screw is a steel slotted screw that is fire blued. I would use the zinc Philips screws for the assembly and the final installation would be the blued screws.

I have an original butt plate from 1837. The screws used to hold the patchbox, butt plate and toe plate are all steel.

 

[Zonie]

I think brass wood screws for use on firearms didn't become popular until the late 1960's when muzzleloading rifle kits were first offered.

All of the old original guns that haven't had a screw replaced recently have steel screws holding their patch boxes and escutcheons in place.

 

[Dillon W.]

Oh goodness guys, I didn’t realize that really, aged steel screws would look great. The brass screws are a bit poppy. But I will admit I assumed they would have used brass in that time period