Untouched "Black" Percussion Pennsylvania Rifle With Whitmire & Wolff Lock

[victorio1sw]

Apparently, this rifle "sat" in a museum for a very long time. Both the wood and brass trim are essentially black. The steel parts have acquired a light rust and grime.

A card was attached saying that it belonged to one James W. Patterson. His early locations are unclear – although Tennessee and Beaver Falls, PA are mentioned on this somewhat rambling museum card.

The un-marked barrel is 36-5/8” long, 7/8” flat-to-flat, and the bore measures 0.310” land-to-land with strong six-groove rifling. The three barrel keys and ramrod were missing, which I have begun to replace. I have removed the barrel and found no markings on its hidden surfaces. The barrel has a dovetailed blade front and fixed rear buckhorn sights. The percussion lockplate is marked "Whitmore & Wolff / Pittsburgh" (which dates 1837-52 according to my few gunmaker books).

The DST's work. The buttplate, TG, thimbles, nosecap, and massive patchbox are brass. The fullstock is curly maple with fancy (and peculiar) stamping along the bottom edge of the butt. The patchbox lid was designed to be held open/closed by a long leaf spring which I have not seen used before.

I have two questions. (1) Can anyone identify the maker of this rifle by its various features?

(2) Should this gun be left entirely black, with black wood and lightly-cleaned brass, or with lightly-cleaned wood and brass? By “lightly-cleaned” I mean to leave some black grime on the wood and some brown patina on the brass. Before anyone gets concerned, I am not new to antique gun restoration and proper cleaning. I hate over-cleaned guns (with such as sand paper) as many of you probably do.

 

[poker]

Thats a beauty and I sure wouldnt do more than maybe a wash with oil soap for the wood, then polish the metal with a soft cloth and light oil. I sure wouldnt get into removing any of that hard earned patina.

 

[Goose]

Beautiful rifle! I voted for a very light cleaning to show the beauty of the wood. It will make a fine display piece.

 

[hawkeye2]

That's an attractive rifle with some unique carving on the butt. To be truly seen and appreciated it needs to be “lightly-cleaned” specially to showcase the nice patchbox and to bring out what looks like a fine figured stock. As is the gun's most interesting features (other than it's fine lines) are hidden by years of neglect.

 

[Carbon 6]

Black paint was very popular on furniture in the 18th and early 19th centuries. I suspect that gun was intentionally colored that way.
Removing the color would severely devalue it IMO.

 

[bang]

I the barrel one that was worked with a twisted hex rod in the bore then drawn out to make the riflings?

 

[victorio1sw]

Black paint was very popular on furniture in the 18th and early 19th centuries. I suspect that gun was intentionally colored that way.
Removing the color would severely devalue it IMO.

I doubt that a nice piece of fiddleback maple would have been used if the maker was going to paint it black.

 

[Carbon 6]

Nice maple was everywhere in the 1800's
Folks took it for granted. They painted beautiful wooden chairs black and other colors. Guns too.
Fashion comes and goes. Look at guns today, no more beautiful wood, nothing but ugly black plastic.

But, who knows, you may be right.

I don't know the reasoning behind blackened guns, but they did exist.

 

[dd832]

My guess is the that there is a linseed oil finish that has oxidized over the last 150 years. All oil finishes will oxidize to cure & keep on oxidizing afterward. I have a few antiques that have a black stock finish and I am fairly certain that they didn't look like that when originally finished. You know the metal parts have oxidized (rusted) black because you can take the barrel out of the wood & the covered part will appear totally different than the exposed part.
The 1853 Enfield & Bess in the post above both have oxidized oil finishes on the stocks. The Enfield may still have some of the original blue finish on the underside of the barrel (but it is in pretty rough condition), the Bess barrel has been obviously cleaned.
Wood exposed to air will oxidize naturally. Look at antique furniture for instance, the unfinished underside of wood cabinets will be much darker than the unfinished inside of the drawers.
That's a really nice antique rifle by the way!
Mike

 

[Phil Coffins]

Before doing anything to this rifle go to this site and post your question, Please!
https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?board=3.0

 

[Carbon 6]

My guess is the that there is a linseed oil finish that has oxidized over the last 150 years. All oil finishes will oxidize to cure & keep on oxidizing afterward. I have a few antiques that have a black stock finish and I am fairly certain that they didn't look like that when originally finished. You know the metal parts have oxidized (rusted) black because you can take the barrel out of the wood & the covered part will appear totally different than the exposed part.
The 1853 Enfield & Bess in the post above both have oxidized oil finishes on the stocks. The Enfield may still have some of the original blue finish on the underside of the barrel (but it is in pretty rough condition), the Bess barrel has been obviously cleaned.
Wood exposed to air will oxidize naturally. Look at antique furniture for instance, the unfinished underside of wood cabinets will be much darker than the unfinished inside of the drawers.
That's a really nice antique rifle by the way!
Mike

British sea service muskets were 'Japanned'
Also,
Nancy Goyne Evans and her book, Documentrary Evidence Of Painted Seating Furniture: Late Colonial and Federal Periods is worth reading. Painting of all types of furniture was very popular.
There are Cook books of the period containing recipes for black furniture paint.

If it was simply a case of "oxidation There would be far more examples I think, but I am open to any documentary evidence you might have.

It is hard to analyze from a picture, My advice is to have a professional antique assessment done on the gun and or testing of the finish.

 

[Carbon 6]

Here are some past discussions on the topic of black painted guns.
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/black-painted-brown-bess.114120/

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/painted-stock-trade-rifles.110421/

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/the-painted-stocks-of-history.95497/

 

[Tanselman]

This good quality western PA rifle has a natural, oxidized finish on the wood. Many of these later percussion rifles had what is referred to as a "violin varnish" finish that darkened naturally as it aged. Anything more than a gentle cleaning of the wood surface, which I do not believe it needs, will diminish its market value to collectors. Despite the dark color, the wood surface is very good for an original longrifle and should be left alone. The quality of the wood's curl is still visible in some areas, and that is all that's needed with this rifle.

The brass has become very heavily oxidized...probably becoming worse over the years with some oil hardening into its surface. While brass is more attractive when less heavily oxidized, it is very difficult to properly clean such dark brass and bring it back to a level that still looks original or natural. It is also very hard to keep from damaging the stock wood and its original surface when cleaning such dark brass mounts. Brass patina this dark...and deep and tough...usually requires some type of abrasive along with the brass cleaner to break through the surface "crud" and lighten the brass surface. That type cleaning should only be done by an experienced person...an inexperienced person will rather quickly damage the wood surface near the brass, causing greater problems and taking the gun farther away from appearing like an original finish rifle that collectors desire. Bottom line is that you have a very nice rifle as it currently is, desirable to collectors, most of who will pay a premium for an untouched "black" or "dirty" rifle. While you may prefer brighter brass or more of the maple's curl to show, any efforts in that direction with this rifle will reduce its collector value. A gentle cleaning is all that should be done...and from what I can see, it doesn't really even need that.

You have a good example of a western PA rifle made in or around Pittsburgh in the 1840s, with its typical stamped lower butt molding pattern and commercial patchbox similar to those sold by Tryon. I would hope there is a trace of a name or initials on the top barrel flat several inches behind the rear sight, so we could figure out who made it. Shelby Gallien