Vent pick

[chawbeef]

Traditional Only - no modern designs[/b], perhaps we should stick to documented artifacts.

Mr. Black Hand, would you consider it prudent to tradition if I filed down a 200 year old square nail that I found with my metal detector and used it for a pick???

 

[Black Hand]

I'd be concerned it might be hard and erode your touch hole. I'd still opt for a simple piece of iron wire myself and use the nail for something else requiring a nail...

 

[chawbeef]

:hatsoff:

 

[smo]

I tried carrying a pick for years, I always lose them.

Today I was in my shop and thought about a pick to replace the one I lost last year.

I thought the best way for me to keep up with a pick was if it was inside the horn.

So out with the battery drill , drill a small hole in the inside tip of the horns plug.

Snip the head off a 3 penny finish nail, apply glue and tap in place.

Wipe away any excess glue.

File down the finish nail to resemble an 18 century iron pin.

Secure plug to the horn.

Who’s going to be looking at your horn plug anyway ! :slap:

 

[Black Hand]

I made a whisk and pick for my flinters which I attached to my bag. I've found the whisk to be the most useless thing I've made. The pick came in a close second, having been used maybe a 15-20 times since the late 90's. When I do use a pick, the one I carry is made from rebar tie wire, sold as a spool at my local hardware store (a lifetime supply for several lifetimes).

 

[smo]

I made a whisk and pick for my flinters which I attached to my bag. I've found the whisk to be the most useless thing I've made. The pick came in a close second, having been used maybe a 15-20 times since the late 90's. When I do use a pick, the one I carry is made from rebar tie wire, sold as a spool at my local hardware store (a lifetime supply for several lifetimes).

LOL That’s the kinda thing I’m talking about.

I’ve had those whisk and picks from TOW attached too the toilet chain ..... lost them too.

I agree the the useless whisk, one wipe of the pan and it’s a paint brush. :youcrazy: :haha:

Have you ever seen any documentation on picks being inserted into horn plugs? :idunno:

 

[Black Hand]

Have you ever seen any documentation on picks being inserted into horn plugs?

I have not.
However - Picks, rammers and horn plugs are easily broken/lost/replaced, so I would question their provenance or even if they are original to the historical piece. In other words - you might have a 200 year old horn or rifle with a 20 year old rammer/plug/pick...

 

[smo]

Thanks :hatsoff:

It just seemed like such a simple idea that someone had done it before. :idunno :idunno:

I guess if I lose this one , I’ll have powder pouring in my Mocs :haha:

 

[Black Hand]

Simpler is better - Go with what is common/known and you'll be safe in your impression.

 

[Artificer]

I made a whisk and pick for my flinters which I attached to my bag. I've found the whisk to be the most useless thing I've made. The pick came in a close second, having been used maybe a 15-20 times since the late 90's. When I do use a pick, the one I carry is made from rebar tie wire, sold as a spool at my local hardware store (a lifetime supply for several lifetimes).

I am glad you mentioned that. :thumbsup:

Back in the 70's when I finally learned enough to make a leather Shot/Hunting Pouch that was very authentic for the time (I used artificial sinew and would NEVER do that again) - I attached a whisk and Iron Wire Pick and chain to the strap because one of the two guns I used the pouch with was my Brown Bess Carbine. I figured it would be a good thing to do as I also used that Shot Pouch for reenacting as a Civilian Militiaman.

Even though I shot a lot of live round competition with that Bess and did some reenacting with blanks, I don't remember ever needing the Pick to clear the vent and the brush was almost totally useless.

I actually did use another Iron Wire Pick to help a buddy get a stuck patch out of the bottom of his Brown Bess, when I did reenacting in the Black Watch. On that one, I filed the end to a blunt four edged point and I think I used it a time or two to clear vent holes for others who did not clean their muskets properly.

I wonder if in the period documents that state almost every man had an awl on him at all times on the frontier, if they used that in an emergency to clear a vent?

Gus

 

[smo]

I would think they used whatever was available .

Locust thorn, awl, feather etc. :thumbsup:

 

[omarick1948]

Well this discussion has opened this old man's eyes to facts. The two vent picks on those bags I have have to go immediately, as the nail was made in the 20th century, and the same goes for the copper wire on the other vent pick and not HC/PC or can be documented as directly being used by someone....or ANYONE, in the 18th or 19th Centuries. The same goes for the antlered animal tips holding these metal wires. Seems these animals were born in the 20th Century also!

I don't have documentation for all information for historic vent picks, but as I hear it, our country has in the area of 22,000,000 other people without documentation also!
:rotf: :rotf: :rotf:

 

[George]

What we call a vent pick or some such is documented to have been used at least by the militia as early as 1738 in my little database. Of course, they didn't call it by our modern name, they used the terms pick, picker, prickler or, more commonly, priming wire.

It's interesting to see that others find the pan set useless. I make use of both the pick and brush quite frequently. I don't use the brush on those days when the humidity is such that the pan residue turns to black mud, but most days it does a good job. I always brush the pan and surrounding area thoroughly at the end of the day, especially if I'm taking the gun home loaded. When hunting, I always pick the vent one time before I settled down in my spot..., it's easy, quick and cheap insurance, why not?

Spence

 

[Eterry]

The objection is more about design rather than construction or technique. A wire glued, jammed, hammered, press-fit, etc into a piece of antler appears to be a modern approach... :wink:

Appears to be a modern approach HOW? Because YOU don't care for it? Glue is not a recent invention; a quick search shows it being used over 20,000 YEARS AGO.
I don't think anyone can say that No One ever took a piece of metal and decided to attach it to a piece of antler.

I have a vent pick attached to a small piece of elk antler given to me by a friend. It was his first elk, he was very proud of it.
I imagine a hunter 200 years ago felt much the same way.

Before you get your knickers in a bind (too late it appears), look at period pieces. I have yet to see any pick from the period that is a wire attached to a piece of antler. If you happen to know of a period piece such as you describe, please share with the rest of us that are laboring under the yoke of facts. Since the description of this subforum specifically states Traditional Only - no modern designs, perhaps we should stick to documented artifacts.

BTW, I'm sure it was a nice gift, but the fact your friend jammed a wire into a piece of antler is irrelevant...

Irrelevant? It certainly wasn't irrelevant to the teen who shot the elk, probably wasn't irrelevant to the elk either. But, you're entitled to your opinion.

I thought that the Traditional Only referred to items available during the period. If someone had suggested a vent pick mounted in a thumb drive or on his smart phone then THAT wouldn't be traditional.

I've met your kind, shortly after I built my first muzzleloader in 1980. I got the only kit available in my area, took it to my Jr High and put it together. There wasn't an internet to tell me it wasn't a period piece, but I learned a group of "mountain men" was setting up a table at a local gun show.
I went there, saw them dressed in furs, they were busy counting buttons and stiches. I proudly told them what I had built, but they promptly told me my rifle was a fraud, I had wasted my time building it, and theirs by talking to them.

Just because something isn't in a book or museum doesn't mean it didn't exist. The true working tools were used, reused, repurposed, wore out, lost etc. The pristine examples came from people who didn't use them, or need them, IMHO.

 

[tenngun]

I agree with you fully we can’t say something was not used because we can not point to a museum example of one. And I am one who thinks folks back then we’re just guys and girls doing the same thing they do now so invented the same things we use today.
There can be know doubt that someone who wanted a little handle on a prick could not make a little antler tip copper wire prick.
How ever styles and usage of the day bespeaks against it we can say that a man could have made high top three piece moccasins that looked like the moccs Tandy made in the 69s
However we have paintings, descriptions of making them and a few surviving that tell us such moccs were not in use.
The antler tip prick is such a thing.
They could and did make ”˜Bush craft’ stuff, and improvised on the go, making do with what they had.
However we can point out that in general use antler was looked down on. There were antler buttons madd and some antler knife , but in general antler was not used back then the way we use it today, when it was used it was worked or stained to look like something else.
Most things associated with shooting made then was commercial made. That’s from bags to horns to gun tools.
It’s not a big deal, no one will kick you out of an event for having one, and it can look nice with your stuff. Any well made or well intentioned item is worth more then the sum of its parts. None of us are a 100%. And we all have that thing that is not right, and no one should be slapped in the chops over it. Yet when we are making a kit and wanting to be hc it is good o think about what was in use then and try to recreate it.
Or not. After all we are here to have fun not to pass an exam.

 

[Black Hand]

I've met your kind, shortly after I built my first muzzleloader in 1980.

Based upon your excessively defensive and histrionic responses, you haven't any idea what my kind is. Your responses indicate to me that you are not accustomed to learning anything from anyone else and that whatever might be said by someone else that contradicts your narrow view must be wrong. Also, rather than taking every statement as a personal attack, try to understand what is being said and learn something from it.

You will learn far more by listening than by flapping your virtual gums and attacking others who are attempting (vainly in this case) to inform you.

Now back to the regularly scheduled program:
Speculate all you want, I prefer to base my impression on what is known rather than what could/might have been. The former is based upon existing information and reflects history as is currently known, the latter is based upon wishful thinking.

Now - if you have any evidence to back up your assertions, please share. I'd be interested in any information you might have about period vent picks...

 

[Stumpkiller]

Small feathers or a few thorns off a hawthorn tree.

I did make a couple metal picks from clothes-hangar wire. Pound it in on a vice or anvil to diameter. Then you can get fancy and heat it to red with a propane torch and flatten one end and curl it into a loop. Even fancier heat and twist the end near the loop for fluting. Heat the tip to red and allow it to cool without quenching (you want it soft with no temper).

 

[omarick1948]

What we call a vent pick or some such is documented to have been used at least by the militia as early as 1738 in my little database. Of course, they didn't call it by our modern name, they used the terms pick, picker, prickler or, more commonly, priming wire.

It's interesting to see that others find the pan set useless. I make use of both the pick and brush quite frequently. I don't use the brush on those days when the humidity is such that the pan residue turns to black mud, but most days it does a good job. I always brush the pan and surrounding area thoroughly at the end of the day, especially if I'm taking the gun home loaded. When hunting, I always pick the vent one time before I settled down in my spot..., it's easy, quick and cheap insurance, why not?

Spence

I think Spence referred/quoted some documentation!
:dead:

 

[tenngun]

Well for sure they used vent pricks. The point I think some were making was that the antler tip with a wire is a modern bush craft thing. It looks good, it’s nice if someone gives you something hand made to go with your gun, it may come in handy... but pricks made in the old days didn’t look like that. Antler used in that way was rare, as was a lot of work put in to a field replacement.
Any one could have done it then,as now, but style spoke against it, they would have been one offs.
No one should get their breach cloth in a wad over it. I use my short starter but to avoid controversy I don’t display them in public at an event.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Keep your eye out on the road for a mashed porcupine. Lifetime supply of vent picks (yes, they do work).