What do you like better?

[musketman]

What do you like better for the hardwear on "YOUR" muzzleloaders?

Brass?
Steel or Iron?
German Silver?

I like steel better, I hate to polish brass.
I like browned steel better than blued, I also like steel in the white.

Brass is nice, but I think cast harded steel looks better.

It all comes down to personal preference.

 

[LRB]

On a longrifle I like brass for authenticity, but for a plain hunters rifle iron seems hard to beat. Very few iron mounted rifles pre 1775, not that many after. I never polish my brass so I do not worry about glare when hunting. Have seen a few Vogler rifles that were silver mounted and they were very nice. I said not much iron after 1775, I meant until the 1800's.

 

[roundball]

Clean, polished brass

 

[tg]

I prefer my guns to be as close to the originals as possible so I put any personal preference be it practical or asthetic aside, My guns pre 1790ish are brass trimmed I have a couple of later period type that have iron, I think it matters little to the game when hunting which you have or how you care for it. my barrels are natural in the early guns and browned on the later ones I would like to have a fire blued barrel on an eary gun but have lacked the courage to throw a $200 barrel into the coals. I generaly prefer guns of a simple nature with a little incise carving and moulding but no inlays or fancy stuff, and I have left some scraper marks on the last "in the white" project I finished and chose not to finish everything as "fine" as most repros we see today there, is a school of thought that many of todays guns are "overdone" compared to the originals.

 

I like brass for a curly maple fintlock and german silver for a cherry stock. I like Iron for Hawkins styles.

From a purely practical rather than esthetic perspective, I'd say that iron is more suited for the field.

As for the barrel, it looks like the jury is out about a browned or bright or blued barrel on Pennsylvania Rifles. I have seen references to both, although it appears bluing and in the bright may have been more common prior to the 1800s and browning more common in the early 1800s.

I find it interesting that Medieval Armour was also produced "in the white", "red"(presumably browned) and black (blued??). I wonder if they used the same processes as 18th and 19th century gunsmiths.

 

[Randy]

I agree, most modern made guns are getting to be way overdone compared to the original antiques. (At least as far as American made antiques go) Most American builders did everything, made the barrel the hardware stock and sometimes the lock too. If they wanted any decoration they did it themselves too. This type of folk art has great appeal to some people (I'm one) and not so great to others.
In England for example, a different person did the barrel, lock, stocking, engraving, and carving. That's five or more people making one gun. And they made some beautiful guns during the same time period. That type of craftmanship is just not appropriate on early American made guns.
Part of the problem is that too few antiques are readily available for contemporary builders to study. Also the buyers of replica guns seem to favor the more ornate, and extremely well fit and finished guns. They want a piece of history, but they want it to be a really nice looking piece.
The folks at Bowling Green, KY seem to be on the right track with the gun building seminars they offer every Spring. Also Colonial Williamsburg, or the museum at Friendship, IN are great places to see what some real, old guns look like.
Just a few rambling thoughts.

Horse Dr.

 

I agree with you Horse Doctor and Musketman. Authenticity as to style is essential.

I also prefer the simplier type Pennsylvania Rifles - like the Edward Marshall Rifle or the guns of Beck. Some of the later "Golden Age" Rifles look like a junkyard with all that inlay work.

But then if you look at some of those early European pieces made for royalty, with gold and silver inlaid barrels, furniture, and roccoco or Baroque carvings, well, they are great too, if well-executed.

But again, I like Beck and the Early and Revolutionary era Pennsylvania Rifles. A Thoroughbred is an impressive stylish horse. But if my life depended on it, I'd pick a mule. He might not get me there in style, but he'd get me there.