Wood Burning Designs on a Muzzleloader

[erhunter]

Is there any mention of doing a wood burning design on a stock instead of or in addition to wood carving in our history?

 

[Sam squanch]

I think some military muskets were branded as to ownership, but with no decoration in mind. Carving a nice design in fine wood, by an expert, would look better than wood burning. The old guys didn’t have electric wood burning pens either....

 

[user 34300]

None that I am aware of. I would not do it. It would look weird on a gun.

 

[Col. Batguano]

If we can think of it now, they could think of it then, and probably did it. In any case it didn't seem to catch on, not is it prominently known in the more famous surviving guns of the period.

 

[erhunter]

Thanks for the replies, and I was wondering because they could have heated metal on a fire, then used the metal to make decorations.

 

[rich pierce]

Most gunsmiths in the flintlock era did a full apprenticeship. They learned to carve.

 

[Eric Krewson]

People do strange things to their guns, usually on a whim, I have never seen a badly carved or wood burned gun that didn't look downright awful. These abominations are almost always confined to factory guns like CVAs and such and look like a 6 year old did the work.

I was once a serious duck decoy carver and burned lifelike feathers into my ducks prior to painting, complete with quills and barbs so I have (had) the ability.

I have one of these and wouldn't burn a design into a rifle if someone held a gun to my head.

 

[old ugly]

i was at a shoot one time, a few of us around the fire, one of the gents picked up a pc of thin metal from somewhere and just out of the blue started heating it and burning a pattern into the top of a stump. every now and then he would put a different bend in the metal and keep adding to his design. it all looked like a spur of the moment creative whim to me. by the time the evening was over he had created was a real nice bit of artwork. so i would guess burnt in designs were created centuries ago aswell, but probably not too often on personal guns if at all., military may have branded ID marks into their guns, i don't know.
ou
tom

 

[EC121]

There was an article in Muzzle Blasts about that technique. Some folks think that the fine, smooth-looking carving lines on some of the old guns were burnt in. The lines don't look as deep as incised carving, and they are smooth under the finish.