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Black flintlock rifles?
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Booshway
Picture of Deadeye
posted
Hey Guys,

I was thinking about making a Lehigh with a black stock and iron hardware. Not sure if it was done but I'd like to try it.
Maybe using India Ink to color the stock then put some oil over it would work?

What do you guys think?
 
Posts: 1452 | Location: Good Ole USA of course! | Registered: 15 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Well the reason why they didn't do that very often if ever (in civilian guns) was because they wanted the wood grain to show through, so..., unless you used something like Birch for the stock, which has almost no visible grain, I'd say you'll be wasting money, since the precarved stocks out there all assume you're going to want to see the grain so they are made of maple or walnut or cherry, and are selected for visible grain and then pass that cost onto you. (Perhaps if you found a stock second with something to hide and could get it for $100 less than a standard, precarved stock?)

Now when it comes to Sea Service Muskets they did paint many of them with oil based paint, and many in black, simply because of weather resistance and moisture from salt air and salt water spray. I think some of the very dark finishes on some of the existing civilian antique guns, and perhaps the military ones, from the age of flint may be darker than when used due to aging of the finish over time.

Still, IF you want to, it's your gun and your dime, so I'd suggest you use Fiebings' USMC Black dye for the finish, instead of ink. I think you'll have much less chance of it coming off onto clothes, hands, and your cheek.

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Deadeye
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Great idea on the stock second, that would make it a better deal all around. I'm thinking I can get that USMC Black dye at Tandy's....I hope.

Good information about the Sea Service Muskets, was the hardware on those brass or iron?
 
Posts: 1452 | Location: Good Ole USA of course! | Registered: 15 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Laurel Mt Forge makes a black stain in their gunstock stain line, would be the easiest way to go.
 
Posts: 429 | Location: Delmarva | Registered: 22 December 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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I stay away from Tandy..., priced way too high. That dye is available online and at any good shoe store. I've been using it for 25 years and was taught to use it on milsurp rifles with decades of oil applications to the wood. After drastic cleaning, and lifting of dents, we used Fiebing's medium brown, followed by steel wool and coats of boiled linseed oil. They looked like they'd only been out of the factory a short time. Wink

Sea Service muskets were both shod in iron and in brass, depending on the armory that produced the musket, just as Dublin LLP Bess were iron shod instead of the more common brass.

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Deadeye
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Thanks for the help guys....I ordered the black stain from Laurel Mt and decided to go with that instead of full black.
 
Posts: 1452 | Location: Good Ole USA of course! | Registered: 15 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Notchy Bob
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Deadeye,

Your project sounds interesting. I hope you'll post some pictures when it's finished.

I appreciated Loyalist Dave's comments. I did not know the Sea Service muskets were painted black, nor did I know that any type of Brown Bess was mounted in iron. Good to know.

I do know that some trade muskets (Carolina guns) were painted. I believe some may have been painted red, and Clay Smith reproduces some of these in a sky blue color. Neither one lights my fire, but to each his own.

A lot of old guns were varnished. We like to think of gunsmiths laboriously rubbing in multiple coats of linseed oil, and some of them may have done this, but varnish would have been faster and was certainly used to a very great extent. There was an article by Doc White on the web for a while which indicated the typical mountain rifles (now known as "plains rifles") coming out of the Hawken brothers' shop in St. Louis were finished with a very dark varnish, almost black. If you take a gander at the original Jim Bridger Hawken, pretty far down on this page, you can see the areas of the buttstock which did not get handled much are quite dark, while other areas, like the forend, are very light. I don't think the dark color is all grime. When Bridger, in his old age, gave his old Hawken to a friend, he admonished the recipient to "Keep 'er clean."

In any event, you have already ordered the ebony stain, but a dark varnish might not be inappropriate if the stain does not do what you want. Another possibility is to start with a darker wood, such as walnut or cherry, and stain it even darker.

Good luck with your project!

Notchy Bob


"Should have kept the old ways just as much as I could, and the tradition that guarded us. Should have rode horses. Kept dogs."

from The Antelope Wife
 
Posts: 333 | Location: Florida | Registered: 24 May 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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