AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Antique Gun Collecting => Topic started by: Shreckmeister on December 19, 2012, 09:20:51 PM
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Awhile back I purchased a rifle made in the Easton PA area. The sideplate is typical shape for the area,
but upon removal and inspection it appears that the sideplate is brass with silver plate on the side that is visible.
I'm wondering if this is unusual?
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Made a Kuntz style pistol about 1980, that is how I made the sideplate to save on silver. Doubt that I invented the idea.
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That makes sense. I was wondering if this was a trait common to rifles in
that area of Pennsylvania. I've not seen any here on western PA rifles.
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Rob
This was done often in Norh Carolna, Ohio, andMissouri that I know of. The somewhat famous Steamboat Captain Hawken rifles are silver overlays on most of the parts as were the Teaff rifles built in Ohio. In these cases they were silver over iron
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Don, Do you know if the gunsmiths did the plating themselves?
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If it is what I'm thinking, its called "close plating" or "Sheffield Plate". It was a thin layer of silver soldered to a base metal. Copper was commonly used but there is no reason why brass wouldn't work. It is possible a gunmaker might have done it but the process was a closely guarded secret. Its possible that it was made from plated "sheet metal" which was the raw material turned out by the Sheffield mills.
For a long time the only Sheffield plate made in America was done by a Connecticut clock maker whose name escapes me... his apprentice, Seril Dodge (that spelling is actually correct!), carried on the practice in Providence, RI, making his fortune with Sheffield plated shoe buckles. Dodge is also believed to have made a number of hangers with Sheffield plated guards. There are at least two or three of these extant with a solid Revolutionary War provenance so the process was known at least in the 1770s.
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Thanks Joe. It is a thin layer of plating. I will have to pull the sideplate and see if it was cut from a larger sheet that was already plated or if plated after it was shaped.
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The ones I mentioned have a thin silver overlay, not plating. I suspect they were soldered but also held in place with rivets. The small rivets are visible and distinct fromthe pins that hold the inlays inplace
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If I'm not mistaken, silver could be plated on to brass with 2 different methods available back then. The first is dipping the object in to a solution of silver nitrate. This would be very thin and not real durable. The other would be to cover it with silver/mercury amalgam and then heating to drive the mercury off. Gold was plated on to rifle barrels with this method, but I think silver works too.
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Thanks TOF, you may have answered a question for me!
I have a Casper Fordney rifle, although missing some parts, has brass furniture that looks like it has a very thin low carat gold plating on them. It almost looks like untarnished brass plating on brass. Brass plated brass doesn't seem likely, so I've always wondered if it might be a gold plating...
merry Christmas to all!
John
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Sorry about a shift in subject. Would you be willing to share photos of the Casper Fordney. Maybe start a new thread for that purpose. I'llphotograph mine too. I have only been lucky enough to see two of them
Don
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Sorry about the shift too, and I'll stat a new thread when I take some pics of the gun.
Merry Christmas,
John