AmericanLongRifles Forums

General discussion => Antique Gun Collecting => Topic started by: JCKelly on April 19, 2016, 01:22:15 AM

Title: My Ratty Pistol
Post by: JCKelly on April 19, 2016, 01:22:15 AM

I had really wanted a nice Peter White flint pistol but Wallet preferred this one. ".41 caliber 8-1/4" rifled octagon barrel, Goucher lock, pewter nose cap and an octagon brass butt cap". A really odd looking stock. Did a bit of homework. On p 282 of  The Kentucky Pistol by Chandler & Whisker is a vaguely similar one attributed to Gaston Co., NC. The Contemporary Makers' Blog also has an attributed South Carolina flintlock pistol of similar stock architecture.
(https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi63.tinypic.com%2F34fz69k.jpg&hash=b97d91d9170749b05f98fb405a85bb51432faebb)
(https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi66.tinypic.com%2Fjqtbeo.jpg&hash=3a119b5c43119d8a8cd00ec6e67459bb1249926c)

Odd looking stock. Resembles a Napoleonic period French pistol. Such as this one sold by Cowan's in 2015, and the fancier ones by Boutet.
(https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi67.tinypic.com%2F24fkae0.jpg&hash=dc2f348da7f3e8203b0634a90876d6943caad105)

Hmmm . . . squirrely French style, maybe from the Carolinas? Oh yeah, didn't the Africans in Haiti ask the French to leave, with a final massacre in 1804? Surviving French refugees came here, many to the Carolinas. I believe a small colony survives on Crusoe's Island, North Carolina.

I think I have me a Southern pistol, styling influenced by the French who escaped from Haiti.

Might you Carolinians care to voice your opinions?

Title: Re: My Ratty Pistol
Post by: okieboy on April 19, 2016, 07:30:22 PM

 So, what-cha gonna do with that ratty old thing?

Title: Re: My Ratty Pistol
Post by: JCKelly on April 19, 2016, 10:51:27 PM

Soak the iron parts in automatic transmission fluid for a week or so, then use a bronze wire brush on them, by hand.

Next probably curse bitterly that I ever saw it, as I try to figure out how to hang a hammer on it

Then display it anyway, as a real American pistol with history behind it.

Only other Southern handgun I have was made in Augusta, Georgia under very trying circumstances. Can't say as to whether it Saw the Elephant, but looks to have been run over by one.

Yeah, I like the history behind these old things.