AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Antique Accoutrements => Topic started by: JCKelly on October 18, 2020, 01:40:01 AM
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Anyone ever seen something like this thingy?
This tool, obviously part screw-driver but also part something else, was long kept in my Great-Grandfather's tool box. He had been in Mr. Lincoln's war, and was considered quite a good shot with his father's percussion rifle. One day my own Grandfather (1881 - 1968) told Dad this was a tool for removing the drum from a (percussion) rifle. Now, Grampa long used that same percussion rifle, won many matches in the 1890's, and never shot a breechloader until he was 18.
But me, I'll be dag-nabbed if I can figure out just how that projection on the side could unscrew any drum. The rifle involved has a very conventional drum & nipple set-up.
One of many things this fool never asked Grampa about.
(https://i.ibb.co/Xs7Qb2Q/DrumTool.jpg) (https://ibb.co/fpkg21g)
(https://i.ibb.co/mv9pMr9/WWK-026crop.jpg) (https://ibb.co/f8kJPVk)
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One projection against the nipple and the other against the drum and twist to unscrew?
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Perhaps the original drum on the rifle had flats filed on the end where this tool would just fit over like a wrench on a square nut. If the fit was good I can see this removing a drum...
Ron
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https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=fS4dB9WY&id=B373EB36A1B6E53E9F87325AA7AC741FAFE3E0ED&thid=OIP.fS4dB9WYUSkjVBygQ0MwkwHaGH&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fwww.dixiegunworks.com%2fstatic%2fimages%2fmain%2fNP0905.JPG&exph=198&expw=240&q=drums+for+percussion+rifles&simid=608030591869651050&ck=A0897684C6D046CF6BE70A240EA81802&selectedIndex=0&FORM=IRPRST
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Perhaps the original drum on the rifle had flats filed on the end where this tool would just fit over like a wrench on a square nut. If the fit was good I can see this removing a drum...
Ron
This is an open end wrench which can easily work with a drum with 2 parallel flats.
Bob Roller
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Sorry for the oversight. I am not personally acquainted with flats on a rifle drum. On my walls are five old original percussion rifles and four flint-to-perc conversions. All have round drums.
Here is a slightly better photo of the lock area on G-G-Grampa's rifle. This drum has no flats on it. That is why I can't figure out how the tool could be used to remove it. My own Grandfather had a pretty good memory for family stuff back to 1752 but perhaps he missed something here.
Well, at least I did.
(https://i.ibb.co/VLQnxCw/WWK-Crop024.jpg) (https://ibb.co/BfrWG6n)
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Is it possible the two protrusions on "wrench" fit over the base of the nipple, and then when the wrench was parallel to the drum, or straight out, it was turned, using the nipple for leverage? Shelby Gallien
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Best to keep it in mind that not all drums were the same. Some had a tabular end with a notch in the middle of the tab. Sorry, I don't have a cap gun with that type, but we have all seen them. Sorry no photos on this and I can't draw worth a darn either, It may be that this wrench was meant to be used with that highly specialized drum.
Dick
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Looks like a bung removal tool for some small container. Like used on 55 gallon drums, but smaller.
John
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Shelby, I think maybe you are right. The nipple would work for what everyone thinks flats are needed. Next thing is to give it a try.
Once again, I was not clear enough. The rifle pictured is THE rifle for which this tool would have been used. My Grandfather used it for hunting since, as I recall, age 6. He was not a gun collector, if he said the tool was intended to remove the drum from a rifle, this was the rifle of which he spoke.
Part of my raising was in sort of a 19th century atmosphere.
Original question was, I believe, has anyone seen anything like this tool. Appears the answer is no.
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Jim just asking because I have no size reference but is it small enough to slip over the flats of a square shanked nipple and remove and replace the nipple?
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sqrldog, no the thing just fits over the drum. My best guess, until I can get at both rifle and tool together, is that I should just slip it over the drum and turn, the nipple being the thing that permits it to turn. Poor description, I know. Anyway the size will just fit over the drum.
It is occurring to me I was raised with too much influence from Grampa to speak with people today. At a restaurant I mentioned I had mislaid an old book by Jefferson Davis, which included some lines we would be criticized for trying to publish today. One man had never heard of Jeff Davis at all, his mother had just heard the name. I did not study this stuff in school. Grampa told me his " . . father had a hole in his breast you could put your finger in, that was from a minie ball" I can not even imagine how I would explain to modern guys what was a minie ball - something not even round - and why the hole would still be there. Or why someone shot Grampa's father in the first place. I can't even say "19th century" without people thinking it I mean just our last century, when Ronald Reagan was President late on. Any of you guys have this problem? Maybe it's true what Anglos say about the Irish. they never forget anything. Ever. Grampa was still a bit angry when he describe how the Brits treated one of us when a prisoner of war in 1777.
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Would it be a mainspring vice for holding the spring at full tension for removal form the lock?
Afterall, the screw driver is for removing the barrel, but more likely the lock for cleaning.