AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Black Powder Shooting => Topic started by: The other DWS on March 15, 2010, 06:29:54 AM
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while searching through the Niles MI public library stacks for a difference reference book I ran across one I read years agoe that may be of interest to those who are seriously interested in gunflints.
TM Hamilton ,the well known authority on colonial era trade guns, had excellent and extensive connections in the North American historical archaeological and material studies community. As a result he was able to conduct a very detailed and in-depth analysis of the gunflints excavated at Fort Michillimackinac and a number of other colonial sites. His "dig-book" report, whihc he prepared with K. O. Emery was published by the Mackinac Island Park Commission's Archaeological Completion Report #13 in 1988 under the title "Eighteeth-Century Gunflints for Fort Michillimackinac and other Colonial Sites"
In it he compares both french, english, spanish, and German as well as some native american original flints by thin-section and x-ray petrographic analysis as well as spark array analysis when used in a flintlock. I 'd be interesting to see how his study dovetails with Larry Pletcher's work
I do not know if this book is available through the usual commercial sources, but it should be via interlibrary loan. It was published, privately printed, by the Park Commission and does not bear an ISBN number. I will do some further checking for potential sources and I will renew it and bring it down to Louisville on the 27th in case anyone wants to look at it.
I have found it listed in Amazon, but see also ABEBooks.com, also Bookseller.com and bookfinder.com it is not cheap by a long shot but a good reference for a serious researcher or student
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Some of Hamilton's work was included as a selected paper for the 1984 Trade Gun Conference. These papers are published by the Research Division of the Rochester Museum as Research Records No. 18, 1985. It is a two volume set with part 1 being "Dutch and other Flintlocks from 17th Century Iroquois Sites" and part 2 being selected papers mostly dealing with flint research, brass gun furniture, and English Trade Gun patterns.
I haven't looked in a long time as I bought mine 20 years ago. Still, they used to be fairly common on eBay and ABE.
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Thanks for the heads up.