copper

[alex e.]

I have read an account or two, both European related, as to the use of copper on fusils. Was it used in the America's  on rifles or smoothbores? If so on what & to what extent?

Alex...

[don getz]

Alex.....when you say copper, are you talking about the normal hardware on a gun....trigger guard, buttplate, etc.?  I have never seen one, but, I have learned that one cannot say it was never done.  I have seen copper used to make a
repair.  Allen Martin did a wrist repair by wrapping a thin piece over the glued joint and nailed the edges down......a super
neat job, it made a very interesting gun.........Don

[rich pierce]

I've seen cobbled together muskets, probably made for the Revolutionary War, with mixtures of mounts including a copper handmade guard, and some with cast brass that was red so it must have been alloyed with copper.  I think that at certain times of high production in a crisis situation, they just melted everything down and poured parts.  These guns were at Washington's Crossing Park in the 1980's.  One of those "military guns" (I think it was the English styled, walnut stocked .72 cal rifle) in Shumway's RCA was there also.  Either that specific rifle or one very much like it.

[T*O*F]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that, other than native copper nuggets traded by the Indians, there was no copper available in North America until it was discovered and mined in Michigan.  Likewise, all brass here was imported until after this discovery, at which point it could be produced in quantity here.

It may have been in one of Kaufman's books that wasn't about guns, but it's in a box somewhere, so I can't look it up.

[Lucky R A]

Alex, 
     I have seen a number of copper inlays on longrifles, some late flint and mostly percussion.   I restored an Allemengle rifle that had a copper thumbpiece.   I have not seen it used for other than inlays and an occasional sight base.   Ron
       

[Dphariss]

I have a buttplate and parts of a TG from what was apparently an early percussion rifle. They are pretty red, certainly not yellow brass but they are not copper either. Gun metal? or perhaps brass with some zinc boiled away.

Dan

[Dphariss]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that, other than native copper nuggets traded by the Indians, there was no copper available in North America until it was discovered and mined in Michigan.  Likewise, all brass here was imported until after this discovery, at which point it could be produced in quantity here.

It may have been in one of Kaufman's books that wasn't about guns, but it's in a box somewhere, so I can't look it up.

Copper was mined on a small scale in PA and elsewhere in the colonies well before the Revolution. Copper was discovered in NJ circa 1660.
These were not a Berkeley pit operation by any means but they were mining copper just the same.


From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_mining_in_the_United_States

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Pennsylvania

In 1724 Pennsylvania colonial governor William Keith made the first attempt to mine copper in Pennsylvania. His mine, in York County, failed within a short time.

By 1732 the Gap mine in Lancaster County was operating, owned by shareholders including Gouverneur Morris and Thomas Penn. The mine shut down due to water problems about 1755.[38] The mine reopened as a nickel mine about 1850, and produced some byproduct copper along with the nickel until it shut down in 1893.[39]
********
There were several other small scale (by today's standards) operations in Maryland, Conn., NJ and VA that produced copper prior to the 1770s.

Dan

[James Rogers]

"There were several other small scale (by today's standards) operations in Maryland, Conn., NJ and VA that produced copper prior to the 1770s."

One was on Wreck Island Creek in present Appomattox VA

[Rich Jakowski]

Old Newgate Prison in E. Granby, CT began as a copper mine in 1700. Here's a website telling more about it



http://www.eastgranby.com/HistoricalSociety/newgateprison2.htm

[Carper]

I have a super dooper squirrel rifle that my kin made after the Civil War that is silver and brass mounted. On various inlays small copper stars are inlaid into the silver and brass. They used a punch and then hammered the copper into the designs and filed smooth. It makes a very unique inlay and something you dont see every day. BTW some very late WV rifles used the new metal " aluminium" in some very profusely inlaid rifles.  Johnny