use of copper

[mkeen]

I have already asked this question on the gun building forum. I was interested in the use of copper in gunsmithing during the mid to late 1700's. Does anyone know of rifles from that time period, particularly of the Lancaster PA area, that use copper as an inlay material? John Philip Beck's inventory of 1811 has one large shear for cutting sheet copper, pieces of sheet copper and old copper.

Martin Keen

[tallbear]

Martin
From the study of gunsmiths ledger books we know general repair work was a huge part of gunsmiths income.Because of their wide rangeing skill set they were called upon to repair pretty much anythimng that the local community needed to have repaired.If the amount of copper was fairly large I would bet it was used or left over from the repair of something other than guns.

Mitch

[eddillon]

Wasn't copper used to repair broken stocks?  I have seen many stocks held together with sheet copper bent to conform to the shape of the broken area and nailed in place.

[eddillon]

A fine example of this type of repair is shown in the Antique Gun Collecting forum.

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=20659.0