Musket Stock Black Paint

[yulzari]

I am looking at assembling a William III period doglock service musket (just possibly convertible with a spare lock to a James II matchlock). I understand that the period stock finish was painted black. Often with a 'russeted' (i.e. browned) barrel.

Does anyone know of a period paint recipe for the task? I am guessing a simple linseed oil/lampblack paint but there mentions of tar and asphaltum here and there.

[T*O*F]

do a google search on Ebonizing wood.  You'll find a bunch, most using steel wool dissolved in vinegar and strong tea.

[yulzari]

I have frequently ebonised wood. The period notes are for painted stocks. The surviving exaples show most of the paint worn off over the in intervening 300 years. Making it black is not a problem. Doing as they did is the point. Blacked a whole oak planked shed some years ago. with garden iron sulphate.

[Hungry Horse]

 I know the early sea service muskets were painted black. I suspect it was to keep moisture from swelling them up. Much of the metalwork was painted as well.

  Hungry Horse

[T*O*F]

Asphaltum and tar are not the same animal.  Tar is runny and gooey.  I think asphaltum is fossilized tar and is very hard and brittle.  Commercial roofers use it for hot sealing roofs.  It comes in large blocks which must be melted.  You can hit it with a hammer and chunks will splinter off.  It is also available thru some art suppliers in flake form and can be dissolved in turpentine.  My inclination is that it won't be black when applied, but rather a muddy, brownish black.  It probably will never harden completely and will become soft in hot sun.  You would probably get good absorption in walnut, but not maple.  I don't believe it is a surface coating, but rather a penetrating one.  These are recipes from a book I have on compounding period paints.

To make a period black paint, use the following recipe:
Medium for all colors=
boiled linseed oil  6 parts
gum turpentine  2 parts
Japan drier  1 part

To achieve black, mix in lampblack or ivory black until desired color is achieved.
For ebony, use 20 parts Coach black and one part Prussian blue.
(Thicken above pigments in turpentine before mixing.

[Stophel]

the asphaltum is for "Japanning", which is a baked-on enamel sort of deal.

Just learn how to mull pigment into oils to make paint.  Black can be any carbon black (vine black, bone black, etc.).  With a GOOD quality linseed oil and pigment, you can make your basic oil paint just as has been used for centuries.   

[Pukka Bundook]

John, (Yulzari) What are You doing here?!?

Oil based paint, but no details.  Lamp black  and linseed...?

Would like to see you work, old Bod.

[yulzari]

Hi Richard. I used to make some period oil paints so I know how to make a good 19th trade or an an older artist black but wondered if anyone knew what they actually used back in the period to paint stocks. Most black pigments act as driers themselves. Hence henry Ford charged less for black cars in the early days as the paint dried faster and was cheaper. Period books and modern forgers(!) are excellent sources for trade and artist paints but not specific to stock painting.

When tar and asphaltum are mentioned I am out of my comfort zone.

My promised matchlock lock maker wants to only sell in a set of 5 so I will have to buckle down and make my own unless someone wants to buy 4 off me.

As James II/William III they are consistent with American.

The travel budget this year was all spent on South America for 2 months so this winter we will rent a cheap flat in Southern Spain to miss the winter. Maybe in  2019 I can persuade the Memsahib to take a Canadian road trip in early summer. Shame that nearly dying spoiled the last attempt......

[Pukka Bundook]

John,

I would like to see threads on all your endevours.
Matchlock locks are not hard to make.  Have you looked at Michael Tromner's threads on Ethnographic arms?, (European section)
Very detailed photos there of what they look like inside , outside and dissected.

Bill Curtis might know re. the black.  Something in the back of my mind about it,.....the line is still filing!

R.

[JCKelly]

Or, just go to your local artists supply store and buy "Ivory Black", Bone Black or "Mars Black". Not carbon black. Dilute as needed with REAL turpentine, also bought at the art store, not at the hardware. The Real turpentine helps linseed oil develop its film. As to driers they do speed things up but they do not improve the quality of the finished film. Why the hurry?

Early 18th century the English came out with a new gun having a brown stock. A translation of its name into modern English would be the "Brown Gun"  Most of us know it as Brown Bess.

Those more familiar with o-l-d English words know that Buss or Bess means gun, or shoot. In the USA one probably has to go to Alabama to find people who still know this. It is 17th century rural English, well behind how city people spoke or wrote. Some years ago I recall a Detroit native saying something like "He buss at me I buss back at him" No, kissing was not involved.

[James Rogers]

Early 18th century the English came out with a new gun having a brown stock. A translation of its name into modern English would be the "Brown Gun"  Most of us know it as Brown Bess.

Those more familiar with o-l-d English words know that Buss or Bess means gun, or shoot. In the USA one probably has to go to Alabama to find people who still know this. It is 17th century rural English, well behind how city people spoke or wrote. Some years ago I recall a Detroit native saying something like "He buss at me I buss back at him" No, kissing was not involved.

This from the Royal Armories might make for some interesting reading on the name origin of Brown Bess. It counters many prior theories and guesses.

https://blog.royalarmouries.org/2017/05/17/brown-bess-musket-or-mistress/

[yulzari]

OK, looks appropriate to simply use the usual period trade black oil paint and a matchlock is the simplest lock to make but I have been seduced this afternoon by a percussion converted Baker Rifle in Spain so the budget (plus anything I can find to sell) has suddenly been shifted there.

The plan had been to modify an Indian doglock repro musket to something closer to a musket that would have been an late 17th/early 18th century matchlock converted to doglock by a simple lock swap as required. One day I will be strong and not distracted  by, ooh look! Shiny thing!

[Daryl]

I-too have to knuckle down and save my mon - Oh look - another gun for sale!

[Pukka Bundook]

John,

I have a dog-lock but it a serous size.  as in, the frizzen spring is bigger than a 'Bess mainspring!
I should take some photos of it.

Good luck in Spain.....
Photos required as well.

[yulzari]

Richard, the Baker is already in the post even though I have only made the first of three payments so thank you my new mate Pedro. Photographs will appear in the BMF forum in due course.

BTW abandon farming and take up RV renting. The Memsahib has been looking up the cost of renting an RV in Canada for a few weeks. I could buy one for the money that is being asked for the rental. Thought about a rail trip alternative across Canada but that works out as expensive as a 2 1/2 month cruise around South America with extra costs for accommodation and meals off the train when stopping here and there for a day or two in addition. Now I know why you all emigrated to Canada. You must get rich there. I could easily get poor.

[conquerordie]

Early 18th century the English came out with a new gun having a brown stock. A translation of its name into modern English would be the "Brown Gun"  Most of us know it as Brown Bess.

Those more familiar with o-l-d English words know that Buss or Bess means gun, or shoot. In the USA one probably has to go to Alabama to find people who still know this. It is 17th century rural English, well behind how city people spoke or wrote. Some years ago I recall a Detroit native saying something like "He buss at me I buss back at him" No, kissing was not involved.

This from the Royal Armories might make for some interesting reading on the name origin of Brown Bess. It counters many prior theories and guesses.

https://blog.royalarmouries.org/2017/05/17/brown-bess-musket-or-mistress/

James,
Thank you for that article. I reenacted pretty progressively for about 15 years and would have loved to seen the faces on visitors as I told them name for the British muskets was actually a slang for whore! That's a tidbit they'd not forget.
Greg

[Elnathan]

That is an interesting article, and the revelation that "brown" was slang for "ordinary" or "unremarkable" has implications for things other than just muskets, I suspect. I know that the term "brown bill" has also been somewhat mysterious up till now.

If you read that article carefully, "Bess" had a rather broader meaning than just "whore." I can't think of an exact modern equivalent, though.

[conquerordie]

Elnathan,
I agree that the meaning just didn't describe prostitutes. Their are views in the 18 th century that British soldiers were from the lower parts of society. Im sure some of them were, and some weren't. This view of the common soldier coupled with the slang for muskets (i.e. female for hire or just lower sorts of women) is what I based my comments on. The quote in the article describing the musket as a metaphorical female companion, and the quote that "Brown Bess" was used as early as the 15 th century describing girls you don't take home to mother is another tidbit Id share with visitors so they'd better understand my comment.  Man I just went from the 15 th century slang to quoting Rick James "Super Freak" which could also be about  Brown Bess in one paragraph! Never done that before! 
Greg

[Craig Wilcox]

James, many thanks for the historical language tour!
Having gone through the first three grades (forms) south of London, it was surprising to re-learn a term, in this case "brown".  I can vividly recall a school-mate's Mum speaking of her neighbor as, "Well, she certainly is a brown one, yes."

I will certainly be educating my fellow arms-bearers in the future.

[Hudnut]

I am looking at assembling a William III period doglock service musket (just possibly convertible with a spare lock to a James II matchlock). I understand that the period stock finish was painted black. Often with a 'russeted' (i.e. browned) barrel.

Does anyone know of a period paint recipe for the task? I am guessing a simple linseed oil/lampblack paint but there mentions of tar and asphaltum here and there.

Years ago I made a matchlock musket, and finished the stock black.  I applied a hardware store charcoal stain, and then coated it with shellac.  It looked really good.

[rich pierce]

Aquafortis turn walnut black.  Cherry and osage orange as well.

[yulzari]

Just for the record:

here is the Ordnance Recipe circa 1810:
"Six ounces of lamp-black, three pints of spirits of turpentine, and three ounces of litharge to be put in after the lamp black and turpentine are well mixed; add one ounce of umber to give it a gloss, and one gallon bright varnish."

Litharge is prepared by exposing melted lead, at a high temperature, to a current of air from a pair of blast-bellows, which blows off the oxide formed on the surface of the metal into a recipient, where it solidifies in minute scales. It is a protoxide of lead, containing one equivalent of lead and one of oxygen.- obvious lead poisoning hazard- please note.