Jim,
My Artificer's kit is still very much in a "work in progress" stage to replace modern tools with "period correct" ones. The idea sort of grew from when I bought and filed original 19th century screwdrivers to fit the most common sizes of musket screws when I worked NSSA guns in the 70’s and 80’s and before Brownell’s had their Magna Tip screwdriver kits on the market. When I “came back” to 18th century reenacting in the mid 90’s, I started accumulating period correct tools to work on flint muskets and so I could do it in camp and in front of tourists/visitors – rather than hiding in my tent or car and working with modern tools. It also came from a slightly embarrassing moment at a Colonial Williamsburg special event, “Under the Red Coat” when a buddy and I fell in with another Highland Unit because our Unit based more in Northern Virginia and Maryland, had decided not to come as a unit.
I had been informed that they wanted us “in full kit” and in formation at 8:00 AM Saturday morning , SHARP for Drill practice and inspection. Since I know SO many time periods of drill, I sometimes get a bit confused, so I wanted to be there for “Recruit Drill” to make sure I was sharp in the time period and especially as a guest with their unit. So at 0750, I am in full kit and all by myself in formation. Over the next ½ hour or so, heads began to pop out of tents and of course they noticed me and began to fall in to formation. With 26 years in the Corps, I know how to stand inspection and have my gear in good order. However, I had put a new flint in my lock the night before and had not quite tightened it down enough. The Corporal pushed very hard on the side of the flint and it came loose. I was SO embarrassed at such a “Newbie” mistake. When he is chewing me out about it, he asked if I had a “Y” musket tool to tighten it and I told him I had left it in my tent. So he handed me his. Many of our repro muskets have holes in top jaw screw that are not period correct, but it is handy to push a pin punch in them to tighten the screw. When I began to use the punch end of his “Y” tool, he snapped something about possibly breaking it off because it was a repro. OK, so I tried to use the turnscrew tip, but it was too big for the slot in my screw. I then asked permission to be excused from formation to retrieve my tool and was grudgingly given permission.
So I ran to my tent, grabbed it and ran back to formation. Then I began to tighten the screw with the punch tip on my Y tool and the Corporal once again growled a warning about breaking it off. I ignored it and tightened the screw. Then I told him I had reworked my repro Y tool to fit the musket and had hardened and annealed the punch end, so there was no way it would break off. I also said I had modified the Turn Screw end the same way, so it actually fit the top jaw and cock screw slots. I wasn’t trying to be a smart aleck, but he took me that way. However, as he found some more loose screws and other things wrong with other locks, he actually had to come back and borrow my Y tool because his didn’t fit any lock but his own and I later noticed he had really buggered up the screw slots on his lock.
Oh, I don’t want to make much of this because I’m not looking for sympathy and many of my comrades have come back a lot worse or did not come back at all. I tore rib cartillage on both sides of my rib cage, blew out my right leg and contracted some kind of African Malaria or disease when I served in Somalia besides other things on Active Duty. (Fortunately it is not communicable.) The last couple weeks I have had another “episode” left over from what I contracted in Somalia. So there are times I can not sleep at night and look over the forums and maybe write a reply. That’s why my earlier reply was posted so early.
Gus
