use of copper

[mkeen]

I'm finishing an article on Christian Hess, a gunsmith of Lancaster County, PA from ca. 1745 to 1790. His inventory taken in 1794 lists old copper. Would you use copper in gunsmithing during that time period and if so what parts? It would seem too malleable for most parts. The inventory does list "1 box with brass mountings for guns."

Martin Keen

[Swampwalker]

My understanding is it was used for brazing, and for rivets.  Its rare but not unheard of to see it as an inlay or overlay.

[John Archer]

Foresight bases and rivets perhaps.

John.

[kutter]

Copper Spelter is a type of hard solder/brazing material. It's generally 50/50 copper & zinc, but a home-made mix can be about anything that's close to that.
Filings were the source of the materials & mixed together with a flux, usually borax.

But I don't know where the zinc would come from in that early American gunsmith setting.
Something I know little about.

It was used quite commonly in the European gun trade to braze double bbls together at the breech and for other situations where a braze joint was needed.
I think a form of it was also commonly used to cast decorative metal objects like furniture pulls, lamp bases, etc.

Brass itself being a copper & zinc alloy can do the same. Perhaps the 50/50 copper & zinc has some advantage in strength,,, lower melt&flow point maybe,,,just guessing of course.

Maybe the copper in the inventory wasn't even used in his gunsmith trade. Seems they were sort of Jack of all Trades types.

[JDK]

Was there zinc listed too?  Perhaps he was making his own brass.    J.D.

[mkeen]

There is no zinc listed on the inventory. I would agree that you can never be sure if the copper was used in his gunsmithing. I wanted to be sure I did not miss anything. Thanks for the replies.

Martin Keen

[TMerkley]

I remember reading somewhere, that a copper side-plate for a Brown bess was found at site of a fomer outpost. 

[doug]

    I suspect it may have been used to "braze" shoes onto frizzens

cheers mooncoon

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I've seen wrist repairs using sheet copper.