Stainless steel breechplug spacer!!!!

[Musclenut]

I'm building a late percussion pistol for myself. It will have german silver hardware. I'm a novice builder and i'm building this pistol to practice different techniques. My question is I'm wanting to put a silver spacer between the the breechplug and the barrel. I have not fit the plug yet. It would be very convenient to use a stainless steel washer. Is there any reason why stainless wont work?
Also regardless of what I use I believe it needs to be soldered to either the breechplug or barrel. So if I ever remove the plug the ring will stay in position. Can you solder stainless to steel?

[gunmaker]

Generally,  a slight dovetail is filed in top 5 flats of barrel and silver wire is pounded in.   Seems a spacer could be lost at some point ?......Tom

[Acer Saccharum]

Sorry, I'm not clear on what the spacer is for. For filling a gap, or for use as a rear sight?

[Ky-Flinter]

Sorry, I'm not clear on what the spacer is for. For filling a gap, or for use as a rear sight?

Or decoration?

-Ron

[Musclenut]

It'll be a decoration.

[retired fella]

Generally the breechplug is threaded to butt against the bore.  If you add a spacer you will lose a couple of threads in the breech and a gap will result allowing fouling to build up and probably snag your cleaning patches as well.

I  agree with gunmaker's thought of decorating with silver wire.

[Musclenut]

I didn't realize it was pounded in. I thought  it was a ring at the breechplug. Thanks for clarification!

[54ball]

 Yes gold and silver barrel decoration was inlet into the barrel.

[Rolf]

I didn't realize it was pounded in. I thought  it was a ring at the breechplug. Thanks for clarification!

You will find a tutorial on the subject here:
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=9090.0

I would not recommend silver as wedding bands. I tried it and it turns almost completely black and invisible after a couple of shots.

Best regards
Rolf

[jerrywh]

 If you use pure silver it will not turn black.

[Acer Saccharum]

Pure silver is also called 'fine silver' in the trades.

[Dphariss]

It'll be a decoration.

They did not use spacers back in the day. They cut a groove in the barrel or breech, under cut it and peaned in a gold or silver strip or wire to slightly over fill the groove then polish it off.
At about 42 seconds on this video you will see what I mean.

Dan

[Dphariss]

Tarnish happens

http://etsymetalclay.blogspot.com/2010/11/tarnish-happens.html

[T*O*F]

Most English guns with bands used platinum which also doesn't tarnish.  There is a product on the market called Argentum silver which isn't supposed to tarnish either.  I think it's silver with a bit of nickel added.  However, the cost is only slightly cheaper than pure silver.

[jerrywh]

Platinum is about $995.00 an ounce and is not easy to inlay. Sterling or argentium silver is not easy to inlay. Pure  silver and gold will take to teeth. Only engravers who like punishment use them. Pure silver is cheap. A piece the size of a barrel band would cost less than a dollar. There are only a couple of guys on this forum who could inlay a platinum barrel band.  I could teach any average person to do a pure silver inlay in about 45 minutes.

[JCKelly]

I am not at all fond of the idea to use stainless steel on a muzzle loader.

Nevertheless, if you insist, stainless can be soldered just fine, using an acid flux & whatever passes for solder these days.