My Ratty Pistol

[JCKelly]

I had really wanted a nice Peter White flint pistol but Wallet preferred this one. ".41 caliber 8-1/4" rifled octagon barrel, Goucher lock, pewter nose cap and an octagon brass butt cap". A really odd looking stock. Did a bit of homework. On p 282 of  The Kentucky Pistol by Chandler & Whisker is a vaguely similar one attributed to Gaston Co., NC. The Contemporary Makers' Blog also has an attributed South Carolina flintlock pistol of similar stock architecture.



Odd looking stock. Resembles a Napoleonic period French pistol. Such as this one sold by Cowan's in 2015, and the fancier ones by Boutet.


Hmmm . . . squirrely French style, maybe from the Carolinas? Oh yeah, didn't the Africans in Haiti ask the French to leave, with a final massacre in 1804? Surviving French refugees came here, many to the Carolinas. I believe a small colony survives on Crusoe's Island, North Carolina.

I think I have me a Southern pistol, styling influenced by the French who escaped from Haiti.

Might you Carolinians care to voice your opinions?

[okieboy]

 So, what-cha gonna do with that ratty old thing?

[JCKelly]

Soak the iron parts in automatic transmission fluid for a week or so, then use a bronze wire brush on them, by hand.

Next probably curse bitterly that I ever saw it, as I try to figure out how to hang a hammer on it

Then display it anyway, as a real American pistol with history behind it.

Only other Southern handgun I have was made in Augusta, Georgia under very trying circumstances. Can't say as to whether it Saw the Elephant, but looks to have been run over by one.

Yeah, I like the history behind these old things.