Period Correct Brown Bess Stock Finish Question

[SingleMalt]

I'm in the process of collecting parts to build a Long Land Brown Bess musket.  The period correct stock finish has been bouncing around in my head.  Linseed oil?  Varnish?  Beeswax?  I can't find any reference to it.  It must have been something cheap, since the quantities used were huge.  And it must have been something that could be easily reapplied in the barracks or field.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what was used?  Thanks for the help.

[smart dog]

Hi,
I suggest Tried and True Linseed oil varnish.  Original Besses that I examined in hand had a slightly glossy finish and not an "in the wood" low sheen oil finish.

dave

[Nate McKenzie]

I think it is important to use English walnut, too.

[smart dog]

Hi Nate,
I agree with you on the English walnut but sometimes it is hard to get a plank long enough for a long land Bess and it is very expensive.  You can make American black walnut look like English walnut if you give it a wash in yellow water-based aniline dye.  That removes the purple-brown tone common in black walnut and turns it more toward a nutmeg brown.  I've done it a few times and it really works.  However, I would much rather use an English walnut blank largely because it is such good wood to work with and is historically correct for the gun.   

dave

[James Rogers]

Hi Nate,
I agree with you on the English walnut but sometimes it is hard to get a plank long enough for a long land Bess and it is very expensive.  You can make American black walnut look like English walnut if you give it a wash in yellow water-based aniline dye.  That removes the purple-brown tone common in black walnut and turns it more toward a nutmeg brown.  I've done it a few times and it really works.  However, I would much rather use an English walnut blank largely because it is such good wood to work with and is historically correct for the gun.   

dave

I have tested this and found it to work good. A wash is a good description. Not a paint.

[Mike Brooks]

Hi Nate,
I agree with you on the English walnut but sometimes it is hard to get a plank long enough for a long land Bess and it is very expensive.  You can make American black walnut look like English walnut if you give it a wash in yellow water-based aniline dye.  That removes the purple-brown tone common in black walnut and turns it more toward a nutmeg brown.  I've done it a few times and it really works.  However, I would much rather use an English walnut blank largely because it is such good wood to work with and is historically correct for the gun.   

dave

I have tested this and found it to work good. A wash is a good description. Not a paint.

Yup.

[SingleMalt]

Thanks, guys.  I agree that English walnut would be great, but this blank is black walnut, 3.5" thick and 65" long.  I shudder to think what that would cost in English walnut!

So, Dave, with this yellow wash you mentioned, I'd use less than a quarter, maybe, of what would be called for if using it "full strength?"  I was thinking of using some Laurel Mountain Forge stain I've got (cherry and maple mixed together) cut 75%+ to give it some color.

[Mike Brooks]

Thanks, guys.  I agree that English walnut would be great, but this blank is black walnut, 3.5" thick and 65" long.  I shudder to think what that would cost in English walnut!

So, Dave, with this yellow wash you mentioned, I'd use less than a quarter, maybe, of what would be called for if using it "full strength?"  I was thinking of using some Laurel Mountain Forge stain I've got (cherry and maple mixed together) cut 75%+ to give it some color.

I have picked up several EW blanks 10" longer than that in the past ten years for $150 o  to $90. You just have to be on your toes.

[Mad Monk]

The period correct finish was boiled linseed oil.  Boiled oil prepared with only lead as the dryer metal.

[SingleMalt]

The period correct finish was boiled linseed oil.  Boiled oil prepared with only lead as the dryer metal.

A cooked varnish?

[Mad Monk]

The period correct finish was boiled linseed oil.  Boiled oil prepared with only lead as the dryer metal.

A cooked varnish?

Depends on your definition of a varnish and at what point in history you are looking at.  There was a time when simply cooking the dryer metal into the oil made it a "varnish" by their terms.  Later the term varnish, as it relates to oil-based finishes was applied only to those that had a gum resin added.  Oils boiled with the standard lead dryer were simply called boiled oils.

Going back a bunch of years at the Gunmaker's Fair.  I had started my boiled oil and oil-based varnish work.  Kit Ravenshire became involved.  Coaching me on his experience in England with antique guns.  When I would go to the Fair I would take along a box of my experiments for him to work with.  He insisted that the standard lead boiled linseed oil was a common finish on English guns including the shotguns used in hunting.  Described how a man who knew how to boil good oil would travel around to the various manors after the hunting seasons were over.  The man would put a fresh coat of oil on oil the guns.  He would be given a small payment for this but he would be given housing and food during his stay at each manner.  Kit described how the finish on the old hunting guns would be the result of long years of repeated application of additional thin films of boiled oil on the stocks.  Deep glass-like appearance finishes.

[bob in the woods]

I just throw a few corroded lead balls in with the oil when heating. Seems to work just fine.

[smart dog]

Hi Single Malt,
I use yellow aniline dye.  Mine is from Brownell's but Lee Valley sells the dyes as well. It is a pure simple yellow color that I make up fairly dilute in water.  I am not particular about the concentration but by keeping it diluted you can just mop it on with no worries about evenness or streaks.  With respect to the finish, here is an extract from Cuthbertson's " A System for the Compleat Interior Management and Oeconomy of a Battalion of Infantry" published in 1768 and 1776:

"By going to some little expense, it will not be difficult to bring the stocks of the firelocks to one uniform color, by staining them either black, red, or yellow; and then by laying on a varnish, to preserve them always in a glossy, shining condition."  

Cuthbertson was an officer and adjutant for several regiments during his career.  What he meant by staining is a mystery to me.  It may be they tinted the color to achieve more uniformity but was it a wood stain or did they tint the finish? DeWitt Bailey mentions stocks were finished with linseed oil not specifying if it was boiled or mixed in a varnish.  I've cleaned and stabilized 2 original Brown Bess muskets and the finishes on both were varnish-like with a semi-glossy on the surface look.  Also the wood grain was partially obscured suggesting either a pigmented stain was used on the wood or the finish was tinted.  The walnut color in the barrel channels of both muskets was light colored so I think the wood was stained to darken it.   However, there is no guarantee that I was looking at the original finish from the Tower.

dave

[SingleMalt]

Mad Monk and Smart Dog, that's exactly what I was looking for.  Thank you, sirs!

[JCKelly]

When I was young & even dumber than I am now, I bought an India pattern Brown Bess, converted to percussion, from a shop in Salisbury, Maryland. That is on the peninsula est of the Chesapeake Bay.

Had I been thinking, I would have realized that this was a left over from when the Brits sailed up that Bay during War of 1812, and I might have treated it more reverently. Instead I nailed on some castings to reconvert it, & sold it.

One thing I remember about that faded old stock finish. It had some manner of reddish-brown pigment on it.
Never have read what that might have been, other than the original finish of the time.

Otherwise i agree with whoever said he had (had seen?) old muskets with a shiny finish, not that dull finish later American muskets had from being cooked in linseed oil + (real) turpentine.  I have both a long land - which is no longer long at all - and an India pattern w bayonet, that looks like it saw service.

[Beepermac]

To anyone researching this topic, another positive data point on the yellow aniline dye.  It worked quite well for me on black walnut in a Bess kit.