« previous next »
Pages: [1] 2   Go Down

Author Topic: Painted Stocks  (Read 4986 times)

RoaringBull

  • Guest
Painted Stocks
« on: September 27, 2019, 06:20:54 PM »
Ok I'm not sure if this is the correct heading for this question. But here goes anyway.

What was the purpose of painting the stocks of the trade rifles back in the day?
Logged

Offline rich pierce

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Posts: 18915
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #1 on: September 27, 2019, 09:20:32 PM »
Trade rifles or trade guns?  Trade rifles sometimes had faked curl on maple stocks to enhance appearance. Early Carolina guns were painted in some cases overall and in other cases designs were inked or painted. We can only guess it was a way to hide or enhance some ugly wood.
Logged
Andover, Vermont

RoaringBull

  • Guest
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #2 on: September 27, 2019, 09:23:30 PM »
Yeah I meant guns, not rifles.
Logged

Offline T*O*F

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5076
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #3 on: September 27, 2019, 09:42:12 PM »
They were guns for wimmin who wanted fancy flowers and such on them.  :)
Logged
Dave Kanger

If religion is opium for the masses, the internet is a crack, pixel-huffing orgy that deafens the brain, numbs the senses and scrambles our peer list to include every anonymous loser, twisted deviant, and freak as well as people we normally wouldn't give the time of day.
-S.M. Tomlinson

Offline jrb

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 290
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #4 on: September 27, 2019, 09:52:32 PM »
What's the purpose of painting anything?
Logged

Offline JW

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 74
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #5 on: September 27, 2019, 10:12:14 PM »
Seeing as how those guns were predominately made for the Indian trade, there was clearly a market for more “bling.” To Rich’s point, cheap Beech stocks are hard to make pop, so that is likely what drove the painted finishes. I highly doubt there was any functional purpose other than giving cheap weapons more allure to the market they were intended.
Logged

Offline Stoner creek

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2726
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #6 on: September 27, 2019, 10:30:32 PM »
Quote from: T*O*F on September 27, 2019, 09:42:12 PM
They were guns for wimmin who wanted fancy flowers and such on them.  :)
Hmmmmm,  intesting. Im a huge brute of a man, (ask anyone who knows me) 6ft 4 and 350 lbs and I'm a real fan of these painted guns. I have two painted guns already and another one on the bench that I'm going to paint.
It's Folk Art folks....
 I also have a half acre wildflower bed......
I'm okay with all that  8)
« Last Edit: September 27, 2019, 10:35:24 PM by Stoner creek »
Logged
Stop Marxism in America

Online Mike Brooks

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13241
    • Mike Brooks Gunmaker
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #7 on: September 27, 2019, 11:37:48 PM »
Quote from: Stoner creek on September 27, 2019, 10:30:32 PM
Quote from: T*O*F on September 27, 2019, 09:42:12 PM
They were guns for wimmin who wanted fancy flowers and such on them.  :)
Hmmmmm,  intesting. Im a huge brute of a man, (ask anyone who knows me) 6ft 4 and 350 lbs and I'm a real fan of these painted guns. I have two painted guns already and another one on the bench that I'm going to paint.
It's Folk Art folks....
 I also have a half acre wildflower bed......
I'm okay with all that  8)
Yep, he has his own flower bed, seen it with my own eyes as he prances through it wearing his ballerina outfit. You'll have to excuse this TOF guy, he's one of Art Fleener's friends, go figure..... ::)
Logged
NEW WEBSITE! www.mikebrooksflintlocks.com
Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'?

Offline Stoner creek

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2726
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #8 on: September 28, 2019, 12:04:22 AM »
Quote from: Mike Brooks on September 27, 2019, 11:37:48 PM
Quote from: Stoner creek on September 27, 2019, 10:30:32 PM
Quote from: T*O*F on September 27, 2019, 09:42:12 PM
They were guns for wimmin who wanted fancy flowers and such on them.  :)
Hmmmmm,  intesting. Im a huge brute of a man, (ask anyone who knows me) 6ft 4 and 350 lbs and I'm a real fan of these painted guns. I have two painted guns already and another one on the bench that I'm going to paint.
It's Folk Art folks....
 I also have a half acre wildflower bed......
I'm okay with all that  8)
Yep, he has his own flower bed, seen it with my own eyes as he prances through it wearing his ballerina outfit. You'll have to excuse this TOF guy, he's one of Art Fleener's friends, go figure..... ::)
It’s a “Tu-Tu” and they don’t make ballerina slippers in Mossy Oak Camo size 14.......
Logged
Stop Marxism in America

Offline R.J.Bruce

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 375
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #9 on: September 28, 2019, 04:20:39 AM »
Quote from: Stoner creek on September 28, 2019, 12:04:22 AM
Quote from: Mike Brooks on September 27, 2019, 11:37:48 PM
Quote from: Stoner creek on September 27, 2019, 10:30:32 PM
Quote from: T*O*F on September 27, 2019, 09:42:12 PM
They were guns for wimmin who wanted fancy flowers and such on them.  :)
Hmmmmm,  intesting. Im a huge brute of a man, (ask anyone who knows me) 6ft 4 and 350 lbs and I'm a real fan of these painted guns. I have two painted guns already and another one on the bench that I'm going to paint.
It's Folk Art folks....
 I also have a half acre wildflower bed......
I'm okay with all that  8)
Yep, he has his own flower bed, seen it with my own eyes as he prances through it wearing his ballerina outfit. You'll have to excuse this TOF guy, he's one of Art Fleener's friends, go figure..... ::)
It’s a “Tu-Tu” and they don’t make ballerina slippers in Mossy Oak Camo size 14.......

Too bad about the ballerina  slippers!!

With a camo tu tu, you could audition for the new Disney movie, "Bambi Returns!!!...Demise of the Hunter!!!"

Your gun would be welded shut, and painted with scenes of forest animals singing and loving one another!!! :)
Logged

Offline Mike Lyons

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1240
  • Afghanvet
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #10 on: September 28, 2019, 07:28:55 AM »
Quote from: Stoner creek on September 27, 2019, 10:30:32 PM
Quote from: T*O*F on September 27, 2019, 09:42:12 PM
They were guns for wimmin who wanted fancy flowers and such on them.  :)
Hmmmmm,  intesting. Im a huge brute of a man, (ask anyone who knows me) 6ft 4 and 350 lbs and I'm a real fan of these painted guns. I have two painted guns already and another one on the bench that I'm going to paint.
It's Folk Art folks....
 I also have a half acre wildflower bed......
I'm okay with all that  8)

I’ll third that he’s a big guy.  First time I met him,   I thought I ran into that big guy on “Cool Hand Luke” that beat up poor Luke.
« Last Edit: September 28, 2019, 07:36:02 AM by Mike Lyons »
Logged

Offline T*O*F

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5076
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #11 on: September 28, 2019, 02:48:16 PM »
Quote
It’s a “Tu-Tu”
My brain hurts!!!  A vision of the hippopotamus dancing in Fantasia just popped into my mind.   ;D
Logged
Dave Kanger

If religion is opium for the masses, the internet is a crack, pixel-huffing orgy that deafens the brain, numbs the senses and scrambles our peer list to include every anonymous loser, twisted deviant, and freak as well as people we normally wouldn't give the time of day.
-S.M. Tomlinson

Offline Marcruger

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3664
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #12 on: September 29, 2019, 02:16:07 PM »
Y’all are crazy. Please keep it up. 😁
I am thinking that painting a stock was a much faster way to make a stock water resistant. Raw wood weathers quickly, and paint is fairly cheap and easy.
God bless, Marc
Logged

Offline Tim Crosby

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Posts: 18054
  • AKA TimBuckII
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #13 on: September 29, 2019, 03:57:19 PM »
Quote from: Mike Brooks on September 27, 2019, 11:37:48 PM
Quote from: Stoner creek on September 27, 2019, 10:30:32 PM
Quote from: T*O*F on September 27, 2019, 09:42:12 PM
They were guns for wimmin who wanted fancy flowers and such on them.  :)
Hmmmmm,  intesting. Im a huge brute of a man, (ask anyone who knows me) 6ft 4 and 350 lbs and I'm a real fan of these painted guns. I have two painted guns already and another one on the bench that I'm going to paint.
It's Folk Art folks....
 I also have a half acre wildflower bed......
I'm okay with all that  8)
Yep, he has his own flower bed, seen it with my own eyes as he prances through it wearing his ballerina outfit. You'll have to excuse this TOF guy, he's one of Art Fleener's friends, go figure..... ::)

  I'm gonna try and forget the Pic I get of this...

   Tim
Logged

Offline Bob McBride

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2828
  • TENNESSEE
    • Black Powder TV
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #14 on: September 29, 2019, 05:19:06 PM »
If the Natives wanted them sans paint, they wouldn’t have been painted. Ugly wood or no.
Logged

Online Mike Brooks

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13241
    • Mike Brooks Gunmaker
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #15 on: September 29, 2019, 05:40:32 PM »
Quote from: Bob McBride on September 29, 2019, 05:19:06 PM
If the Natives wanted them sans paint, they wouldn’t have been painted. Ugly wood or no.
Other than English trade guns there doesn't seem to be a lot of documented evidence for painted stocks. feel free to prove me wrong so I can get my brush out again. ;D

As a side note, the natives also had a choice of light wood and dark wood (beech or walnut) and they are noted as having an individual preference...or so I read in some old document somewhere...
Logged
NEW WEBSITE! www.mikebrooksflintlocks.com
Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'?

Offline Pukka Bundook

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3364
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #16 on: September 29, 2019, 06:15:19 PM »
Back in the dim and dusty, I recall a native of the plains quoted as saying in his youth trade guns were available at different trade rates/prices.
A red painted stock was more than a plain stock, and a red spotted stock cost more than the former.

Was it Crowfoot?? Might have been.
If it Was Crowfoot, it would likely be Hudson Bay guns we are talking about.

Thing is, many natives liked things bright and colourful, so why not stocks?
Logged

Offline Bob McBride

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2828
  • TENNESSEE
    • Black Powder TV
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #17 on: September 29, 2019, 06:23:54 PM »
I agree. I think likely, for those who preferred painted, or otherwise uniquely decorated stocks, they were most often painted by themselves or someone within their tribe, but who knows I guess. It is an interesting question.
Logged

Online snapper

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2362
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #18 on: September 29, 2019, 09:56:51 PM »
Just minding my own business and I get roped into a thread about painted guns and guys dancing in flowers.  :)

Fleener

Logged
My taste are simple:  I am easily satisfied with the best.  Winston Churchill

Offline Stoner creek

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2726
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #19 on: September 29, 2019, 10:06:57 PM »


My aforementioned flower bed! That’s one of three.
Logged
Stop Marxism in America

Online Mike Brooks

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13241
    • Mike Brooks Gunmaker
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #20 on: September 29, 2019, 10:15:36 PM »
That must have been before the tu-tu and the size 14 ballerina slippers.... :P
Logged
NEW WEBSITE! www.mikebrooksflintlocks.com
Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'?

Online Mike Brooks

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13241
    • Mike Brooks Gunmaker
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #21 on: September 29, 2019, 10:16:23 PM »
Quote from: snapper on September 29, 2019, 09:56:51 PM
Just minding my own business and I get roped into a thread about painted guns and guys dancing in flowers.  :)

Fleener
Well, you know how were are. ;D
Logged
NEW WEBSITE! www.mikebrooksflintlocks.com
Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'?

Online snapper

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2362
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #22 on: September 29, 2019, 10:35:41 PM »
Love the wild flowers.   I have planted a few acres of them on place.

Not sure about painted guns however.

Is there a smell of potpourri in the air after you fire them?

Fleener
Logged
My taste are simple:  I am easily satisfied with the best.  Winston Churchill

Offline JV Puleo

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 896
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #23 on: September 29, 2019, 10:39:15 PM »
I had (one of my best friends has it now) an English officer's fuzee that I thought, at the time was by Joseph Brazier although it turnd out it was another maker with the initials IB. The stock was japanned black. Since this was a real 18th-century finish it would have been a lacquer, probably imported from India, and made from the shells of the lac beetle. Another friend thought it couldn't be real and suggested stripping the stock...then called back about two days later to say DONT' DO IT!. He'd discovered a period reference and how fantastically rare it was for such a finish to be intact. With all the steel polished and the stock shiny black it must have been quite stunning in period.
Logged

Offline Tim Crosby

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Posts: 18054
  • AKA TimBuckII
Re: Painted Stocks
« Reply #24 on: September 29, 2019, 11:19:24 PM »
Quote from: rich pierce on September 27, 2019, 09:20:32 PM
Trade rifles or trade guns?  Trade rifles sometimes had faked curl on maple stocks to enhance appearance. Early Carolina guns were painted in some cases overall and in other cases designs were inked or painted. We can only guess it was a way to hide or enhance some ugly wood.

 What school/area of guns are you asking about? Rich asked "Trade rifles or trade guns?" This reply doesn't say much; "Yeah I meant guns, not rifles." Can someone define the Two, differences in them, area of use, were they used more so in Indian Trade or were they used by Colonials as well? I think of N.C. and North West when I hear Trade Gun. Need a little education.
 Some guns are seen  painted allover ie Blue, others with vines, frackter style work, Tolle painting and others. I thought the overall painted ones were done to attract the buyer/trader as in Native Americans. The others done for or by people of a faith, ethnic back ground, fraternal organization,, etc...
 Why paint? Because of one of the reason above an In lieu of a finish of some sort, paint protected the bare wood. 


  Tim
« Last Edit: September 29, 2019, 11:29:50 PM by Tim Crosby »
Logged
Pages: [1] 2   Go Up
« previous next »