“Beaded” Trade Guns

[Robert Wolfe]

I am aware of four beaded (wampum) trade guns. Anyone know of more? I’m getting ready to start work on one inspired by #2 below and am just trying to collect background information.

1)   Recently sold at auction for big bucks was the wonderful beaded Fusil de Chase from the Walter O’Connor collection with the beaded date of 1759 though it apparently dates to 1729 or 1735. A bunch of great color photos can be found at Morphy Auctions  https://auctions.morphyauctions.com/fine_french_fusil_de_chasse_with_bead_decoration__-lot289313.aspx?fbclid=iwar3mwf52eiyut09uhpa3rm0a-hsxrvpwbdobiwaeien4yjdfs9drrlz2kd8&Cart_CategoryCmb_Callback=yes





2)   There is another one with very similar beading in Colonial Frontier Guns (T.M.Hamilton) with a beaded date of 1777. Note that at one time this gun was also owned by Walter O’Connor who did the writeup in Hamilton’s book. It’s an English trade gun (Wilson) in the French style likely dating to the 1750’s or 1760’s. This one had 147 beads vs 244 for the Fusil de Chase. Does anyone know of better photo’s of this one?







3)   Another English (Wilson) trade gun in the French style dating perhaps from perhaps 1765-1780) is shown in For Trade and Treaty (R.R.Gale). Its beading is much simpler, limited to the right side of the butt and the top of the wrist.






4)   And finally, a wonderfully early piece that was found with the remains of a ship that sank in the St Lawrence River in 1690. It has crosses on the butt (two each side) and a row along the lower edge of the stock. An article on this gun can be found at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330324716_A_Wampum-Inlaid_Musket_from_the_1690_Phips'_Shipwreck . The article includes a neat color picture of the stock in situ on the bottom of the river.

[rich pierce]

I’m re-creating #4 now. I’m not aware of others.

[Robert Wolfe]

Rich, I hope you'll post pictures when you are done. What lock are you using? That's one I'd like to do as well.

[rich pierce]

Rich, I hope you'll post pictures when you are done. What lock are you using? That's one I'd like to do as well.

Will do. I’m using a Chris Evrard-built Chambers Round Faced English lock which he made without a pan bridle. It sort of evokes a trade gun lock while giving top performance. As it’s going to be my personal gun and used in competition with round ball, I wanted a very fine lock. I bought a set of Wilson trade gun lock castings from TRS and the castings are good. I just wanted something I knew was going to give a fine trigger pull and spark like mad.

The build has a 48” long Rayl octagon to round 20 ga barrel and is stock in marbled English walnut shot full of worm holes in the buttstock. I went all Mike Brooks on patching the worm holes. I made the buttplate from sheet brass. Fun build; getting close. I’ve got to complete the engraving and finish metal and wood.

[Robert Wolfe]

Very nice. Looking forward to seeing the pics. I'm going to use Chris's lock as well. It'll be six months before I'm done though!

[Mike Brooks]

Rich, I hope you'll post pictures when you are done. What lock are you using? That's one I'd like to do as well.

Will do. I’m using a Chris Evrard-built Chambers Round Faced English lock which he made without a pan bridle. It sort of evokes a trade gun lock while giving top performance. As it’s going to be my personal gun and used in competition with round ball, I wanted a very fine lock. I bought a set of Wilson trade gun lock castings from TRS and the castings are good. I just wanted something I knew was going to give a fine trigger pull and spark like mad.

The build has a 48” long Rayl octagon to round 20 ga barrel and is stock in marbled English walnut shot full of worm holes in the buttstock. I went all Mike Brooks on patching the worm holes. I made the buttplate from sheet brass. Fun build; getting close. I’ve got to complete the engraving and finish metal and wood.

Looking forward to seeing this. I have planned to build a beaded gun for years. I hope I get to it one day, I'm awfully slow these days.

[rich pierce]

I’ve got beads!  I’m in between using the white ones and the aged looking ones.

[Robert Wolfe]

Rich, are you going to use beads or wampum?

[Mike Brooks]

I’ve got beads!  I’m in between using the white ones and the aged looking ones.

I'd go with the aged beads. I have had a nice string of antique white beads  found near Ft De Chartres. They are about the size of the beads on #3 above. I have been holding on to these beads since 1988.... I'll probably make a 1760-ish French trade gun and give it a very distressed finish. I have had the barrel in the wood for more than 10 years....

[Robert Wolfe]

Get on it Mike - it's time!

[ScottNE]

I’ve got beads!  I’m in between using the white ones and the aged looking ones.

I'd go with the aged beads. I have had a nice string of antique white beads  found near Ft De Chartres. They are about the size of the beads on #3 above. I have been holding on to these beads since 1988.... I'll probably make a 1760-ish French trade gun and give it a very distressed finish. I have had the barrel in the wood for more than 10 years....

That’s a gun I can’t wait to see!

[Craig Wilcox]

Having never heard of a beaded gun, you have lead me to ask a few questions:

What kind of beads were used?  And how are they attached?  Can't quite envision needle holes going through the stock - did they mix up some early epoxy (pine resin, etc)?

Love the appearance of them, and the patterns used.  but the only beads I have are from Crazy Crow, about 0.085" diameter, and those pictured look a LOT bigger, like 1/8" or so.

So, please forgive my ignorance on the subject, but I would like to end that.  Love learning new things.

[rich pierce]

Having never heard of a beaded gun, you have lead me to ask a few questions:

What kind of beads were used?  And how are they attached?  Can't quite envision needle holes going through the stock - did they mix up some early epoxy (pine resin, etc)?

Love the appearance of them, and the patterns used.  but the only beads I have are from Crazy Crow, about 0.085" diameter, and those pictured look a LOT bigger, like 1/8" or so.

So, please forgive my ignorance on the subject, but I would like to end that.  Love learning new things.

Craig, by the 1600s, imported beads are everywhere. The ones we see are called seed beads. They could easily be inserted into a gunstock using a pocketknife and some pitch. Of course Native Americans had glues from pitch, distilling from birch bark, and hide glue. On my build I will finish the stock then pop them in, using the pine pitch-charcoal-moose manure concoction used in bark canoes.

[Robert Wolfe]

In guns 2 and 3 above they are described as "beads" no size given. In guns 1 and 4 they are described as "wampum."  Wampum are cylindrical beads made from shell roughly 3-4 mm by 6-7mm (1/8" would be a good diameter approximation). In gun 1 above they are described as being held in place by red sealing wax. In gun 2 they are described as being "force fit" though I suspect a glue of some type is used (pitch, sealing wax, etc).

[Craig Wilcox]

Thanks, Rich and Robert!  And Rich, I would have no problem with that "glue", as there are evergreens around, and charcoal.  But moose manure?  That is quite rare here in west central Ohio.  I would expect Daryl or Taylor Sapergia to use something like that.  Maybe I can scout up some deer manure, and I am sure my Amish friends would let me use some Belgian horse manure...

And, because it looks very nifty, will see about getting some larger beads.  Got a Traditions Blunderbuss kit the other day, and it is going to need some fancy-up stuff.  And the flint lock on it is, predictably, not worth a warm spit.  Going to find something to replace it with, as long as I can get the pan in close proximity to it's almost useless touch hole.  Will probably put in a White Lightening type instead of the little 1/4" thing is has now.  And I believe some serious draw filing will erase all the printing on the barrel.  Then I'll get to play Elmer Fudd going after wascally wabbits.

[MeliusCreekTrapper]

Rabbit pellets will work in place of moose manure.

So, on the originals, were they seed beads glued in small depressions? Or wampum in drilled holes? Or both? Or was the wampum broken into shorter pieces, more like a bead instead of a tube? I've always been intrigued by these guns.

[rich pierce]

I’m not sure wampum was still being made in the timeframe of these guns but maybe there was some still around. Many traditional crafts and skills were quickly lost after colonies were established here. Who knows what a museum curator knows about wampum versus seed beads. Many curators of small museums have to be jacks of all trades.

[Robert Wolfe]

Agreed that glass beads gradually took over from wampum but wampum (from shells) was made in quantity by the Dutch, English, and ultimately Americans from the 1600's well into the 1800's as it served a larger larger role in eastern native cultures.

[rich pierce]

Agreed that glass beads gradually took over from wampum but wampum (from shells) was made in quantity by the Dutch, English, and ultimately Americans from the 1600's well into the 1800's as it served a larger larger role in eastern native cultures.

Good to know!

[rich pierce]

Robert, as I was looking through this post about Tom Patton who passed away recently, I found a picture of a beaded gun. Tom collected early French and Liege guns.

[Tim Crosby]

 Jez, I didn't know Tom had passed, sorry to hear that.

   Tim

[Mike Brooks]

Robert, as I was looking through this post about Tom Patton who passed away recently, I found a picture of a beaded gun. Tom collected early French and Liege guns.

That top rifle is the real  "I was free born" rifle. The bottom one is one of his Liege guns. I made copies of the mounts from that one so he could have one repopped for his son. I used to talk on the phone several times a week with him about French guns until he got mad at me. Never did meet him in person.

[rich pierce]

Tom could really talk on the phone. Seldom less than 45 minutes. Great guy, and a ponytail to boot.

[Mike Brooks]

Tom could really talk on the phone. Seldom less than 45 minutes. Great guy, and a ponytail to boot.

You got off easy. Usually 2-3 hours a couple times a week for me. Really PO'd my wife as she thought I should be making a living instead of talking on the phone all day like a teenage girl.. Between him and John Getz 1/2 of my week was just talking on the phone. I stopped answering the phone and it really torqued him off. He was a wealth of information and I enjoyed him in moderation.

[Robert Wolfe]

Thanks Rich - very similar to 1690 ship wreck gun.