Jag question

[Dennis Daigger]

The jag in this photo seems to be a common style for many of the flintlock and percussion cased pistol accessories although the center part with the ‘v’ cuts has various forms.

I’m hoping someone here knows the purpose of this center section.



Dennis

[T*O*F]

It allows a slightly looser cleaning patch that slides in easily, but bunches up when removed.  The cuts grab the patch and pulls the schmutz out of the bore when cleaning.

[Dennis Daigger]

Thanks, Dave. Here is an attempt to make one for a pistol project that I’m working on. The opposing barb rows face opposite directions so there’s grab on the patch with both pushing and pulling of the cleaning rod. It will be interesting to see how well it works.



Dennis

[P.W.Berkuta]

Nicely made - is the jag in two sections and screwed together or is it all machined from one piece of brass?

[Dennis Daigger]

It’s made of a single piece of brass with a 10-32 thread. The cleaning rod is a bit over 12” long with an osage orange shaft and ebony cap.





Dennis

[JBJ]

Nicely done, indeed! Question: What is the jag diameter in relation to the bore diameter and the relationship to the cleaning patch thickness? Many thanks.

J.B.

[alyce-james]

Good morning Sir. Nice looking pistol rammer with modified jag. Thanks for sharing. Also the cased set was very interesting to, very interesting to see also. Have a great week. AJ.

[Pukka Bundook]

I think the centre section was because in the day long stranded tow was used to clean, and when wrapped around the jag it held very tightly.
I do not think patches were used at that time at all.

Nice clean work, Dennis!

[JBJ]

Pooka, makes sense!

J.B.

[Pukka Bundook]

A lot of jags of this style are still used to clean shotgun barrels, maybe more so in the UK.

Richard.

[flatsguide]

That is very, very nice work sir!
Richard

[Dennis Daigger]

I think the centre section was because in the day long stranded tow was used to clean, and when wrapped around the jag it held very tightly.
I do not think patches were used at that time at all.

Nice clean work, Dennis!

That makes sense but how would the TOW work with the front cylindrical section? Also wonder about the spiral grooves in the front section. Many of the jags that I’ve found photos of have these and they vary from deep spirals to nearly longitudinal cuts.

Here is another cased pair of pistols that has one of these jags and it too has grooves at the front. Also note that each pistol has its own loading rod and cleaning rod.

JBJ-the jag diameter is .030” under bore diameter. Patches are around .012” compressed.

Dennis

[Daryl]

What I am seeing, Dennis, is one rod has a jag on it and the other (upper) has a brass ring.
Thus I think one is the loading rod for both pistols and the other is the cleaning rod for both pistols.
The mallet is for starting the balls in both pistols.
Beautiful brace of pistols.

[Dennis Daigger]

Daryl,
I found somewhere around 50 cased pistol photos using Pinterest search and unfortunately the quality of the images is not the greatest but I have gleaned the information I needed to make semblances of nearly all of the accessories that I want to case. Although I have taken some license with construction the purposes and functions have been retained.

After a lot of detail study I’ve figured out that the loading and cleaning rods are nested in nearly all of the French fit cases and what you are seeing is in fact four rods in the second image that I posted. One set has the loading ram on top and the other the cleaning rod. They are nested with the knobs on opposite ends.

One of the other mysteries is the mallets that are in a large number of the cases. How exactly were they used? The knob ends of the loading rods don’t seem to be molested but it does seem to indicate that tight patch-ball combinations were used. Maybe these cased pistols were simply not shot much, if at all.
 
Dennis

[Dennis Daigger]

Here is another cased pistol pair. This is the only picture I’ve found that has a short starter. A steel T-handled cleaning rod is also in the case. A fair number of the cased pistols had these. Maybe this was primarily to pull bullets as most of the cleaning rods have a fixed jag and couldn’t be used with a threaded screw puller.

Note the rectangular opening on one handle of the bullet mound. This feature too is fairly common and I have no inkling what purpose it served.



Dennis