Dutch musket

[smart dog]

Hi Folks,
This is a bit of a new journey for me.  I knew very little about Dutch supplied muskets used in North America.  The curator at Fort Ticonderoga asked me if I could rework a reproduction of a Dutch musket he bought second hand.  It seems to be a Rifle Shoppe parts set series 693 type 2 Dutch musket.  The stock was probably made from a blank.  It lacked a lot of historical details, was crudely made and the forestock was split as well as it incorrectly mounted a wooden rammer.  My first task was to gather data.  I looked at many photos of originals and visited Fort Ti so Matt could show me the Dutch muskets in their collection.  I also relied a lot on Jim Mullin's book "Of Sorts For Provincials" which contains an excellent photo montage of a mid 18th century Dutch musket used in North America. Ultimately, I settled on a hybrid combining traits from the musket in Mullin's book and those on an original in the Fort Ti collection.  My first task was to work over the barrel and lock.  Both needed some cosmetic and functional work.  The round 77 caliber barrel is by Ed Rayl but needed decorative bands at the breech and all the lugs removed.
   


The photo shows the decorative lines that had to be added to the Rayl barrel.

Next the lock needed to be reworked, refitted, and tuned.  In addition, I wanted only one screw hole showing behind the flint cock.  So I welded over the exisiting hole on the outside and cut new blind threads for the sear spring screw.
 



I then fitted and tuned the lock.  It performs very well.  I bought a board of dense American black walnut from Baker Lumber in White River Junction, VT, my go to place for great wood.







I used my tracings of the Fort Ti musket to cut the board and then went at it.




One set back was the cast butt plate was terrible and broke with very little manipulation despite annealing it. So I bought some thick brass sheet and hammered out my own.






More to come

dave

[Yazel.xring]

Excited to follow along.

[smart dog]

Hi,
A lot is done.  I am working very fast because that better emulates the 18th century workmanship on military guns.  I cannot work "Mike Brooks" fast but I can push when I need to.  The musket is mostly done awaiting stain and finish.  Here is where I am.





















I have to clean up the details like filing the barrel tang flush with the stock.  I also have to finish the details on all the lock panels and barrel tang carving.  I need to make the rammer from steel rod and the sling swivels.  The nose band is sheet brass bent around the stock and meant to look like it was roughly done by a regimental armorer.  The ramrod pipes are 5/16, which have the correct outside diameter and design but they are bushed with 1/4" brass tubing to fit them for a steel rammer.  As part of my whiskering process, I painted the stock black with dilute aniline dye.  It highlights the scratches and embeds in the grain, giving the wood an old mellow look.



More to come.

dave

[rich pierce]

Nice and stout. I sent you an email about a musket at the Bennington Museum with similar architecture.

[smart dog]

Hi,
The musket is done.  These Dutch muskets are some of the least understood and studied guns used in North America.  Their pedigree is so variable and makes a mockery of the type classifications proposed by Moller, Ahearn, Neumann, and others. Dutch arms dealers assembled muskets using parts from all over Europe, reworked old Dutch and European muskets, and even reworked old muskets that they previously reworked.  Examples of all were shipped to America before and during the French and Indian War and early in the Revolutionary War.  Many of the old muskets were modified by shortening the barrels and adding brass barrel bands during and after the Rev War but many shipped during that war still had pinned barrels and looked a lot like the guns shipped in the 1740s.  Here is a gun that could be used by provincials during the F&I War and also by patriot troops during the Rev War.  It also could have been used by Colonel Rall's German regiment at the Battles of Long Island, White Plains, Fort Washington, and Trenton in 1776.

The musket was made from parts salvaged from an old inadequate build and many components including the lock are from the Rifle Shoppe.  We added sheet brass ramrod pipes bushed for a hand forged steel rammer, a new butt plate from sheet brass, new stock from a blank, front sight, nose band, bayonet lug, hand forged sling swivels, steel ramrod, and all new screws. We worked very fast trying to emulate 18th century arsenal work not high end London work. It came out well.

   






























The musket is owned by the senior curator at Fort Ticonderoga.

dave

[silky]

Great to see a Dutch musket! Dave, how did you add the bands at the breech? I’m guessing it was filed… freehand or on a lathe?

- Tom

[wvcruffler]

Great work as always. Always learn bits and pieces reading these threads.

[smart dog]

Hi Tom,
Yes, the bands were simply filed using an original as the model.

dave

[bama]

Great job on the musket Dave. I built a 1740 Potsdam musket from TRS parts and found that the brass parts had to be bent at an orange heat. I tried annealing in ashes, slow air and a water quench but couldn’t get the brass parts to anneal. At an orange heat they were very easily bent.

Again, great job on the musket.

Jim

[2 shots]

 very nice, as always. you are correct about the Dutch guns being understudied as part  our history here  in the north east.

[kutter]

Very nice work as always!
I made one of the TRS Queen Anne Muskets .
Some of the features kind of remind me of this Dutch Musket.
But I don't know much of the history or fine points of these things. I just chose it because I liked the looks of it.

Came out pretty good I think in spite of the pre-turned stock they provided being more of a stock restoration project than the pre-turned stock it was intended to be.
I understand that isn't a rare thing coming from TRS.

[smart dog]

Hi Kutter,
Thanks for your note.  It should be no surprise that your Queen Anne musket looked similar because many muskets used by the British during her reign were purchased from Holland.  The Brown Bess has many similarities as well because one of the principle influences on its design was Andreas Dolep, a Dutch immigrant to London. 

dave

[B Shipman]

Very cool. Impressed.