wood finish for a British musket

[Michael]

I am finishing up a 1730 pattern musket for a customer and I will soon be ready to finish the stock. I bought a plain piece of english walnut from Wayne Dunlap to use for the stock.

My question is: Does any one know what type of stain and finish would have been used on these guns, either at the Tower or by the contractors who were setting them up?  I have all the reference books but nowhere is there mentioned the finish on the stocks.

I just received the English ordance stamps that TOW is selling on the web site and on the whole they look pretty good, the only problem is that the view stamp is almost twice the size of the King's proof mark and the pictures in my reference book they about the same size.


Michael

[Stophel]

A very good question.  If I were to posit a guess, I'd say they would have one quick coat of a plain brown oil varnish slapped on, and that's it.

[Clark Badgett]

From what I've found, english muskets were plain oiled walnut stocked. Real BLO does the trick.

[T*O*F]

You'll notice that many of them run on the black side.  Sea Service muskets were finished with asphaltum.  Sailors tarred everything.

Get a chunk of asphalt from a paver or roofer.  It comes hard and dries hard, unlike regular tar which stays gooey all the time.  Dissolve it in mineral spirits and apply to the gun.  Let it set for a week, then burnish and apply oil finish.

[TPH]

A very good question.  If I were to posit a guess, I'd say they would have one quick coat of a plain brown oil varnish slapped on, and that's it.

Ditto. When I collected (or "acquired") a few Brown Bess muskets back in the '70s and '80s before prices went completely bonkers, all appeared to have a varnish finish. Some were made of very light colored walnut sapwood, especially the India Pattern muskets and they had a lovely golden color. There was no sign whatsoever of any blackening on the Land Pattern Muskets like you would see on some, but not all, Sea Service Patterns. If you have a nice piece of English Walnut, then by all means follow Chris's recommendation.

[Clark Badgett]

all appeared to have a varnish finish. Some were made of very light colored walnut sapwood

Which is what real boiled linseed oil looks like 

[ddeaton]

pine tar and linseed oil

[smart dog]

Michael,
It is worth getting a copy of Kit Ravenshear's little pamphlets on stocks, gluing, and finishes.  I believe TOW or Dixie Gun Works still sells them.  They are very cheap but are loaded with great information.  Kit specialized in building and restoring military and workingman's guns. 

dave

[Dphariss]

What we moderns often fail to understand is that prior to modern varnishes anything that dried to a shine on wood was varnish.
Thus dark boiled linseed oil mixed with something like sandarac, enough to make it dry hard. Made a varnish. The boiled oil mixed with driers of the time, often lead, would be a reddish brown in most cases.
Thus a "varnish" might almost completely boiled linseed oil with enough driers and a resin to make it dry to a smooth finish. Usually pretty soft. These do not flake and crack and many modern hard varnished will. It will simply wear away with use.
If the stock is filled, no pores showing, it may well have been filled with BLO then top coated with varnish.
Dan

[JCKelly]

In my dumber years I found a 3rd model Brown Bess in Salisbury, Maryland. Location, percussion conversion and very Attic condition suggest it was left in Maryland by some Brit during War of 1812. As I recall, there were traces of reddish-brown paint or whatever remaining on the stock. Whatever it was looked old and original, not like some farmer in 1840 or whatever monkeying around with it. Close examination this evening of another 3rd Model (India pattern) pre-1810 musket, and a reasonably early cut-down Long Land shows no evidence of such reddish-brown pigment.
As to the 1812 Veteran, being then an Idiot 20-something, I mutilated (some would say reconverted) it & sold it. 

[DutchGramps]

According to contemporary handbooks, walnut stocks of Dutch regulation arms were treated with BLO, in which alkanet root (Alcanna tinctoria) was added during the boiling process.

[smart dog]

Grampahans,
Exactly.  Many British military firearms were treated the same way.  Kit Ravenshear, who built and restored many, many British military flintlocks describes the process very nicely in his little books.  He does suggest that raw linseed oil drys harder but obviously takes much longer to dry.

dave

[Mad Monk]

Grampahans,
Exactly.  Many British military firearms were treated the same way.  Kit Ravenshear, who built and restored many, many British military flintlocks describes the process very nicely in his little books.  He does suggest that raw linseed oil drys harder but obviously takes much longer to dry.

dave

That really is not accurate in regards to raw linseed oil.

Raw linseed oil never really dries.  It forms more of a gel.

The boiled oil of commerce prior to WWII was a deep ruby red color.  This did not give a red finish on a stock in thin films.  More of a pale orange appearance.

Linssed oil boiled with lead forms a leather-like film on whatever it is applied to.  Boiled oils prepared with manganese or cobalt driers give high gloss films with hard surfaces.

Boiled oils prepared with lead tend to darken with age.  How much they darken will depend on how much lead was "boiled" into the oil.  It is possible to get up to about 1% lead by weight of metal to oil weight.  Generally you would see about 0.5% lead in a boiled oil prepared the old way.

Generally, those stocks finished with a boiled oil high in lead, up around the 1%, will usually turn almost black on the surface.  As the oil film dries on the wood the "spent" dryer metal is kicked to the surface of the film as it dries.  On the surface it will react with sulfur-bearing gases in the air to form lead sulfide in the surface of the film.

Some things on boiled oils and dryer metals.
Lead is a "through" dryer.  As the applied film picks up oxygen from the air it will migrate down through the film.  The film dries at a nearly uniform rate from the surface to the base of the film.  Manganese and cobalt are surface dryers.  The film dries first on the surface and then the drying reactions proceed down through the film.  Since the dry surface tends to slow down oxygen pick up by the film the base of the film takes a lot longer to dry compared to the surface.

[Mad Monk]

Something I neglected to mention in the previous post.

The distinction between raw linssed oil, boiled linseed oil and a varnish changed with time.  Writings from the 1800's make the distinction between raw linseed oil, a boiled linseed oil and a varnish where a natural resin is incorporated into a boiled linssed oil.

If one goes back to the 1600's and early 1700's the term varnish was used to describe both boiled oils and true varnishes.  The idea appeared to be one of as soon as anything, be it a dryer or resin, was added to the oil it was termed a varnish.

Prior to the mid-1800's you see only lead being used as a dryer metal in boiled oils.  Once oil cloth evolved into linoleum you see manganese being used as a dryer metal.  Linoleum made with lead dryer gave problems in light colored linoleum since the lead would turn brown to black in the linoleum.  Coal began to be used as a heating fuel in the late 1700's into the early 1800's.  The burning of the coal in kitchen stoves or heating units added a good bit of sulfur-bearing gases to the air.  Especially in larger cities.

Lead continued to be used in boiled oils where color changes would not be a problem.
Lead, as a dryer metal, yields a boiled oil where the drying rate is little effected by relative humidity.  Lead based oil drying rates do not slow down at high humidity.  Manganese and cobalt, on the other hand, suffer a rapid decilne in drying speed when the relative humidity starts to exceed 60%.  Above 80% R.H. the drying reactions almost stop.

[Stophel]

Right, right.  Linseed oil, boiled or otherwise, never dries hard.  It will dry, but it will be a soft, gummy consistency.  Resins of one sort or another are added to make it into "varnish".  The resins add hardness and gloss.

[T*O*F]

Read the descriptions of each product.

http://www.triedandtruewoodfinish.com/products.htm

[Stophel]

Tried and True "varnish oil" actually works fairly well.  It is a tad soft, I think, and could stand to have a bit more rosin added.