Capt Thighbiter

The Brigands will be releasing their 4th CD, titled "X", a collection of bawdy, shame facedly dirty tunes, along with original songs, dittys familiar to your ear ( from POTC and the like) and of course some white hot fiddle tunes.

We'll be releasing it in time for Yule, but we wanted to offer members of the Pub a chance to reserve a copy from the first printing.

If ye wants to be one 'o the first to listen to songs like "Pyrates' Way", "Triple Scotch" and the like, send us an e-mail and we will set a copy aside for ye.

http://thebrigands.com

Party like it's 1724

Greydog ..." It’s a tasty morsel of a site that we take with a grain of salt"

Dam , that one hurt! Took a few months off me life it did.

Scupper, we will donate a set of CDs from The Brigands, if you think they are age appropriate.

How old is the lad?

Cool, Silver, building a cannon from scratch is very rewarding. I hope your working from plans, as some of the geometry of a carriage is important. like the little 'steps' on the rear of the cheeks - they were there to crowbar the cannon up into the right position to fire after the qoin had been properly set. If they are not just so, they look dopey and out of kilter.

cheek thickness - are you making your own trunion caps? if so the thickness should be OK, but if your buying premade ones ( and Cannon Mania has some Nice bronze ones) the width of the caps should determine your cheek thickness.

You can always over build your carriage, but should never under build it, especially if you plan on fireing live rounds.

I were on E-bay ( as I usualy do) looking for new armament for the Hellion, when I realized that there are loads of cannon being offered there as 'firing' cannon and upon close examination of the pictures, I realized that many are basically desk paperweights and the like, being sold, in error or on purpose, as firing cannon.

For those thinkin upon buying new long guns, be wary.

What to stay away from:

Small Brass barreled cannon with solid cast iron carriage - these are souvenier cannon and are NOT usable

Bronze or Brass barreled guns, known as lantaka, usualy offered from Borneo - these are cheap, badly casted repros. They look like fancy,long swivel guns. Very occasionally I see one that MIGHT be authentic, but who the hell knows.

Cast iron barrels that do not have a steel sleeve.

Fancy antique cannon, with iron webwork carriages - ostensibly from Victorian England - many are modern repros.

Cannon that have thin wall thickness - the bore at the breach end ( the back end) should be one third the diameter of the breach end. ( 1" bore and the breach measures 3")

I am sure Cascabel and others who know BP cannon well can chime in here

While good, safe cannon can be had on E-bay, a safer bet is to patronize one of the many cannon makers listed on this site:

http://www.go2gbo.com/forums//index.php/topic,2814.0.html

Cannon are a lot of fun, but when things go bad with them, they go REALLY bad

Mission - all cannon get honeycombed eventually. It is because black powder residue from firing is very corrosive and eats aways at metal. Even scrupulous cleaning can not get every last bit of residue out ( and I imagine life aboard shiip would prevent 'scrupulous cleaning). The corrosion is worst where the action takes place, back in the breach of the gun.

As the little pin holes get bigger and deeper, the barrel becomes less and less safe and more likely to burst. Honeycombing also holds glowing embers from the previous round and can ignite a new charge rammed home ( as it did in your story).

Aye, swivels are small cannon, but they are full size nonetheless. So, ye can buy a swivel for $700 or a full six pounder for $10,000. If ye want to get into the game, full size, swivels are the way in. Now Grey Dog has a nice pedestal for his gun (a very nice pedestal given the others that I have seen), but why not a section of the deck and rail? A section about 3-4 feet long?

Speaking of swivels Capt Jim, we obviated the need for a stand of any sort. THe yolke for our swivel ends in a rather longish heavy spike, instead of the usual stubby one, intended for placement in a pin rail or the like. The long spike lets us drop it right into the ground. Seemed like the best and easiest way to place it at festivals etc. And we can still mount it on a pin rail when we guest fire onboard a vessel.

3) Firing our cannon from the deck of one of the pirate ships last year, during the sea battle. Gave my crew a real taste of true engagement conditions and rate of fire!

Ahhh... you guys were sailing rings around us. And I'll never forget the look on your face as you put fire to powder... it was the proverbial kid in a candy shop look. Fun!

Boy, thats the truth. Usualy, we get to fire an opening and closing round, maybe a noon gun, and thats it. When the Capt said fire as much and as quick as ye can, we applied the spurs with a will !

Blackjohn, you're another one we need to bend elbows with next year.

Recipe? We been using black powder ( FFFF GOEX) disolved in a bucket of water and letting the rope sit overnight. Dry it out and seems to work fine, doesnt go out and the burn rate is pretty good, not great.

Light my pipe with it? Novel idea!

Of course you know that one of the ingredients of BP is KNO3, saltpetre.

I know saltpeter is a part of BP, I dinna know the chemical symbol for it was KNO3.

This learnin' stuff hurts my intelects! I suppose it makes a difference how much BP one disolves in the water, as to how well it works as slow match. We used a quarter of a can of Goex to a half a pail of water, made 12 feet and it lasted us pretty much the whole year, and we fired one in three weekends. I wound up with about 4" left at the close of our last festival of the year.

I burnt the last 4" the other day, just to fill the house with that lovely smell! A course, my wife and dog hate it, but 'waste not...'

That is pretty sweet, but mates check out the others on the link. Them are some of the damnedest looking shootin irons I have ever seen! Most nefarious? The Crusafix gun. For the well armed servant of God I suppose?

Recipe? We been using black powder ( FFFF GOEX) disolved in a bucket of water and letting the rope sit overnight. Dry it out and seems to work fine, doesnt go out and the burn rate is pretty good, not great.

Light my pipe with it? Novel idea!

Here are a few more designs. These both have bronze skulls that we cast.

Matt,

These new designs are sweet!

I love this hilt!

Would you mind snapping a few more angled pictures of the bronze skull sword pommel?

Stynky - I have this cutlass, but with more of a 'cut-toe" blade then a cutlass type. The pommel and guard are even better lookin in person and with the thinner blade , its sneaky fast.

My favorite is my Baltimore cutlass. Made for live steel action and with a narrow blade, it's the handiest of all our naval edged weapons. Kinda partial to my sons fencing sabre too, so light and sneaky fast.

Hugh, Damn man thats a sword to be proud of!

Ah Corsair, too long has it been since I seen ye post on these pages, I hope all be well with ye kith and kin.

Cheers, I say, cheers, for this event which grew from very humble beginings ( as ye well know, better then most).

Favorite moment(s):

1) Way back when it was a wee pubcrawl, confined to 200 or so bretheren - the singing in the square after midnight,

along with other pirates who were in thier cups.

2) When the manhole covers on the street blew up, during The Brigands performance last year!

3) Firing our cannon from the deck of one of the pirate ships last year, during the sea battle. Gave my crew a real taste of true engagement conditions and rate of fire!

We def have to hook up after hours for some real drinking!

Aye, tis been the quiet 'afore the storm, says I.

The Brigands have been a might busy, finishing up the last dates of our Concert season. We are now back in the studio, recording our 4th CD, titled " X " to be released for Yule-tide this year! It will be a mix of traditional sea songs, new and olde fiddle tunes, some original songs and, for the first time, some of our X-rated songs from The Bawdy Show.

We made one with:

3/4" oak dowl

3/8" copper tubing ( the bendy kind)

3/4 to 3/8 reducing coupling, copper, the sweat fit type.

file a groove in the 3/8 end of the red coupling to fit the OD of the 3/8 tubing, so it lays 90 deg from the axis of the coupling. bend the tubing carefully into a J, dont kink it. Solder in place. Attached to the dowel with a few brass screws.

Viola! Linstock for about 10 bucks.

While not as big as some of the pieces here, we have a jolly good time firing ours at Pirate and Renaissance faires. No ball though :-(

We don't use wadding either, for cannon or small arms. For the reasons given above.

Amen Cascabel ( BTW was great seeing you at LIPF). BP is poorly understood by the general public and by most if not all public officials.

Hell when I imported my large bronze cannon from the UK, the BATF officials were not even sure what the regs were and I was on the phone with the Maryland, the Boston, the PA and the Washington offices until I got someone willing to put pen to paper for the A-hole customs officer who would not release my bill of lading.

And forget about anywhere in NYC.

FYI, my wife had a little visit by the FBI a few weeks ago, checking out all BP powder sales made into the NYC area thru the internet. We are 40 miles from NYC and she answered all thier questions. When asked about what we use it for, she merely pointed to the Hellion ( our van, festooned with ships wheel, mast, rigging, sail, cannon ports and a new spritsail mast and yard) and our cannons and said, " He's a f....ing pirate, what do you think he does with it". They left.

Yep, it depends WHERE the discharge will take place. If on county or city or state PARK properties, then you have to follow thier rules and you may be sorry that you ever asked ( can you say liability insurance??).

If on city or on town or county properties, but not a park, - local police or fire marshall whould suffice.

Carrying should never be a problem, since period BP weapons are NOT firearms under BATF regulations and don't let anyone tell you different. Basically BATF describes BP period weapons and Cannon as toys.

BUT make sure your weapon meets BATF regs as far as date of the original weapon ( not yours - the one its made to resemble) and the the other regs.

Hope this helps

Our group has been doing re-enactment at various festivals which utilize black powder either in our show or for demo purposes. We have been approached by local park/town representatives claiming we need a "black powder permit" in order to carry and/or discharge our pistols. We never carry, nor do we even own any actual ammunition (balls). I have attempted to research this issue via the internet, letters to our local town, police and parks deptartments and even to the ATF with either no response or they do not know. This caused us some consternation at our first Long Island Pirate Festival when a parks dept rep stated we needed such a permit but was unable to provide any details. He just waives his arm and told us to cease and desist.

Does anyone out there have any information on this topic. I do realize it may a regional/local issue which will vary depending on locale but any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks...

James B. Hawke

Ye Pyrate brotherhood

BATF will never have regs on whether you can fire BP weapons or not... its not thier area. They regulate the sale and transportation. Not the use.

The pissing contest at LIPF was just that, local low level govt minions had not had thier little egos assuaged enough and so tried to throw monkey wrench into the works. We fired anyway and no one was carted off to the gaol or fined.

Local laws ( town, city , county or state) may require a permit or license to discharge ( i believe Maine has this) BP weapons.

What we do is notify the local police and fire marshall of the intent to fire, and let them tell us if it's OK or not. Or make the venue of record responsible for doing that and obtaining any needed permit, insurance, etc.

Jake, I am not sure but if you take someones tune ( like an Elton John song - though why someone would use his stuff....) and parody it, you are not infringing on copyright, since its a parody. Kinda like Wierd Al does. Again, Im not sure. Let 'em chase me for the 9 pence.

nice, but $2500 !!!

Even I am not that much of a pirate.

Got mine in.

Brown, smooth-outs, crooked.

Vera nicely made. SOLID like a rock. And.. they even fit me well.

Lachets went on last nite. I'll be breaking 'em in at the Down East Pirate Days, in Maine, this weekend.

Personal rating; 4.5 out of 5 parrots

PS... Lady Buxley even says that they are sexy looking... go figure!