Littleneckhalfshell

I don't know about others, but I would detach the barrel from the rest of the pistol and put it in a drill press vice to do the drilling. First mark on the barrel, while it is still in the stock & lock, where you want the vent to be, but then remove said barrel and secure it in a cross vice, attached to a drill press base and drill carefully, also I would suggest using cutting oil, remember a vent is a small hole and will require a small drill, don't force it, they are very easy to break.

Please see the main post on this.... I just found out that IT IS NOT GOING TO BE PIRATES THIS YEAR :-(

I read in the New Jersey Star Ledger's Magazine 'Inside Jersey' some important news regarding the NJ Renaissance Festival and Kingdom. IT IS NOT GOING TO BE PIRATES THIS YEAR :-( In the NJ paper, Star Ledger magazine "Inside Jersey" on page 88 was the following information... "Paging Lords and ladies, The new Jersey Renaissance Festival and Kingdom will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a big "huzzah!" this month, in a new location: the Red Mill Museum Village in Clinton. As part of its anniversary celebration, the kingdom, which was taken over by pirates for the past couple oyears at the south mountain reservation in West Orange, will return to its original theme of Camelot overseen by King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. On hundred actors in Renaissance attire will interact with the public.........." the article continues, but as you can see, there is a problem with us attending. Their site http://www.njkingdom.com is confirming the article. Since the contact is still related to njkingdom.com, I believe the Pirates of Tortuga is from last years information, please correct me if I am wrong and there still will be a pirate event in West Orange, but from what I read, I believe anyone going to see pirates will be disappointed.

I believe the lock on my Kentucky Long Rifle, made in the late 60's from a kit from Numrich Arms in NY, (don't think they exist anymore) is of what is called 'German Silver' it is not silver, but a Nickel alloy. ""German silver has a color resembling silver, but is an alloy of primarily copper, nickel and zinc."" Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia explains. Maybe that is what your mystery lock plate is made of.

great ship, but now you need 'Cannon' :-)

I beg to differ, the bent end of the spike that protrudes into the chamber of the gun will prevent the spike from being blown out by a discharge. The end could be bent by rammer or worm since that end of the spike was 'soft'. To my understanding, the only way to remove a spike was by drilling. Again, the spiking of a gun was to prevent it from being used against you as you retreated from the placement of the gun, be it that you wanted your ship to leave the harbor unmolested by the guns of a fort, or if in the field, not letting the cannon being turned on you if recaptured. Gunners being overrun by the foe, would often spike their own guns, so that grape would not follow them in their retreat from their overrun position. It is a temporary application to prevent the use of the gun in the short term.

Not too far from me, maybe 2 hours. It is about ten miles before you get to Cabela's on 78 (Dixon Muzzleloading Shop - Kempton, Pa. 19529) and the price is right, Free, just $2 for parking.

yeah, that was my first thought too! You really should have the casting area around the furnace and the path to the vaccume flash area with a DRY sand bed. I know it is a back yard set up, but safety should still be a number one priority. I have always heard that concrete is a BIG NO NO. But the results are nice, just hope you don't get wounded by the process when and if a spill happens.

Boy, you are not asking much are you? I would say, if you have to ask, then the job may be a bit beyond the scope of your experience to accomplish. Springs can be forged or cast out of the proper steel, I have no idea if using a small piece of a car's spring would work, as the applications are different and may require a different alloy of steel. As to the tempering process, if you get to the point of actually having a properly formed spring blank to temper, (you speak of casting the spring in steel like it is a walk in the park, it's not that easy) the following site may give you some insight to the various methods. http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experi.../tempering.html

Wow! Sorry for your loss, but it sounds like you did a reinactment of the sinking of the Whydah! but at least in this case all hands survived.

came across a interesting find while at the wine/liquor store yesterday. it is Crystal Head Vodka from Canada. The bottle is in the form of a Crystal Skull, very cool, but not cheap, price tag was $49.95, so sadly it had to stay on the shelf, until I can put a few more coins in my treasure chest. http://s175.photobucket.com/albums/w132/li...alHeadVodka.jpg http://s175.photobucket.com/albums/w132/li...rystalSkull.jpg

See this page for more on the historical nature of how sugar was sold, Colonial Sugar cones, http://acrowesgathering.ibloghere.com/3773...ugar+Cones.html ""From Medieval times to the 19th century, refined sugar was sold in solid form, often in cones, blocks or loaves. The standard unit of measure in the United States and United Kingdom (also used in recipes) was the pound and increments thereof. "Sugar finally came to the 16th and 17th century consumer in blocks or cones, in varying degrees of refinement. ""

One of the reasons I started this thread was my interest in Cannon, and in particular on the different manufacturers of cannon. I was also interest in the cannon of the tall ships, because I remember being on one that was off of Jersey City during the bicentenial. All its guns were I believe cast at LaPan's foundry in Hudson Falls NY. This is of particular interest to me, as I own one of these barrels. Way back in Twill in a thread "learning Cannon and Gunnery" Hawkyns wrote on Nov. 14, 2003 the following: ""I've always used foil cartridges without the sandwich bag liners. Paranoid about safety, that's me. One of the first major schools I went to back in the 80's, I met the one armed gunner from the infamous LaPanne's incident. Couple of years later, I met another one armed gunner. Kind of makes you think real hard about what we do, y'know?"" I always wondered if his mention of "the infamous LaPanne's incident" had anything to do with a cannon from La Pan's foundry in Hudson Falls NY, or if it referred to something else and the name was just similar. I think I even shot off an email to Hawkyns, but don't ever remember getting an answer, if he did answer, maybe it got lost in cyberspace or maybe my mail never got there at all. Anyway.... As one who is concerned with cannon safety, I would like to know if there are any historical problems with my barrel. It is supposed to be modeled after a British Swivel gun found in Lake George, if I remember correctly, it is 30.5 inches long and has a 2.25" bore. The trunnions are set off center. It is Iron, cast around a liner, not drilled and fit with a liner (I know this is not the preferable form, but I only use it for blanks, not live fire) I know a cast around a liner barrel can have the liner 'off center', thus resulting in a thinner area in the breech. Not sure if they still sell sleeved cannon barrels (I think the La Pan's foundry site does still speak of 'ornamental cannon' and their main income is not from cannon, it is a side line) mine came without the vent drilled. Have not used it in years, got it in the Bicentenial years, it is casting No. 169 as listed on the left hand trunnion with a LP on the right hand trunnion. I would like to start shooting it again, but would like to hear from those with more knowledge. do I have a cannon capable of shooting off blanks, or do I have a very heavy paperweight?

Well, now that you ask, the Trunnions are actually very close to the "Dolphins" (both are in the middle of the cannon) And of course "Dolphins" are a fish, (not to be confused with the mammal made famous by some guy named Flipper) Or did you get 'Trunnions' confused with 'Grunions' a sardine sized fish that you do dip in batter and fry, now you made me hungry

There are a whole bunch of verses but I believe the chorus was.... Yo ho Yo ho over the bounding Seas we go (or it may be waves instead of 'Seas') Yo ho Yo ho where ever the four winds blow.

I always loved that song that Garfield sang in the Halloween special, when they were out on the boat, but it was usually cut out of the show in the following years that it re-ran. Tried finding the lyrics for it but never did.

Just a bump to let you all know we are still here.... Sorry I could not make our latest meetup on 4/11, had all the family home for Easter and had a bout of some kind of flu on top of it all, sore throat, chest congestion, etc. Sigh. Hope things went well, but I really missed being there as I still don't have any pants Will attempt something from a pattern and see how it goes on my own, after all, it is only cloth and thread, how hard can it be? Hope to make the next meetup for sure, with or without pants, (period correct ones that is).

Actually I had heard it that DuPont made it in many small buildings with three sides made of stone but the roof and front wall made of light materials, so that when it went, you only lost the roof, wall, and any unfortunate who was working inside, but the building could be rebuilt quite quickly. Sad to say, labor was an expendable commodity. I would guess that the key if you do decide to make it yourself, is to only make small batches and so limit the destruction if something goes wrong.

Pine Tar, exactly what is it, and where do you get it? Well not exactly what I wanted to ask..... I have a big old pine tree that the woodpeckers seem to like and there is a lot of bleeding sap running down and collecting in large clumps here and there. I scraped off a bunch of it with a ice chopper and put it into a coffee can and heated it up on the propane grill, melting it into a liquid state. I strained it through a strainer into another coffee can. The result was an amber colored liquid that set up solid, hard when it is below 45 degrees, when it warms up to around 60 degrees it is soft enough to push your finger into like a carmel candy. Did I make 'Pine Tar' ? if that is basically what I have, what consistency should it be? Is your pine tar before you mix it with the other ingredients like honey? or thicker or thinner? I assume that I would thin it with turpentine, but have no idea what consistency I am shooting for. Anyway, would love to hear if anyone else has tried to make their own, I assume that I was to some degree boiling off the turpentine in the process and if I had been able to condense it, would have had some to mix back in to thin the goo.

From the BP Site: ""Homemade black powder 1. Introduction Dear black powder friend: Certainly you have tried to make your own powder when a boy"" I wonder if that would be a good poll? Did you ever try to make Black Powder as a kid? I know I did, and yes, it just fizzled like the article mentions. I think I will give another go at it one of these days. One of the things I did run across that was not in the article was that corning the powder also helped make it more reliable. Corning it requires you to compress the powder while still wet, then let it dry and then bust it up. The article did say that you had to use twice as much of the uncorned powder for the same 'power' as commercial. anyway, it is a fascinating subject, especially if you are successful and DON'T blow yourself up.

Another bit of trivia on Trunnions. Well anyway, something that I found odd. When the Trunnions are cast off center, apparently people don't always get it right as to which side is supposed to be up. At Walt Disney World, Magic Kingdom, near the Columbia Harbor House Restaurant , there were two cannon by a planter near a tree mounted on naval carriages, but they had the Trunnions on the high side of the center line! I mentioned it to the main office, but I don't know if anyone ever corrected it or not, or even if the cannon are still there.

while continuing my search for information on Trunnions and Dolphins, I came across this article dealing with The Guns of the Santíssimo Sacramento by JOHN F. GUILMARTIN, JR. This ship sank in May of 1668, the article deals with gun founding practice and has some nice diagrams. Of particularly interesting note is that many of these guns were cast with wrought iron core locating devices, something I had never heard of before. Though the diagrams show both on centerline trunnions and off centerline trunnions and Dolphins, I am still no closer to understanding the place of the placement of trunnions and dolphins on the timeline of ships guns of the 17th Cent. But those interested in Cannon, may find this article enlightening. At the very least I have learned to spell trunnions correctly ;-) http://www.angelfire.com/ga4/guilmartin.com/Santissimo.html

Gumbo, made a nice big pot full. Just a simple gumbo, had a leftover turkey breast, some sausage and some imitation crab added that to the Trinity (Bell Peppers, Celery, and Onions) made out of leftovers from the veg. platter for my daughter's wedding reception this last Saturday, (no onions on the veg. platter, but plenty in the pantry. A bag of Okra out of the freezer some chicken stock, some seasoning, and there you are. Went down nice with a Sam Adams Oktoberfest.

Ok, Trunions, most cannon have them, though, I suppose you could call a carronade a cannon, but I think they usually don't have Trunions. However in all this talk about cannons, one thing I have not seen mentioned is something else that protrudes from the barrel of a cannon, at least in the older ones i believe, but is rarely seen in reproduction pieces, namely 'Dolphins' does anyone know the time period of their appearance on barrels and when they went out of fashion? Should a cannon of roughly GAOP have Dolphins or not? Second, again back to Trunions, I was wondering if there is a general rule regarding the placement of Trunions either on the centerline or below the centerline of the barrel? Does this difference in the placement of the Trunions relate to time period, place of manufacture (personal preference) or something else?