carrinade truck carriage

[PLUNDERING PYLOS PARKER]

in the process of having a truck carriage built for a hern iron works 3/4 scale us carrinade cannon.can anyone tell me what thier opinions are on the best woods to use pro's and con's. i have read that ELM is one of the best woods to use because of its strenght, durability, and risistance to shock.need more input from others, thank you.

[Capt. Blue Eyes]

Hello, triple-P

A lot of stuff was made out of Rock Elm, probably for its hardness and duribility. I've seen it (rock elm) referred to for dead-eyes and blocks. I'm not sure where you'd find that stuff these days. (Dutch Elm Disease and all.)

I'd think just about any hardwood would be good. If I were lucky enough to have that 3/4 scale carronade of yours, I'd probably look around for White Oak or something like that. I mean, I've fixed (restored) up wooden wagon gears during my "farming with draft horses" days, and most of the heavy structure stuff was made from a pretty close grained white oak. That stuff wasn't too hard to work and was pretty strong. It also (according to claims) had better rot resistance than red oak.

I used to get my white oak (and other hardwoods) from a small, family-owned sawmill. Generally, the stuff I bought wasn't seasoned (but they had some stuff available that was seasoned, but more expensive) so I'd stack it in a corn-crib where it was out of the rain and direct sun, but could still get air. It was also "unplaned," that is, fresh out of the saw, so the dimensions were larger than today's standard, to allow for planing.

Good luck with your carriage! Please post a pic when it's done.

[Commodore Swab]

A good hardwood that is resistant to bugs, the last thing you want is termites in your carriage of which I've seen a couple

[PLUNDERING PYLOS PARKER]

heres a question fer you blokes, have ya ever seen curly maple on a truck carraige before? curly maple is a hard wood-need some feed back -what do you blokes think.

[PLUNDERING PYLOS PARKER]

searchin around here in my area (nevada) elm seems very hard to get, white oak is available , as is curly maple. would curly maple on a carriage look silly?

[PLUNDERING PYLOS PARKER]

anyone know where you can purchase cannon wheels wood or metal? for a full size hern iron works full scale us carrinade model.

[Capt. Blue Eyes]

Curly Maple? I doubt that it would look silly.

But, I'll bet it looks doggone expensive!!!

Go for the white oak. Hit it wish some tung oil and let it darken with age.

I've seen someone selling them (navel carriages) made from "soft maple," but don't know how PC that would be. I've also seen teak, but for GAOP, I think it'd probably be English White Oak. Of course, if it was a pirate crew needing to do a quick repair, I'm sure their carpenter would use whatever wood was available.

Found a site that might be of interest and maybe help you find your wheels. http://cannonsuperstore.com/carriages.htm

I think iron-tired (and iron lined axel hole) would be about right. You'd just "shrink" the "tire" onto the solid wooden wheel.

If you want to try it, I could tell you how we did it for wooden wagon wheels, which are actually heavy and of a pretty large diameter. I'd think the smaller cannon carriage wheels would be much easier to do -- probably with the heat from a gas stove.

An even easier way is to see if there are any Amish living near you. Their wheelwrights would be able to make the whole wheel, or shrink a tire on wheels you made and I doubt that they'd overcharge you for their services. They might also be able to help you with "ironing" your carriage.

Good luck.

[Silver]

what is the lenght and weight of the barrel, size of the bore and trunnions ?

[Capt. Blue Eyes]

Not to be nosey -- and, definitely NOT to start anything, but is this a cast iron gun?

I looked at Hern's stuff (and a bunch of others) before opting to make my own. I can't remember if Hern offered a "lined" barrel or not.

Is yours cast iron and lined with a steel insert? I'm sort of curious how they accomplish that. (Mostly, I'm wondering if the end of the steel insert is capped and, if so, if they do it with a threaded plug or by some other method.)

Damn, I love cannon!!!

Powder isn't too hard to come by here in Pa. But the coarsest I can easily get is 2 F. (I use 4 F for priming). The black powder guy where I get it has to buy 1 F (or C) in 25 lb. lots and only has room in his magazine for about 25 lbs. So I'm usually stuck adjusting shots with 2 F.

What powder do you guys use?

[Commodore Swab]

I try to keep 1,2,3 and 4f on hand. I typically use 3f in my small arms down the barrel and the pan and 2f for my cannon since its small (1 inch bore). Hern makes some good safe cannons if you want an iron gun.

[Silver]

i have a hern cast cannon. they are all steel lined and great guns. have been shooting it about once a month for the last 2 years.

[Capt. Blue Eyes]

Ahh... 1 F. I know of several large bore BP flint shooters that use that in their shoulder arms in competition shoots. They say they like the slower burn and less pressure.

I'd like to get some and try it in my guns. They're 1-inch bore as well. With about 2 oz. of 2 F they're pretty loud! ...especially on the water. Even from a mile or more offshore, there's a good echo rebound.

good to know you like the Hern guns. At some point, I'm looking at putting something onboard that would simulate (to scale) a Long Nine. I'll give good consideration to Hern on that.

When dealing with them, were they pretty quick to fill your order?

[Commodore Swab]

I haven't purchased from them, what I have I cast with the Viceroys assistance in loaning me his master pattern and its in bronze. I can only imangine how loud my piece would be with a double load of 2oz, I get pleanty of noise with 1 oz.

[Crudbeard]

In regard to Hern, they sorter represent a starting point, I have one myself, a three pounder for field use cast from the Viceroy's pattern (he doesn't do cast iron right now). But if the use is shipboard, well there's a reason all the old ship signalling guns you see are bronze. I have some one pounder cast iron cannon from Southbend, another good cannon maker, on board as well as some three pounder steel carronades, and let me tell ya, chasing the rust ain't fun. While I have found Thompson Bore Butter to be the best preventitive so far, you still have to be right on with cleaning and gooping in the marine environment. I strongly recommend BRONZE for shipboard use.

[Crudbeard]

Oh, and just to be picky, what Hern is calling a carronade really is a cannon. The difference is that the true carronades of the Napoleonic wars was not mounted with the trunnions sticking out of the sides, but had a big eye on the bottom which pinned the barrel to a slide. We call the Hern gun a carronade because it has the typical muzzle shape and breech rope loop of the true carronades, but in actual fact it isn't a carronade as it also lacks the chamber, short length, and thin wall that they had. You might want to call it a gunnade, as some numbers of small caliber carronades were made with trunnions instead of the eyes on the bottom so they could mount in a naval truck carriage or field carriage.