Scour

Does anyone have a picture of or know where to get a period correct scour to attach to a rammer?

Where are you getting your reference from?


"Scour" is a Dutch or German word meaning to clean. or scrub or rub clean....The "action" probably became synonymous with any cleaning tool when translated...Not all languages have as many words as English does....One word can encompass many things...

spudnut said:

Does anyone have a picture of or know where to get a period correct scour to attach to a rammer?

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I believe tow was a common item for that use. Some ml vendors still sell it.

If you mean a tow worm, both Track of the Wolf and Larry Callahan have them.

Yes, I would think for the period a worm is what is meant.

I read someones post that he had a blacksmith friend that made him up a ball puller and scour for his new smoothbore( no idea where I saw it )

In that case I believe the reference was definitely a tow worm...

Is it for a musket, with an iron rammer? Several companies offer the simple wire tow worms made to fit on a wood rod. This style was often sold with the gun at the time.

That's Interesting.
MY mother, a second generation American was not allowed to speak English, yet became an American school teacher at at 18. Her family only spoke German.
She used the wired "scour" quite frequently.. It was used to mean "Really clean the heck out of something/.
I don't think I use the word often if at at all
But then I'm not a cleaning nut. except when it came to gun barrels.

Dutch Schoultz

I never thought "scour" was a noun. It was always employed as a verb.

Dutch

I have had to treat calves for "the scours", and we had to be concerned for what we fed them so they don't "scour" (similar to "the runs" in humans)

It does not appear in my German dictionary app. Although the German verb for scour is a bit similar, "scheuern" but the c is not pronouned. It would be pronounced shoy-ern. Apparently sources vary as to the origin. It was Middle English, but the evolution seems to have first come from Latin, but apparently the Norse word "skur" for shower/clean or the French escurer. Another source attributes the English word to Flemish tradesmen working in England. According to Etymonline, it appears as a noun for the first time in printed English about 1610.

Ma used a "scouring pad" (brillo pad) to clean stubborn dishes :idunno:

She used it on dishes? Brillo will scratch the heck out of ceramic glazes, glass and enamel. Around here, we use steel wool "scouring pads" on cast iron, steel and aluminum pans. but not enamel or non-stick pans.

BTW, Brillo & SOS etc are great for removing light rust from firearms, just don't scrub real hard. OOOO steel wool is better, but in a pinch steel wool soap pads work.

Ghettogun said:

Yes, I would think for the period a worm is what is meant.

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The worm holds the tow which is a fibrous material, I think, from the inner bark of some trees.

I thought tow was a product made from flax, I would think perhaps dry cedar bark would work if wound tightly around the worm, also works very well as a wadding material in smooth bores. Any dry material such as grass would do the job well enough until a more suitable material could be had.Just my thoughts. AN APPALICHIAN HUNTER

R.C.Bingaman said:

I thought tow was a product made from flax, I would think perhaps dry cedar bark would work if wound tightly around the worm, also works very well as a wadding material in smooth bores.

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Yes, tow is a byproduct of making linen from flax.

I've had no success using cedar bark to scrub my bore, it's too fragile. I've used it extensively as smoothbore wadding, and for years before that as tinder for fire starting, but it's so brittle it won't hold together to scrub the bore, in my experience.

Spence

zimmerstutzen said:

She used it on dishes? Brillo will scratch the heck out of ceramic glazes, glass and enamel. Around here, we use steel wool "scouring pads" on cast iron, steel and aluminum pans. but not enamel or non-stick pans.

BTW, Brillo & SOS etc are great for removing light rust from firearms, just don't scrub real hard. OOOO steel wool is better, but in a pinch steel wool soap pads work.

Click to expand...

0000 steel wool and 3 & 1 oil will put a nice patina on an “in the white gun” in a reasonable amount of time.

I always apply Barricade with a soft rag after the 3&1 , just for a little extra protection.

I have read about a hickory brush 6 inches long, split 4 ways with hog hair bristles. A ferule was on one end, a band on the other with the breech in brushed to scour the breech. The sides also were brushed or bristled.

Zimmer Syeutzen (SP)

What did you major in in college. I haven;t seen such scholarship since I graduated in 1951.

Dutch

Professional habit. 4 years Poly Sci, 3 years Law school, three passed bar exams and 40 years of citing authority for everything I did. As a hobby, the origins and differences between languages has always interested me. English is one of the more difficult languages because spelling rules change for the slightest reason. We have and use words that no one knows what they mean. For instance, What is a "shrift?" I know I can be given a short shrift, but am not aware if I ever got a long shrift or even a medium shrift, so am I correct in assuming whatever they are, they are linear? .We have sugar which actually should be pronounced more like cigar. Why isn't circus spelled sirkus? And then there are the different pronunciations across the land. At one time there was a radio personality that could narrow down what part of th country you are from by having you pronounce the words, Mary, marry and Merry. Some places they are all pronounced the same. Some two of them but not three are pronounced the same. other places they are all pronounced differently. For instance, folks from Philadelphia express Holiday greetings by saying Murray Christmas. If they take their car on the boat from Cape May to Cape Henlopen, they rode the "furry boat". America and even England are full of such differences. Old timers around here, speak English, but some times in German word order with the subject coming at the end of the sentence and the verb at the beginning. ie "Throw the horse over the fence some hay." They take English words and unconsciously Germanize them, for instance, "Outen the light." These folks are often 9th and tenth generation here and do this.