Inlay and decoration in the pre flintlock era

After looking up the various forms of bluing and how they work, I am still unsure (and now understand why book photos may not be enough to tell), but at least for the 1500s, the locks do not seem to have the bright iridescent color of fire bluing. I have seen some later wheellock rifles that look fire blued. The external chain gun looks like it could be rust blued.

Charcoal bluing is a deeper darker duller blue John. (compared to fire bluing)

Pukka Bundook said:

Charcoal bluing is a deeper darker duller blue John. (compared to fire bluing)

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Ah, I guess you did mention that earlier. I was struggling to find a good explanation on the technical difference between the two. Most of the sources I found were explaining cold/chemical vs fire vs rust bluing.

The part is aid in a bed of hot charcoal, and covered. The idea to keep it under 600 degrees F. If it gets above that the part will scale John.
This matters more with barrels, as scale in the bore is a sod to get out.

This is the short account!

Pukka Bundook said:

The part is aid in a bed of hot charcoal, and covered. The idea to keep it under 600 degrees F. If it gets above that the part will scale John.
This matters more with barrels, as scale in the bore is a sod to get out.

This is the short account!

Click to expand...

That makes sense, thanks! It sounds like that type of bluing can damage temper. While most wheellock wheels are left in the white, I have seen a couple in the book that are blued.

Yes, charcoal bluing requires a certain amount of care to do right.

Another feature of primarily 16th century arms, is carved barrels. How is metal carved? Can metal be carved with a cold chisel? The bottom caliver/petronel looks like it is engraved, but the top and middle look too deep for that.

As per usual, all photos are taken from Michael Tromner threads.

Top one is filed John.
The others engraved it looks like.
Heavy engraving is done with a mathod called chaising. A light hammer and an engraving chisel are used. I made my first ones out of worn out small three cornered files, and still use them.
Close up of the copy I did of Michael's Tusco-Emilian snaplock, during build. This one just filed and polished a bit

This is some chaising I did decades ago John. (Hammer and chisel job with a stippled background)

Pukka Bundook said:

Top one is filed John.
The others engraved it looks like.
Heavy engraving is done with a mathod called chaising. A light hammer and an engraving chisel are used. I made my first ones out of worn out small three cornered files, and still use them.
Close up of the copy I did of Michael's Tusco-Emilian snaplock, during build. This one just View attachment 204339filed and polished a bit

This is some chaising I did decades ago John. (Hammer and chisel job with a stippled background)

View attachment 204341

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Damn your work is amazing!

For your Tuscan snaplock copy, did you also just file the conical and grooved muzzle? I believe you have previously mentioned making and using a sort of draw knife to form the general shape of the barrel? I could be misremembering…

Yes TobJ, used a form of makeshift draw-knife to peel the barrel down to size. It took off metal faster than anything else not electric!

The groowes at the muzzle were chiseled and filed up afterwards to straighten the grooves, then polished up with some abrasive strip.

Pukka Bundook said:

Yes TobJ, used a form of makeshift draw-knife to peel the barrel down to size. It took off metal faster than anything else not electric!

The groowes at the muzzle were chiseled and filed up afterwards to straighten the grooves, then polished up with some abrasive strip.

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That seems very useful. I guess they didn’t have Ye Olde Belt Sander, though I have seen images (paintings/prints) of water powered grinding wheels in 16th century armor shops.

The vocabulary (“chasing”) is already proving to be helpful in finding more resources. Thanks!

Found the image! As can be seen in this thread, photographing books isn’t my strong suit.

The image is from The Renaissance At War, by Thomas F. Arnold.

No, I don't have a set up like that , or all the elves to go with it TobJ!

Huge grind stones were still in use in the 19th century, and with a good workman, a barrel could be taken down very close to finish specs.
The workman let the barrel rotate in his hands at a slow rate whilst pressed against the stone, and that way could do a very accurate job of swamping or tapering a barrel evenly.
19th C stones I have seen illustrated were a lot wider than in the above, John.

Pukka Bundook said:

No, I don't have a set up like that , or all the elves to go with it TobJ!

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I thought that is what children are for

Mine left home.
Running the meat grinder after hunting season was enough for them!

OMG Richard ... that sideplate is just GORGEOUS! Wow, I remain VERY impressed!

Pleased you like it my friend!
On a Jaeger you can probably tell!
If the deer don't have camel faces, they are not really right for that time period!


Fire blued homemade buttplate, J or Flint!

Pukka Bundook said:

Pleased you like it my friend!
On a Jaeger you can probably tell!
If the deer don't have camel faces, they are not really right for that time period!

View attachment 204697
Fire blued homemade buttplate, J or Flint!

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1. Amazing work!
2. I feel very confident now the pistol lockplates were not fire blued

Charcoal bluing lasts longer than fire bluing as well John.
Mind, I did this one maybe 25 years ago and it's still blue.
Small parts can be blued by heating and dipping in linseed oil, then repeating. That kind of blue lasts a Long time . It's baked right into the metal.

On the topic of carved barrels, art from the the 16th and 17th century sometimes shows military matchlocks with carving between the wedding bands in the barrel, but I have not come across any surviving guns with a similar decoration.




While the Pavia example at the top is close to 75 years earlier, the rest I have seen are related to Jacques de Gheyn prints (either the originals or copied manuals) so it could be the prop caliver and musket he had Pieter van der Molen and others pose with somewhat uniquely had that features.