Brass furniture/Patina or Shiny ?

[buzz]

swampy im sure they took extra good care of those items needed to put food on the table and protect there family
what no DvD's i watch mine by candel light most of the time after sun down

 

[Semisane]

It's my understanding that early Pennsylvania rifles came with an instructional DVD that had section on keeping the gun polished.

 

[rabjr]

swampy im sure they took extra good care of those items needed to put food on the table and protect there family
what no DvD's i watch mine by candel light most of the time after sun down

I'm sure they did, polishing brass don't make em shoot any better or more reliable.

 

[mingo]

Brass never goes unpolished in the military.
Unthinkable concept.

Sometimes we forget how few possesions folks in old times actually had.
Also the time spent maintaing them.

A person took pride in their goods and appearance when in polite company.

I have never understood why some folks wear period garb, but want they stuff to look loke it was dug up somewhere.

 

[rabjr]

Show me proof the regular person polished the brass on their guns, thats all. Don't sit there and say they must have because of...I'd like to see proof. Anything in writtings, any diarys found to say such was done?

I don't care if anyone polishes their brass or not it's personal preferance but to say people back then must have because (insert your reason here) is wrong.

 

[Capt. Jas.]

Show me proof the regular person polished the brass on their guns, thats all. Don't sit there and say they must have because of...I'd like to see proof. Anything in writtings, any diarys found to say such was done?

I don't care if anyone polishes their brass or not it's personal preferance but to say people back then must have because (insert your reason here) is wrong.

:applause:

 

[Zonie]

If it is written proof that is required to justify polishing some brass furniture on a gun I guess this, and a large number of other questions will never be answered.

All of the writings I've read from those days dealt with the important things like, "Little Bonnie has all of the symptoms of cholera..." or, "Frank got kicked by the mule yesterday and...".
Even those finks Louis & Clark didn't mention what kind of guns their men were carrying, nor did Pike or Bell (of the Long expedition and it was his job to record everything about the trip).

I guess that until the missing documented information comes up, no one who's into reenacting a civilian better polish their brass!

But wait....... who's to say that everyone didn't polish their brass? Maybe there is a letter saying something like, "...the men in this State agreed all agreed that a gun with unshined brass furniture would not be tolerated..." :rotf:

Makes a person wonder what to do doesn't it?

 

I have to agree. Just as when they intentionally browned a barrel (using some kind of acid solution) to keep it from flashing in the sunlight, those in the backwoods (I.E., the longhunters) would not have polished their brass for the same reason. Any flash or reflection would not be good in Indian country. It was much more for Indians than for hunting.

I know that some did not brown their barrel, but let it brown naturally, but there was a solution that many used to darken it. Also, I'm sure that many military units shined their brass, but they are a different breed from the longhunter in the backwoods.

So I guess it all depends on what your persona is.

 

[rabjr]

You have a habit of making things funny when you can't answer the question. You were the one who said you couldn't think of a better thing to do after supper back then. Well a man in cabin with wife and couple of kids probably had 100 different things he could think of doing after supper back then besides polish his brass on his gun. I'm not saying people did or did not, I don't know. I have to think that people who could afford the higher end guns with lots of inlays (like what your known for) probably did a little more polishing than the avg joe back then.

You can talk about pride and any other reason why people must have polished their brass back then but you forget the gun was a tool to be used to feed the family and used a lot differently today. Common sense tells me most probably did not but I'm not going to come here and say they did or did not as I do not know for sure. I'm sure it was very low on anyones priority list at the time though.

 

[Jaegermeister]

Zonie, that's probably as true anything else. Some things about people never change. Including friendly debating! Swampy, I'm living proof that shiny brass doesn't help accuracy.

 

[Capt. Jas.]

... a man in cabin with wife and couple of kids probably had 100 different things he could think of doing after supper back then besides polish his brass on his gun. I'm not saying people did or did not, I don't know. I have to think that people who could afford the higher end guns with lots of inlays ... probably did a little more polishing than the avg joe back then.

You can talk about pride and any other reason why people must have polished their brass back then but you forget the gun was a tool to be used to feed the family and used a lot differently today. Common sense tells me most probably did not but I'm not going to come here and say they did or did not as I do not know for sure. I'm sure it was very low on anyones priority list at the time though.

:thumbsup:

 

[Zonie]

I answered the question in an earlier post that I made.

My answer was and is:
Some folks probably polished their brass and some folks probably didn't. It very likely depended on the individual.

As was mentioned, longhunters would have had good reason for not wanting their guns brass to be shiny while folks living in, or close to towns may have been more into having their guns look as good as they could as a mark of prestige.

 

[Emet Huntsman]

I tend to agree with you on the flashy brass being more of an attractant to Indians than a deterrent to game. Do all you can to avoid being seen and then let the brass catch a sunbeam and you've just sent up a beacon -- "Hey! Over here!" :shocked2:

 

[FishDFly]

Ak

 

[Jaeger]

Boy, you are SO right, Semi! I've spooked deer several times and been absolutely stumped trying to figure out what set off the alarm bells, until I realized that I was sitting in a spot of bright sunlight with eyeglasses on. I might as well have been doing jumping jacks.....

 

[hanshi]

So far I've been able to avoid attracting Indians. My brothers apparently take no notice of my guns (more or less) tarnished metal. :haha: Can't say I ever spooked game with it, either. Maybe I've just been lucky :idunno: .

 

[Marc Adamchek]

I've still got a tube of Flitz. I originally bought it over 15 years ago to keep a nickel plated Colt SAA purty. I had to bring it out the other day to polish up something for my wife. What it was I can't even remember! BUT, just ask me about any of the guns I had to sell and I'll bore you for 2 hours remembering every time I used it, cleaned it, etc. Does this make me a bad person?

 

[hanshi]

Yes! :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:

 

[david stone]

It is no big deal to polish brass in a period manner when you are cleaning your gun. Lick or dampen the corner of a rag, touch it to some fine light ash of your fire, rub on brass...rub the dirt off with a clean rag. Done. Just a few moments more time if you have properly cleaned your gun, including all the bits of a flintlock that can hide powder fouling.
You can keep them however you want I suppose, but my vote is for polished, or at least, not green and bround with funk and corrosion.
(Not in reply to hanshi, just can't find another "reply" button...)