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Looking for a smoothbore barrel in Oz

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Jay:
The only thing that is water soluble in the black powder you are using is the potassium nitrate. You are essencially boiling it out of the powder into the water/vinegar solution.

As black powder is expensive, I'll ask the question, can't you get pure potassium nitrate to use instead of using the black powder?

Here in the USA, there are several ways of buying it. It can be purchased from chemical companies or better yet, on a small scale like your using, it can be found in most hardware or gardening supply stores. (It can sometimes also be found in food stores that specialize in old time foods. When used in food, it is called salt peter here in the USA).

It is what makes the "stump remover" we can buy, dissolve the wood in tree stumps after the tree is cut down.

1600384843727.png


A bottle of this Stump Remover costs about $7 USD which is a lot cheaper than using up 1/2 or 3/4 of a pound of real black powder.
 
Very good advice and I gather Lye will also do the same job . The Japonees at one international at Bisley left their match out on the range & it was still going fine despite the rain I was impressed by that.
Rudyard
 
I have a 40lb bag of potassium nitrate in the shed, I assume I can boil the cord with potassium nitrate and vinegar. Does the vinegar fix the potassium nitrate into the core? I have also ordered a hank of 1/8 hempen cord from over east, as I think I might be needing it soon
 
Re-worked modern shotgun barrels good choice.

The very best muzzle-loading smooth bore barrels are those made by Pedersoli. In the USA hard to get. It was suggested I call 800-450-1852, dunno how that works from Australia. My Pedersoli .45 cal Frontier barrel was "C40", similar to our 1040, quenched & tempered.

Really there are no American made muzzle loading barrels made of steel appropriate for use as a gun barrel. The nearest is what Caywood makes, www.caywood.com. They use 1037?modified? tubing meant for modern shotgun barrels. Just don't shoot them too much.
My "Enthusiasm" for some barrels comes from being a metallurgist, involved as an Expert Witness, for the plantiffs, in several lawsuits regarding blown-up muzzle loaders. And shooters who could no longer count to ten.

I made a match-lock rifle 40+ years ago. Went out with a bunch of hairy guys in buckskins, asking me "would that thing shoot?" Never shot better than at that match. And my gun went "BOOM" when here and there down the line I heard a number of "clicks", followed by %#@&!!! My experience was that if one had black powder, and something burning, one was pretty much guaranteed somewhere there would be a BOOM. I enjoyed it, survived, and decided not to tempt our Lord further. Sold it.
 
Very good advice and I gather Lye will also do the same job . The Japonees at one international at Bisley left their match out on the range & it was still going fine despite the rain I was impressed by that.
Rudyard
No. Lye will not serve to do the same job. It is sodium hydroxide which contains oxygen but the oxygen is busy doing its thing with the sodium and won't be released to aid the burning of the match.
 
Oh yeah - match cord. Here is a complete historical discussion of the matter, from Germany some ears ago:
Slow Match
There is no saltpeter, no gun powder, involved.
" . . . buy 10 meters of flax cord with a diameter of 6 millimeters (about 1/4 inch), jacketed with a braided mantel. Twisted cords are not recommended: Their burning end untwists and forms a brush. What we need is a sharply pointed ember.

Line a stainless steel pot with a hand-towel and fill it with about two liters (roughly 2 qts +) of ash from your fireplace. (Never use an aluminum pot, since aluminum is soluble in alkaline solutions !!!) Add 1.2 liters (1 quart, 4 tablespoons) of hot water. Let it stand for some minutes and then lift the towel to filter off the brine and wring the residual solution from the ash cake inside the towel. That makes about a 5% potash solution.

Coil the cord loosely, fitting the size of the pot. Watch that the cord is covered entirely by the brine. Then heat the pot until the brine just starts to boil. Cover the pot to prevent evaporation and keep it just below the boiling point for about an hour. (This process is called "bucking" by the textile workers). Notice the peculiar smell which is characteristic of any textile factory!

After an hour has passed, discard the now coffee-brown brine and rinse the bucked cord with plenty of water till the rinse water remains clear. Add a cup of vinegar to the final rinsing for neutralizing the last trace of potash (Important).

Then spin the cord coil in your washing machine at maximum speed and let it dry.

Prepare about 100 milliliters (6.8 tablespoons) of 5% lead acetate solution using distilled water (or rain water) and add two spoons of vinegar (the kind you use to make salad dressing is OK). If a yellowish precipitation appears, add some more vinegar. (This precipitation would be lead carbonate). Put the dried match in a plastic bag and add enough lead acetate solution to make the entire the cord just damp. Close the bag and tread on it to knead it through. Season it for some hours, open the coil and then pull the wet cord trough your rubber-gloved hand to wipe off any surplus lead solution evenly.

Spread the impregnated, damp match loosely and flat on the floor. This will guarantee it will dry evenly. Otherwise lead acetate would concentrate at the last wet remaining areas of the drying match.

Usually, this match will burn at 20 centimeters per hour. Once pinched between the lips of the serpent of your musket, you won't have to hurry up firing. And note, never use saltpeter to "improve" the match. Such a match would burn far too quick and sparkling and hence is prone to ignite the priming charge unexpectedly.

Warning: Lead acetate, also called "lead sugar", is very poisonous when swallowed, whereas skin contact is harmless. Keep it out of reach of children. Lead acetate tastes sweet. Chewing the leaded match would be fatal.
My advice: If you live with small children, omit the leading of your match. Inform older children properly.

In some countries it's hard to get Lead acetate. Don't worry. It may be easily made from an old car battery and vinegar, according to this recipe:
Look :...
In the USA: A.C.S. Grade Lead Acetate Trihydrate, 100g for sale. Buy from The Science Company.
Presumably, one may just buy slow match from Switzerland: www.seile.ch Seileri Kislig, Breitestrasse 18, 8400 Winterhur, Switzerland
 
Keep potassium nitrate (salt peter) out of your match cord.
Good match has a slow burning, hard point. Saltpeter makes it sputter. I soaked clothesline in saltpeter in the '50's, worked but not at all as good as the real match cord.
 
Well I never tried lye but had it from a trusted authority . JC Kelly seems to be a knowledgable fellow & ide be the first to admit I don't know all the tricks re Match cord though I've made & used enough . One 54 rifled snap matchlock I hunted with seemed to like plated Macramé string soaked in weak saltpetre then given a rub over when dry with wallpaper paper size , stopped it fraying . .One is never too old to learn & I find these posts very interesting . always considered the matchlock as' The new way backwards' !. Regards Rudyard
 
My thanks to you JCKelly.
Very interesting and I learned something. :)

Based on the instructions you gave, lye is indeed the thing to use. That's basically what they got when they boiled the wood ashes.

My apologizy to Mr. Rudyard
 
The stuff that dissovles in water from wood ashes is potassium carbonate Heated, gives off carbon dioxide and be comes potassium hydroxide). Together with lard, it makes a soft soap.
Runs in my mind that "lye" means sodium hydroxide, makes Gramma's Hard soap when cooked with lard.
I personally don't know which is best to buck matchcord, but I'd stick with what Bretscher suggests.
Yeah, I AM nit-picky. Sorry. I guess.
 
Good on you Jay. And Lawrence I admire your patience its clearly a" Lets be as negative as we can "Govt bumph when QLD was so free .
" Where the creeks run dry ,"or ten foot high & its either drought or plenty " You will have to build a punt.
Cheers Rudyard
Was thinking a shanty boat might be fun.
Hunting and fishing off a shanty boat.
If I got a punt I would NEED a punt gun!
 
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Jay:
The only thing that is water soluble in the black powder you are using is the potassium nitrate. You are essencially boiling it out of the powder into the water/vinegar solution.

As black powder is expensive, I'll ask the question, can't you get pure potassium nitrate to use instead of using the black powder?

Here in the USA, there are several ways of buying it. It can be purchased from chemical companies or better yet, on a small scale like your using, it can be found in most hardware or gardening supply stores. (It can sometimes also be found in food stores that specialize in old time foods. When used in food, it is called salt peter here in the USA).

It is what makes the "stump remover" we can buy, dissolve the wood in tree stumps after the tree is cut down.

View attachment 43383

A bottle of this Stump Remover costs about $7 USD which is a lot cheaper than using up 1/2 or 3/4 of a pound of real black powder.
SALT PETER, we all remember that stuff that made the powdered scrambled eggs green , at breakfast back in 1961, US, ARMY! and yes it was a real stump remover, LOL!
 
Gentlemen
I have been messing about, finally got the ram rod hole drilled to the correct depth, and it takes its ramrod nicely. Today Iit up the forge and made a trigger guard, then converted a cup head bolt to a screw slot, drilled and tapped and fitted the tang bolt and also fitted the trigger guard. Nice and solid, reshaped the trigger, made it wider. I am thinking period tudor electricians tape to keep barrel in the trough. I have made up a couple of under barrel lugs, I will silver solder those on next and then inlet and drill and fit the pins. The for end cap, I will find some tin for that I think. The piece hold nicely and seems well balanced, quite comfortable in fact.
P1030584.jpeg

Cheers
P1030585.jpeg
 
Gentlemen, she's all done ! Have been rubbing in pale boiled linseed with gum turpentine. A special thanks to Rudyard for giving me the lock he made.
P1030601.jpeg
 
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Might be a crow from the window in our new dining room !! Carefull not to set the curtains alight \with the slow match !!!!
 

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