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Ol' time cleaning..

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pinemarten

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I have learned on this site a ton over the past year since I brought my flintlock home. I use the routine of plugging the vent and soaking the barrel in water, swab, Wd-40, alcohol, and eventually Barricade. Seems to work well but I am always interested in the ol' time methods... What would be used in barrel cleaning back in 'the day' and would it be as effective to keep a barrel in excellent condition today?

Dan
 
Clean with water and lube with a natural oil/fat. Yes - it works very well.

Too many people believe that if the cleaner doesn't come in a plastic bottle - usually 99% water with a little surfactant (detergent) added - and the oil isn't made in a refinery, it couldn't possibly work. The reality is the companies are getting rich and you have products that don't work any better, and sometimes worse, that plain water and a little lard/bear oil.

WD-40, Barricade, Ballistol, Rem oil, windshield washer fluid, Moose Snot, alcohol and other modern items are not necessary...
 
I just use hot soapy water and hot rinse water and oil to clean my rifle, pistols and muskets. That is what I was shown back in 1985 when I started and it still works for me.
 
Blackhand's method of water to clean and natural oils or fat to lubricate is the old time method used. They would also use tow (the coarse fibers left in processing flax to make linen) as a "brush" to get most of the burnt in oils and fouling that the water can't remove. Was it effective? Sort of as even well maintained guns have been documented as getting freshed out to restore accuracy. The barrel materials are different. If using only water and oil are working for you then by all means continue. (What jag and cleaning materials being used can make a big difference in effective cleaning.)

Your method, since it working for you is just about as good as you can do. A few drops of dishwater detergent, water, rubbing alcohol and a rust preventative lubricant is a better cleaning method for the 21st century.
 
Laura Ingals Wilder decribed her Pa cleaning his ML rifle using tow, water and grease, ca, 1870.
 
The biggest difference between the old days and today is, They used their guns every day or close to it back then.....Today many go hunting or shooting for a day and their the gun sits in a cabinet or safe for up to a year... All that time sitting requires better cleaning and protecting..

I tried for several months ...just using water and a mix of beeswax and olive oil...The gun got a lot of shooting...It worked ok but, checking for rust was a daily thing.

In the real world I clean for speed, effectiveness, and cost.
 
I've told this story before but its been a while.

Friend of mine wanted to test a theory that the old timers didn't clean their guns as carefully as we do. If you are in a hostile situation you don't want to get caught with a gun in pieces at the wrong moment. So he built a gun we called Rust-Away. He would shoot it and only clean it if it got hard to load. Never cleaned it just to be cleaning it. He used pre-cut patches and every time he opened a new pack of 100 he would throw the paper label in a bucket so he could keep a track of how many shots went through the barrel. He shot a lot, 50 pounds of powder one year while he was doing this.

After 30,000 +/- shots the gun started throwing every third ball. So he cut the barrel up for spacers on a Harley. One thing I learned from that is that a little rust won't ruin a barrel.

That is one story. Another is that in a lot of old log cabins there is quite often found a bullet hole in the top left corner of the room next to the fireplace. The theory is that someone was trying to use a flintlock to start a fire and the feather must have fallen out of the touch hole. Oops.

So guns were always kept loaded and the only time that they got really clean was back in civilization or in the Fort.

I have cleaned my guns a lot of ways when camping out. Cold water, a couple of patches and Bear Oil seems to work as well as anything as long as you aren't too picky. When at home I like warm water with soap, bronze or steel wool, patches and Bear Oil. Bronze wool for rifles, steel wool for smooth bores.
 
Well, let me start with this disclaimer..... I was not there so I didn't see how they cleaned and protected their guns. But, if you just think of what they had back then, my best guess is that they would have cleaned with plain old water or possibly with soap and water. They would have dried their bore and coated it with some kind of oil or grease that would have been available to them. Whale oil was readily available in most locations and would have been a likely candidate for a protecting and lubricating oil. Lacking that, they would have used whatever kind of oil or grease they had. You can do the same today.....but why? Today, the good old soap and water remains the best thing with which to clean our bores but, we have much better products to protect from rust and corrosion available to us. Why not use them? It's just common sense.....for those of us who have common sense. Grandpappy used the products that he had to work with. Bear grease was one of the protectants that he had available to him and he used it with success. the way it works is that it puts an oxygen occlusive covering on the metal. It is exactly the same as using lard on your bore to protect it from rust. It will work but it is nowhere as good as a modern product that has a specific rust preventive in it. "Better living through chemistry."

For your amazement and amusement, here is my cleaning procedure:

Before leaving the woods, range, or whatever, I run a patch with some sort of solvent on it through my bore. Plain old windshield washer fluid (the cheap stuff) is good for this. I have been using a product called Rusty Duck for years simply because I have a bunch of it that a friend of mine gave me. If I didn't have it, I'd be using the windshield washer fluid. This initial wiping softens and loosens up the fouling and makes the final cleaning easier.

(1) Swab the bore with very warm soapy water until your patches come out clean.
(2) Rinse thoroughly with clear water.
(3) dry with several dry patches
(4) Spray the inside of the bore with WD-40 to remove all final traces of moisture.
(5) Thoroughly wipe out all of the WD-40 with some more dry patches.
(6) Swab your bore with a good gun oil that has a rust preventive in it.

Having done all of this, your bore is now finished and ready to be put away. But don't forget to clean the rest of your gun applying this same technique.

Even using modern improved products, I still go back a few days later and run another patch through my bore to check for rust. The products of combustion of black powder are pretty darn corrosive so I just include an occasional follow up to keep an eye on the condition of my bore.

You will notice that I said to thoroughly remove all of the WD-40 and that is because WD-40 is an excellent water displacer (that is what is made for, hence, the WD in its name ) WD-40 is touted as being a good rust preventor, however, there are better rust preventing products on the market. Personally, I like 3 in 1 oil for storing for shorter periods but if I am going to put my gun away for a month or more, I like to use Barricade. Barricade will, in a short time, turn to a grease. That is one of the ways it works as a good long term storage protectant but if you use it, you will need to thoroughly swab out your bore with a good solvent such as mineral spirits to get the grease out before you shoot your gun. If you use Barricade on your lock, you will need to wash it out with a solvent before it will work properly. The grease will likely make your fly stick and not work properly. You can just use some spray carb cleaner fluid to spray out your lock and then add a tiny drop of a good oil to the moving parts of your lock and it will be good to go. Barricade is great stuff but you need to know how to use it.

Now, I will include another disclaimer by saying that this is how I do it. I have found it to be an excellent way of cleaning and protecting my guns. I highly recommend it but it ain't the only way to do it. Others may differ with my method. Some may possibly be as good as my way of doing it but none will be better. I'm just sayin'....... :haha:
 
How does the fact that they were using iron barrels instead of steel change the equation of how effective their cleaning methods were?
 
Not really. If I remember correctly, wrought iron is more rust resistant than modern steels. Can anyone confirm...?
 
Maybe pure iron is more likely to rust but wrought iron is more resistant to rust than steel.

That's why real wrought iron fences and gates seldom show signs of any rust even when they are left unpainted.

Unfortunately, real wrought iron is almost as rear as hens teeth now so almost 100 percent of modern "wrought iron" is just made from low carbon steel that needs to be painted to protect it.

As for cleaning guns the way people in the 18th and 19th century did it, I'm sure they used water or soap and water like the others said.

I will add that I suspect some of them rarely cleaned their guns.

For instance, several rifles barrels on the Lewis & Clark expedition needed to be "freshened" while they were on their journey.

These rifles were new when they left St. Louis and based on modern muzzleloaders that are well cared for, they could have been shot thousands of times without wearing out their barrels rifling.

That leads me to believe some of the hunters on the trip were not very good at keeping their guns cleaned.
 
Good point, I remember reading of the freshing out jobs while in winter camp in Oregon.
The gunsmith used a bit of broken file fit to a wiping rod and elevated the scrape cutter with paper strips, if memory serves correctly.
 
Actually the iron barrels of old were less prone to rusting than modern steel barrels; they were relatively soft but resisted rust better. I try to clean the barrels thoroughly and check back on them frequently. So far, so good.

I've never had Barricade turn to "grease"; it actually dries and forms a molecular film on the bore steel. I don't always swab out the bore prior to shooting and have experienced no ill effects. There could be other factors involved with the experiences others have. In that case just do what has been working for you.
 
Does anyone have any references to cleaning materials or methods used in the old days? Anything to base our speculation on?

Spence
 
George said:
Does anyone have any references to cleaning materials or methods used in the old days? Anything to base our speculation on?

Spence
Here is one for lubrication with suet or tallow: https://books.google.com/books?id=...#v=onepage&q=lubricating muzzleloader&f=false


George Edie,
A Treatise on English Shooting
(London 1772) (7-8) "When a person is master of a good Piece, the keeping it in proper order is a main article in the doing excecution with it: it is necessary the inside of the barrel, the touch-hole, and the lock, be kept clean; and the springs and moving parts of the lock properly oiled. The barrel should be washed at least after every eighteen or twenty fires, where the best sort of powder is used; but if the gun-powder is an inferior sort, then the barrel will require oftener washing. The best method of washing a barrel is, by taking out the britchpin; but as this can seldom be conveniently done, take the barrel out of the stock, and put the britch- end in to a pail of warm water, leaving the touch-hole open; then, withh an iron rod, with tow or a bit of linen rag at the end, draw up and down in the syringe manner, till it is quite clean; changing the water, and rinsing the inside, as the foulness requires: when this is done, it will be proper to put in a red-hot iron, of six or eight inches in length (which any blacksmith will furnish), and move it up and down to dry any remaining damp: the outside of the barrel should be well dried, and a little oil rubbed over every time of cleaning." https://www.scribd.com/document/29...od-Methods-and-Their-Present-Day-Applications
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Black Hand said:
Clean with water and lube with a natural oil/fat. Yes - it works very well.

Too many people believe that if the cleaner doesn't come in a plastic bottle - usually 99% water with a little surfactant (detergent) added - and the oil isn't made in a refinery, it couldn't possibly work. The reality is the companies are getting rich and you have products that don't work any better, and sometimes worse, that plain water and a little lard/bear oil.

WD-40, Barricade, Ballistol, Rem oil, windshield washer fluid, Moose Snot, alcohol and other modern items are not necessary...


:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

Water, tallow and elbow grease... Simple as it gets and it works.

I render my own tallow/ suet and use that for period cleaning at events and cooking. I personally use no modern cleaners besides ballistol from time to time.

I hunt squirrel and rabbit at least two times a week if not more and clean just as much. My blackpowder guns get used... I will stand and argue that the ole ways work if the owner isn't lazzy... Modern chemicals and cleaners indeed allow more laziness and IMO laziness won't fly with BP arms. :thumbsup:
 
George said:
Does anyone have any references to cleaning materials or methods used in the old days? Anything to base our speculation on?

Spence
Well! we can immediately rule out petrochemicals, aerosols ....and any patented formulation that doesn't fall within the time frame. They couldn't have used it if we know it didn't exist. :grin:
 
Thanks, Black Hand, those are good'uns. Pumping action in 1772, and an ingenious idea to dry the inside which is completely new to me. After all that, though, just water and oil.

I have another tangential reference to using tallow, at least for patch lube. Daniel Trabue in Westward into Kentucky describes taking shelter in a rockhouse during a rain in 1779-1780:

"There was Dry leaves and sticks under our shelter. I stoped the tuch hole of my gun with tallow and then did ketch fire and we made up a fire and Dryed our selves."

He must have had tallow along as a patch lube, good chance it was his gun lube, too.
 

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