US Combination Tools from 1800-1870s

[MarkTK36thIL]

It's always good to do a layout and inventory at times- to realize I was missing a m1855 combination tool (since found in the accoutrement pouch of a cartridge box).

Only two are the exact same, the m1861 style for the Whitney made m1841 rifles. There are also a couple one of one in there- altered that way or specifically made that way.

The largest quantity of tools were made for the m1841/m1842 rifle and muskets, which had an amazing assortment of inspector stampings. Actually just added a "w" with US and S this evening.

Only three are reproductions, lower right. Chris Kibler made single arm (the absolute best made one out there), S&S Firearms, and a Liberty Rifles made one; all in the style of Confederate made examples. Several are post-War (upper right), either through modification of pre and Civil War era tools.

Only six are foreign, yet there is a US made example for thr Potsdam. The largest two, lower right, are actually for pistols - next to four later tools for revolvers.

 

[Brazos John]

That's an impressive collection! And I'm impressed that you know what each one goes to.
I bought several back when they were cheap on fleabay.
Nowadays, all antiques are priced like somebody famous owned them.
Shotgun shell reloading tools were really cheap, too, back then.
Now, you'd think they were made of solid gold!

 

[Johnny Tremain]

Have one, its called a Pickering Tool. Invented by the first U.S. Quartermaster.

https://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/62/1/TOOL-PICK-L

 

[MarkTK36thIL]

One was found in a CS camp in the 1970s. No clue as to what weapon it served at this point.

 

[TDM]

What a Great collection @MarkTK36thIL, very nice!

 

[TDM]

It's always good to do a layout and inventory at times- to realize I was missing a m1855 combination tool (since found in the accoutrement pouch of a cartridge box).

Only two are the exact same, the m1861 style for the Whitney made m1841 rifles. There are also a couple one of one in there- altered that way or specifically made that way.

The largest quantity of tools were made for the m1841/m1842 rifle and muskets, which had an amazing assortment of inspector stampings. Actually just added a "w" with US and S this evening.

Only three are reproductions, lower right. Chris Kibler made single arm (the absolute best made one out there), S&S Firearms, and a Liberty Rifles made one; all in the style of Confederate made examples. Several are post-War (upper right), either through modification of pre and Civil War era tools.

Only six are foreign, yet there is a US made example for thr Potsdam. The largest two, lower right, are actually for pistols - next to four later tools for revolvers.

Mark, did you happen to have your collection shown on Civil War Digital Digest a couple of years ago?

 

[MarkTK36thIL]

Mark, did you happen to have your collection shown on Civil War Digital Digest a couple of years ago?

I did! I'm still small time compared to Roger Bethke whom sets up at the Baltimore show every spring, but I'm slowly adding piece by piece.

 

[TDM]

I did! I'm still small time compared to Roger Bethke whom sets up at the Baltimore show every spring, but I'm slowly adding piece by piece.

That’s awesome, enjoyed watching it. That channel is a great resource.

 

[Artificer]

It's always good to do a layout and inventory at times- to realize I was missing a m1855 combination tool (since found in the accoutrement pouch of a cartridge box).

Only two are the exact same, the m1861 style for the Whitney made m1841 rifles. There are also a couple one of one in there- altered that way or specifically made that way.

The largest quantity of tools were made for the m1841/m1842 rifle and muskets, which had an amazing assortment of inspector stampings. Actually just added a "w" with US and S this evening.

Only three are reproductions, lower right. Chris Kibler made single arm (the absolute best made one out there), S&S Firearms, and a Liberty Rifles made one; all in the style of Confederate made examples. Several are post-War (upper right), either through modification of pre and Civil War era tools.

Only six are foreign, yet there is a US made example for thr Potsdam. The largest two, lower right, are actually for pistols - next to four later tools for revolvers.

Impressive collection indeed. I collected 18th and 19th century Gun tools in the 80's, though my UnCivil War accoutrements were not nearly as diverse as yours.

Are the three "J" shaped turn screws original or reproductions? This style goes back to the M1814 Common Rifle and possibly earlier.

You may find this story about the use of an original gun tool interesting.

At my very first practice shoot with the U.S. International Muzzle Loading Team as their new armorer back in 1995, one very experienced NSSA shooter was terribly embarrassed he got a patch stuck in his original M1841 Rifle and asked if I had something to pull the patch. I asked if the rammer on his original Rifle was original? His reaction was a bit between surprise and mild irritation at my question, but he answered it indeed was the original rammer.

So I pulled out one of my boxes of original tools and handed him an original worm for the M1841 and informed him that would do the trick for him. Now he was really surprised, but took the worm to the line where he had left his rifle and quickly pulled the patch with it. After the relay was over, he stopped by to give me the tool back and thank me, though he still didn't understand why I had asked if his rammer was original. I replied the M1841 was the first US Arm made on the interchangeable pattern system and that included the screw threads on his rammer. That's how I was sure my original worm would fit his original rammer. Then he grinned slightly and said, "I never thought of that." Later on that day, he went up to the Team Captain and referring to me said something like, "The Kid (this even though I was 42 at the time) seems to know his stuff and just might make a good Armorer for us after all."

Gus

 

[MarkTK36thIL]

Impressive collection indeed. I collected 18th and 19th century Gun tools in the 80's, though my UnCivil War accoutrements were not nearly as diverse as yours.

Are the three "J" shaped turn screws original or reproductions? This style goes back to the M1814 Common Rifle and possibly earlier.

You may find this story about the use of an original gun tool interesting.

At my very first practice shoot with the U.S. International Muzzle Loading Team as their new armorer back in 1995, one very experienced NSSA shooter was terribly embarrassed he got a patch stuck in his original M1841 Rifle and asked if I had something to pull the patch. I asked if the rammer on his original Rifle was original? His reaction was a bit between surprise and mild irritation at my question, but he answered it indeed was the original rammer.

So I pulled out one of my boxes of original tools and handed him an original worm for the M1841 and informed him that would do the trick for him. Now he was really surprised, but took the worm to the line where he had left his rifle and quickly pulled the patch with it. After the relay was over, he stopped by to give me the tool back and thank me, though he still didn't understand why I had asked if his rammer was original. I replied the M1841 was the first US Arm made on the interchangeable pattern system and that included the screw threads on his rammer. That's how I was sure my original worm would fit his original rammer. Then he grinned slightly and said, "I never thought of that." Later on that day, he went up to the Team Captain and referring to me said something like, "The Kid (this even though I was 42 at the time) seems to know his stuff and just might make a good Armorer for us after all."

Gus

The J Tools are all original. I ended up selling one and to fund a mainspring vise purchase as I recall- our some other I didn't have a version yet of. I'll probably have to do tool yearly tool adds to keep track of everything.

The wipers are whole other issue with swapped ramrods, differences in years, and musket variations. I bought a collection of probably 200-225 wipers that are all sorts of interesting. The one problem is that there is no modern taps/dies that match all the US muskets, so I haven't been able to offload then because I never felt comfortable saying which wiper was for which based upon thread measurement, style, and size.

 

[Artificer]

The J Tools are all original. I ended up selling one and to fund a mainspring vise purchase as I recall- our some other I didn't have a version yet of. I'll probably have to do tool yearly tool adds to keep track of everything.

That's neat!

The wipers are whole other issue with swapped ramrods, differences in years, and musket variations. I bought a collection of probably 200-225 wipers that are all sorts of interesting. The one problem is that there is no modern taps/dies that match all the US muskets, so I haven't been able to offload then because I never felt comfortable saying which wiper was for which based upon thread measurement, style, and size.

I sure understand that.

For quite a few years at the NSSA Spring and Fall National Championships and while I was still collecting the tools, I was allowed to check the threads per inch and diameters on a number of original rifles and muskets. Though one can never be 100 percent sure, most of the time it was pretty easy to tell if the rammer was original to the piece. I then wrote down the thread dimensions of the rifle or musket the rammer came from and kept a log book on it. The gentleman who bought my collection was almost as happy to get that log book as some of my more rare pieces.

In 1998 at the World Championships of the IMLC, there was a very large "Arms Fair" tent set up. One dealer had two exquisite mainspring "cramps" or vices from the 18th century, though one might have been late 17th century. The cheaper of the two I could have bought for 225 pounds ($1.73 to the pound) and almost did three times, but it would have wiped me out for other things I wanted to purchase.

Gus

 

[MarkTK36thIL]

That's neat!


I sure understand that.

For quite a few years at the NSSA Spring and Fall National Championships and while I was still collecting the tools, I was allowed to check the threads per inch and diameters on a number of original rifles and muskets. Though one can never be 100 percent sure, most of the time it was pretty easy to tell if the rammer was original to the piece. I then wrote down the thread dimensions of the rifle or musket the rammer came from and kept a log book on it. The gentleman who bought my collection was almost as happy to get that log book as some of my more rare pieces.

In 1998 at the World Championships of the IMLC, there was a very large "Arms Fair" tent set up. One dealer had two exquisite mainspring "cramps" or vices from the 18th century, though one might have been late 17th century. The cheaper of the two I could have bought for 225 pounds ($1.73 to the pound) and almost did three times, but it would have wiped me out for other things I wanted to purchase.

Gus

I'd be curious whom bought it, and if they're reachable. Jim Shaffer published the thread sizes for all US arms in Vol. 2, but I don't think the sizes correlated to a modern size. I had made a bunch of cone thread measuring tools to bring to shows so when a cone is found for purchase, it'd be easy to know what it'd fit. I had planned to do something like that for ramrod threads, but couldn't recreate the modern threads/pitch.

 

[Artificer]

I'd be curious whom bought it, and if they're reachable. Jim Shaffer published the thread sizes for all US arms in Vol. 2, but I don't think the sizes correlated to a modern size. I had made a bunch of cone thread measuring tools to bring to shows so when a cone is found for purchase, it'd be easy to know what it'd fit. I had planned to do something like that for ramrod threads, but couldn't recreate the modern threads/pitch.

I sold/traded most of them to (I think) Bill Osborne well over 20 years ago. He sold Lodgewood Manufacturing in 2012, so I have no idea if he is available.

I used my Starrett Precision Caliper and Starrett Thread Pitch Gauge Set: Unified Inch, 51 Leaves, 4 to 84 TPI to check the TPI's and even that didn't have all the thread sizes I ran into, but it was enough to figure all of them out. Below is a set made by Mitutoyu that is pretty much a duplicate of it.

​

​

You are correct that many of the threads and thread diameters no longer have modern taps and dies to fit them, so unfortunately, I don't see a way to make a "ready reference gage" for most of the original rammer screw threads.

I also kept a copy of the thread sizes for repro rammers for years, but I'm not sure if I still have them.

Gus

 

[JBrandon]

Very cool interesting part of the BP gun world.
Now, does anyone have a collection of flintlock tools they would like to show? I think Baker had an ingenious one supposed to accompany his military rifles.

 

[MarkTK36thIL]

Very cool interesting part of the BP gun world.
Now, does anyone have a collection of flintlock tools they would like to show? I think Baker had an ingenious one supposed to accompany his military rifles.

Actually, some of those tools would be for flintlock weapons. They're just not categorized, and I didn't have my m1819 Hall tool yet.

I believe I had a Baker rifle tool at one point and ended up selling to refocus my collection.