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Originally Posted by Cerjak

Cerjak
Very good website ,a lot of information on it !
About this barrel ‘s square bolt it seems that it could be removable but it is rusty and there is a kind of black protective paint I Guess against the rust so It will be hard to remove it and I would be worry to do it.
But tell me more about those bolts are they always removable?
Regards

Cerjak, tanegashima barrel bolts were always removable but it is not unusual to find them rusted to the point that they can not be easily removed. From what I have read the only problem Japanese sword smiths who were tasked in the 1540's with replicating the matchlocks purchased from Portuguese traders had was with these barrel bolts, and it was not until a year after the Japanese first purchased matchlocks that the Portuguese returned to Japan with a blacksmith who instructed the Japanese on how to thread the barrel for these bolts.

Here is a excellent link to the National Museum of Japanese History, there are some rare prints showing how a Japanese matchlock was manufactured along with some other information, and a link to a Wikipedia article I wrote on tanegashima matchlocks.
http://www.rekihaku.ac.jp/english/pu...14witness.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanegas...ese_matchlock)

Originally Posted by fearn

I have an off-the-wall question, for a project I'm working on: did the japanese have any bronze or brass-barreled matchlocks?

Thanks in advance,

F

Fearn, as far as I know all there were no brass/bronze tanegashima, but the Japanese did cast small brass/bronze cannon with were ignited by hand. At least some of these types of cannon (taihou) were used for firing bo-hiya (fire arrows), these are called "hiya taihou". This image is a small cast brass/bronze hiya-taihou loaded with a bo-hiya.