My first jezail

[Battara]

Nice and difficult work so far. Not easy. I bow in your presence.

[Philip]

The slot in the small end of the ramrod was undoubtedly intended for twists of tow, or patches cut from rags, for wiping the bore and applying preservative oil.

Stuck screws are a bane of antique gun repair. Often the slots in the screw heads are so worn that it's hard for a screwdriver to get a good grip. In these cases it would be helpful to "refresh" the slot with a very thin file (gunsmiths and machinists have special screwhead files for this purpose which may be ordered from specialist catalogs). Good screwdrivers are a necessity, for gun work the blades need to be ground with parallel faces (not the usual taper). You can modify a screwdriver yourself with small knife sharpeners embedded with diamond dust (they're made for sportsmen to carry about easily in pocket or tackle-box) if you don't have a set of hollow-ground gunsmith's screwdrivers. Ideally you should have a screwdriver whose blade fits each screw precisely, and with old guns there is no real standardization so the more the merrier. The wonderful thing about the UK is that you can still find those old Victorian-era cabinetmakers drivers with the bulbous wood handles and flat shanks (ideal for putting a wrench to if you need more torque) -- you can get them in second-hand shops for next to nothing and for this purpose they work better than anything made today.

When a screw is stuck it could mean one of two things (1) the threads are rusted and/or (2) the shank is frozen in place by hardened grease. Applying penetrating oils and WD40 can work, although you shouldn't let too much of these soak into wood fibers. Judicious application of heat often does the trick. A propane torch with a tip which brings the flame to a micro tip is handy providing you don't singe any wood. An electric soldering gun often transfers enough heat to either expand the metal enough to "crack" the rust, and soften hardened gunk. Light taps with a brass hammer can also help dislodge rusted threads.

I'm at a loss to explain that odd obstruction at the bottom of your bore. If it were a ball, it should have come out after you pulled the wadding, and before you reached the powder. From your description I imagine a "donut" of some hard stuff that just admits the small end of your ramrod down its center. What is the caliber of the barrel? Do you have a "worm" attachment for your cleaning-rod -- the thing that looks like two heavy corkscrew points turning alongside each other? If you used a worm that's pretty close to your bore diameter, its points should be able to dig into the donut and if it's lead, some telltale shavings should fall out to confirm what the thing really is.

[kahnjar1]

That "obstruction" at the breech end of the barrel..................could it possibly be similar to what one finds in screwoff barrel pistols, designed to be filled with powder to the BOTTOM of the concave piece, on which the ball is placed and the barrel screwed back on? Just a thought...............
If the breech plug is the type which can be unscrewed then all should be revealed!
Regards Stuart
.

[RDGAC]

If I may, fellas, I'll go in reverse order with the replies since my memory is dire.

Stuart: Unfortunately, this particular barrel's plug is resolutely committed to staying precisely where it is; having got some rust and dirt off it, I'd surmise it's been hammered in while both it and the barrel were hot, the whole then being left to shrink-fit together. This is a right royal pain in the backside, quite honestly, since with a threaded plug I could simply remove it, get a torch and have a good nosey around within. Why these Indo-Persian gunsmiths were so keen on sealing their breeches this permanently I'm honestly not sure; it makes cleaning them out an utter bind and makes very problematic an obstruction which, in a threaded-ended barrel, would be a minor annoyance.

Curiously, as an aside, this barrel looks to have seen some use, yet the touch-hole is positioned what seems very far back along the barrel; so much so, in fact, that I think I can see the breech plug through it, forming a wall that covers the rear third of the hole and forces the gas jet from the priming pan through a turn of about 60 degrees. It's almost as if the barrel was made without too much reference to where the lock would be in relation to it, and the hole drilled there out of necessity.

Anyway, Philip. Amazingly, you haven't yet screamed in horror at the awful clunker I've acquired, which is nice! Regarding the Immovable Screw of the Kandahar, it turned out to be less immovable than I thought; leaving WD40 to soak into the threads for a bit, followed by a larger pair of pliers than I had at home, did the trick nicely, and revealed that the thread on its tip is barely cut at all; it seems that what's been holding it in place for so long is rust. Since the gun isn't going to shoot any time soon I've left the screw reasonably slack, seeing little need for absolute firmness in the lock. It's in place, but not particularly tight. All this at the cost of a few small gouges and scratches in the wood, so I'm quite pleased really; a small price to pay for making the Immovable Screw of the Kandahar become the Not-Quite-Immovable Screw of York

Regarding the questions you asked: the bore is, roughly,. .615in, or a 20-bore, give or take, or so the dealer averred. Measuring at the muzzle with a ruler - I have no means of measuring down the barrel - I get 5/16 of an inch, which about matches up. I have here a pair of cleaning brushes, both of which seem to be rather oversized, but one of which has been down the works jezail and thus become quite well shaped to that barrel which, although rifled, is happily of almost the same bore. I do indeed have a worm, but it's attached to a piece of wood and really only good for breaking up compacted powder etc; I'd have to nip to York Guns, probably, to get a worm/auger attachment, and getting it in 20-bore might not be too easy, but I shall have a go.

And Battara, thanks! I shall greatly enjoy working on my first antique gun!

[RDGAC]

Oh god... why does this happen to me!? I'm now in deep trouble. I have a copper brush jammed in the damn thing and I can't get it out. Nothing I have will do the job and I'm desperate to remove it - it came cleanly off its bloody cleaning rod, threaded portion and all, and nothing I do will grip it or remove it I am, needless to say, pretty damn upset right now, especially since I was getting somewhere with this mysterious obstruction; this time the cleaning brush stuck far too hard for me to extract it, and the usual trick of twisting the rod clockwise to slowly extract it has now left me with an immovable blockage in my new and beloved gun!

Edit: Well, having calmed down somewhat, I've begun looking for a gunsmith specialising in black powder work hereabouts. By great good luck, there's a chap named Peter Dyson about 40 miles away - so I shall see if he can help me out, since I think removing this obstruction is beyond my means. But, on the plus side, the lock is free once again! It's very, very worn; so much so that the gun will fire from the half-cock notch, and for some reason the sear keeps engaging the half-cock notch even when fired from the cocked position, but I don't think that's too shabby for something that was made in a workshop using tools dating from the days of Alexander the Great, and subject to a hundred-odd years of hard work! Go on girl!

[Philip]

Screw-in breechplugs are not the norm on many Oriental barrels. Usually, the plug is installed as you suggested: it's a shrink-fit, and occasionally a cross-pin is driven through a hole on one side to be sure it stays put. Of course, removing a plug of this type is something you don't even want to think about. I've wondered why the threaded plugs which are almost universal in the West were never popular in many regions. My research indicates that in most of the Far East and SE Asia, the screw is a foreign concept. Although the Chinese, Tibetans, and Sumatrans made twist-forged gun barrels, the use of spiral-thread fasteners was introduced from abroad. Even when they had imported products as models, the Japanese and Malays simply abhorred the thought of cutting threads so as a consequence, their gun locks are all assembled with mortises and pins, and thus are typically made of brass which is easy to work. Even in the Near East, which knew the Archimedian screw from antiquity, threaded breechplugs were not universal and it's remarkable to note that even on the better Turkish and Persian gun locks, the quality of thread-cutting leaves a lot to be desired, at least by French and English standards from the 17th cent. onward.

It's interesting to note that many barrels from Asia also lack the tang attached to the plug, which on Western guns also has a hole which houses a vertical screw that pins the breech end of the barrel firmly in its channel. Traditionally, many Oriental barrels have a small square tenon emerging from the breechplug which fits in a corresponding mortise in the rear of the barrel channel in the stock. The marked taper of the barrel, and the tightness of the capucines (or, cross-pins through the fore-end in the Japanese design), keep the barrel from sliding forward in the channel. In many cases, there isn't even a tenon since the projecting priming-pan serves quite well to lock the breech firmly to the stock. In cultures whose traditional technology was heavily influenced by Europe (Ottoman Empire, parts of India, and Vietnam), tanged breechplugs do appear from the 18th cent. onwards.

[Philip]

A great book to have is Ronald Lister's ANTIQUE FIREARMS: THEIR CARE, REPAIR, AND RESTORATION (NY: Crown Publishers 1963). There's nothing quite like it and it's a godsend. Unfortunately I don't think it's been reprinted. The author is British so copies may be more common, in the antiquarian book market, in the UK.

Based on info in the book, here's a suggestion on extracting that stuck copper brush. Find a long thin-walled metal tube just smaller than the bore, and of sufficient length to reach the obstruction and still allow a hand grip. Drill a transverse hole in one end, enough for a short metal rod to serve as a turning- and pulling-handle. On the business end, file four V-shaped notches on the periphery of the tube. Then make four small L-shaped cuts with a wire-saw or similar device at the bottom of each V. If you push the rod into the barrel and engage the bristles of the brush in the saw-kerfs in the tube, you might get enough of a grip on the thing as you slowly rotate and gently pull on the tube.

Now, on to the malfunctioning lock. What you have is severe wear on the tumbler notches and the sear nose. The full-cock notch needs to be carefully filed so that it has a square "step", not the rounded hump that's there now. The sear nose must also be shaped to mate with this indent precisely (carefully note the position of the two components when the lock is in a full cock position, to guide you in making the angles in the detent and on the nose just so.). The half-cock notch needs to be undercut slightly to allow the sear nose to lock into it. (there is a diagram on p. 150 of Lister's book).

If the hammer catches on the half cock detent as it falls, it means that the radius of the tumbler is worn out-of-true. Try and correct the sear nose and the full cock detent first, then work on the half-cock. By restoring the full undercut in the half-cock detent, you'll be filing the radius of the tumbler a bit smaller in the area between full and half cock (i.e., setting the radius closer to the axis-pin.) You can then dress down the radius below the half cock, reducing the diameter of the tumbler at that point (but not so far so as to compromise the undercut). This adjustment of the radius is usually enough to cure the "half cock grab" syndrome.

You might also want to be sure that the mainspring and tumbler move with out undue friction against the lockplate, or against the tumbler bridle. Minimize friction and the lock becomes "faster" and that helps prevent half-cock grab, too.

[Atlantia]

Originally Posted by RDGAC

Oh god... why does this happen to me!? I'm now in deep trouble. I have a copper brush jammed in the damn thing and I can't get it out. Nothing I have will do the job and I'm desperate to remove it - it came cleanly off its bloody cleaning rod, threaded portion and all, and nothing I do will grip it or remove it I am, needless to say, pretty damn upset right now, especially since I was getting somewhere with this mysterious obstruction; this time the cleaning brush stuck far too hard for me to extract it, and the usual trick of twisting the rod clockwise to slowly extract it has now left me with an immovable blockage in my new and beloved gun!

You might be able to snag it if you use a woven wire 'noose', like a snare. Use a long wire (and a torch of course to guide it) to push it onto the end or the metal body of the wire brush and hold it in place while you pull it tight, then either pull or twist using a handle until you get movement.
I'd try a few different ones made from unbreakable lines like woven wire or nylon starter cord.

[Jim McDougall]

I just wanted to add my 'concurrent thread' to add some comments that I have discovered after my last post, and addressed to RDG. I wanted to add them here rather than editing them into my last post so as not to be overlooked.
As I previously noted in my last episode, these markings appear to be based on the earlier flaunched version of the EIC balemark. The two key characters selected to place within these markings are the 'I' and the '4', and where the TOWER mark would have been, the I is placed in a sequence of 5, in the same curvature and configuration.

I would suggest that the prototype for this lock's markings may well have been from an earlier East India Company gun from regions to the south in Sind, where the Company was well present after the mid 1750s after securing diplomatic relations with Talpoor. The East India Company heart shape marking in variation seems to have prevailed into the mid 19th century with the Scinde Dawk stamp, however weapons by this time were being marked with the rampant lion.

It seems quite feasible that flintlocks with the old flauched heart balemark ended up to the north in Khyber regions, and were probably remounted numerous times as well as copied by local gunsmiths. The gunsmiths of Darra Khel are world renowned for thier work at fashioning modern style guns with only the basest tools and technology. This type flintlock was probably done sometime in the early 19th century by a local artisan in Khyber regions.

Like Rick, I cannot stop thinking of Kipling's quintessant words, 'ten rupee jezail' ! Beautiful !!! History in your hands RDG.

All the best,
Jim