Things you can do with a cannon ball
 

A six pound cannon ball converted into an eight pound weight. The ball must be from the beg. XIX century and so is the conversion; showed up in an antiques shop, together with very rustic weights for weighing raw flax, dated beg. XIX century and double stamped with the Royal inspection and re-inspection mark.
Fernando

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Sigh...this was not an uncommon practice when it came to old ordenance. I have seen cannon balls also converted into gate weights and even one for a clock weight. I had a four pounder with a link welded to it that I thought might be half of a chain-shot, but the weld was definitely more modern. Makes me mad when artifacts are treated this way- :mad:

That being said, yours at least hasn't been blow-torched, cut in half or fiddled with too badly. The binding iron straps don't take away from the piece,in my opinion.

I see locally many examples of 18th C. Cannon Balls and Royal Grenades simply dumped and lying around as garden decos on Government building grounds, rusting away.

Which is worse..?

Yep, makes me mad too.

M

Hi Fernando,
I could easily see the cannon ball 'conversion' being used as a 'ball and chain'. Smaller 'balls' were used whereby the prisoner (POW) could be used for 'labour' with armed guards 'overseeing' the work.

Coupled to a short chain (so the prisoner couldn't pick it up and run) , it would be difficult to escape. Onboard a 'prisoner ship' the prospect of trying to swim to 'freedom' with 8lbs+ dangling from one leg..... well I think you get the idea ;)

All the best
David

Fernando, I think thats pretty neat! The quality of the ironwork is quite good at the forge weld. The smithing to make the cradle for it is interesting in its own right. It must have been a bit of a pain to make as it had to be made to a certain extent with the ball in place. There would have been a fair amount of movement of the parts for the second half of the forging as the cradle couldn't lap past half the height of the ball and still get the ball inside so it must have been in the frame for that second half of the making of it. I would think three men would have been involved in making it for that part of it.

Thanks all guys for your input.
I can see the point of those getting mad at seing cannon balls being damaged for bizarre purposes, which i fully subscribe; but for what matters this very one was not afected ... just changed its certainly abandoned status to a usefull (and eventually peaceful) one. So in a way its life has not ceased and its presence, although inserted in a different context, can still be considered that of a cannon ball ... and so a (one more) collectors item.
Thank you A Snefelder, for your enthusiastic considerations on the degree of difficulty in the making of this device; it is always a pleasure to be enlightened on the technical view of things.
Fernando

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Sometimes they were also adapted as anchors.

BTW, Nando. Can you post some pics of the muskets adorning your den?

: )

Those are not muskets but two pistols and a blunderbuss (bacamarte for me and trabuco for you).
... Nothing new, only the items i have already massacred the forum with.
Nando

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Nice seeing them again, nonetheless. Specially the small pistol.

How about the mosqueton/carabina on the tripod..?

Best

M

You already know that one:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ht=blunderbuss

BTW, the tripod is also an antique; American stuff, i believe, made in 1946.

Fernando

It reminds me again of my trabuco: Its brass barrel is a modern replacement and has a _screw_ instead of a breech plug. Everything else from the weapon feels and looks legit, the wood stock, the BB type action. It even has signs of having been fired.

I think it was modified for use in a (expletive) pirate movie of the 50s, darn follywood. Even the lock screws were replaced. Might be Indian-made, though.

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r...l/CIMG1691.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r...l/DSCN0007.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r...l/DSCN0010.jpg