INTERESTING, BLOWPIPE, CANE GUN
 

I HAD READ OF THESE STRANGE CONTRAPTIONS BUT HAD SEEN NO PICTURES UNTIL NOW. THIS WAS IDENTIFIED AS AN ENGLISH BLOWPIPE WALKING STICK. UNFORTUNATELY THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR ITS OPERATION WERE VERY VAUGE. THE CARTRIDGE WOULD BE INSERTED IN THE BREACH AND CLOSED, THE FIRING PIN WAS ACTIVATED BY BLOWING THRU THE CANE HEAD WHILE AIMING LIKE A BLOWGUN. THE HEAD OF THE CANE WAS DESIGNED TO ASORB THE RECOIL. I CERTIANLY WOULD NOT TRY IT UNLESS THE SELLER WENT FIRST. :rolleyes: DOES ANYONE ELSE HAVE MORE INFORMATION OR AN EXAMPLE?

Cane gun
 

This is surely a unique cane gun. Have you tried to close the empty chamber
and cause the firing pin to fall by huffing and puffing? Most cane guns have concealed triggers. Once the chamber is closed can you pullback on the knob to cock it? Once Cocked the blow portion may be striking the inner center "floating pin. It's neat. But take care the Fed got my cane gun years ago, they were and may still be considered a weapon by the Fed.
Regards, Steve

I've had some of these in my hands, also, and my experience leans in the same direction than archer's. The ones I've seen have a mechanism to "cock" the firing pin and some kind of "trigger" to release it. They are not always obvious, but can be found with relative ease by fumbling around with any seemingly loose bit. Keep in mind that they CAN be deteriorated and not able to operate enymore.
By the way, and just as a general advice... Do NOT try to fire them. The conversion from weapon to conversation piece is frequently done poorly and with too many concessions to aesthetics and concealability. They can be as dangerous for the operator as for the target, if not more.

They're pretty cool, though...:cool:

UNFORTUNATLY I DON'T OWN THIS ITEM AND ONLY KNOW WHAT WAS WRITTEN ABOUT IT. I SUSPECT THE MECHANISM IS COCKED WHEN YOU OPEN AND LOAD AND THEN CLOSE THE BREECH. THE CENTER OF THE KNOB ON THE HANDLE HAS WHAT APPEARS TO BE A CENTER HOLE. PERHAPS YOU TURN THE KNOB TO OPEN AND THEN BLOW INTO IT AS DESCRIBED PROPELLING A STRIKER TO TRIP THE FIRING PIN. :confused: JUST GUESSING HERE AS THE INFORMATION WAS NOT COMPREHENSIVE OR CLEAR AND I HAD NO WAY TO CHECK IT OUT.
I DO ASSUME IT WAS ACTUALLY TRIGGERED BY BLOWING AS IT WAS SPECIFICALY MENTIONED THAT IT WAS DESIGNED TO PROTECT THE MOUTH WHEN IT WAS FIRED.

Well, as a last thought, given that we can hardly gather more information about it... from the engeenering point of view, given how easy is to put a spring in the firing pin, I find somewhat unnatural to fire it by blowing. Not to mention the small fact that, taking into account the little physical fact known as "recoil" and the place where the pommel is going to be resting when the bullet fires, there's bound to be a pretty happy dentist in the operator's near future... :D