Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - A true American firearm: the Kentucky Long Rifle

laEspadaAncha · 12th February 2011, 04:17 AM

Hi Lee,

I will happily wait for you to post the photos of your rifle, and look forward to seeing more examples to this thread.

Regarding your your thread on ALR, your genealogical chart on the Beck family of gunsmiths was impressive... What meager research library I have at my disposal is focused primarily on edged weaponry and tribal arts, and I have next to nothing focused on antique firearms. What information I have on Evan Johnson was supplied by another area collector.

I guess I am a little surprised to hear antique firearm enthusiasts would suggest an alteration that would modify a piece beyond its original form... adding a patchbox to a stock that originally did not possess one?!?

I can't think of a similar alteration one could make to an antique edged weapon that would be considered acceptable by the collector community.

*****

Mark - Thank you...

I read somewhere that gunsmiths would cure the maple for - what was it? - four years, I think, before they would shape it. A definite aesthetic improvement over the walnut that I understand was the predominant wood of choice in the manufacture of European long arms of the period.

12th February 2011, 04:17 AM	#19
laEspadaAncha Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 608	Hi Lee, I will happily wait for you to post the photos of your rifle, and look forward to seeing more examples to this thread. Regarding your your thread on ALR, your genealogical chart on the Beck family of gunsmiths was impressive... What meager research library I have at my disposal is focused primarily on edged weaponry and tribal arts, and I have next to nothing focused on antique firearms. What information I have on Evan Johnson was supplied by another area collector. I guess I am a little surprised to hear antique firearm enthusiasts would suggest an alteration that would modify a piece beyond its original form... adding a patchbox to a stock that originally did not possess one?!? I can't think of a similar alteration one could make to an antique edged weapon that would be considered acceptable by the collector community. *** Mark** - Thank you... I read somewhere that gunsmiths would cure the maple for - what was it? - four years, I think, before they would shape it. A definite aesthetic improvement over the walnut that I understand was the predominant wood of choice in the manufacture of European long arms of the period.