14th century hand cannon

[Marcus den toom]

Before introducing my new hand cannon barrel it is of some importance to discuss this similar stocked hand cannon.

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=12632 (post 11 and on).

Dated to be from the late 14th century with a later added hook AND stock from around the 1430s. Why the emphasis on the stock? Because I believe that the stock must have been added at the same time as the hook. It would be impractical to forge a hook on a barrel band especially when it is already secured to a stock. Also redoing the barrelband lateron seems unlikely .

The barrel would have been reused, but would originally have been stocked on a wooden block.
The shape of this and my barrel are very similar and could be of the same origin. They both follow a stout and vase shaped form. The touch hole is very close to the base, 10mm, and the caliber is roughly 25mm.
The Loshult gun is the only known brass vase shaped barrel so far and it corresponds with the illuminations in the Milemete manuscript (1326/27). The Loshult gun is generally dated to the 1350s. Deriving from the shape of the Loshult gun the iron barrels, as proposed in my thesis, could be from 10-20 years later. They both have a notably large rounded swamped ring at the barrel mouth, like the Loshult gun. Later cannons from the 1400s do still have a swamped shape, like a vase, but lack the rounded ring at the barrel mouth. A second type of barrel are those of the Aljubarotta barrel series, they also have a somewwhat rounded barrelmouth. http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...t=14th+century)