Ottoman/Balkan Grease/Bullet Container

[rickystl]

Originally Posted by kahnjar1

There has been a lot of discussion as to what these SMALL containers were used for. The one I recently bought has a dry grey coloured powder residue inside.
I believe that this is flint dust.
1.Not likely to be powder residue due to fact the top does not seal tightly. Also the residue will not burn.
2.Not likely to be from lead balls as that would leave an attached colouration, and not a loose powder, and the balls would need to be VERY small.
3.Not likely grease or greased patches, as it is dry.
A container of this size would hold several flints, even those larger ones for muskets, so perhaps the use for these is solved??
Comments please.
Stu

Hi Stu.
Well, I tried to view these little containers from a "shooters" perspective, and I come to the same conclusions that you mention above. We know they were not used to hold loose gun powder. And as you say, the loose lead balls would have to be a very small caliber, and it would not hold many. And yes, there would be some coloration evidence. Plus, the soft lead balls would bounce around in the brass container causing deformations (dimples) on the balls. If they were used to carry greese/greesed patching there would be some evidence of old hard greese. But I've never seen one that produced any evidence of greese. As the greese was used up, you would have to poke your finger further and further into the container. And pre-greased patches would stick to each other and be very difficult to retrieve. And the containers are too small for a flint and steel fire starter kit.
Actually, from a shooters perspective, the theory of holding loose percussion caps makes sense. But we know percussion guns in the 19th Century Ottoman Empire were somewhat rare. So I don't believe they were used to hold caps. So my theory of use for pre-knapped gun flints is all I'm left with. But that would make sense.
Of course, as Kuber mentions, many of these are probably not as old as we would initially guess. Being made for the tourist market, etc. So they may have had nothing stored in them. LOL But we do know from a couple of paintings of 19th Century Ottoman warriors that these little containers were in fact used for something. The pre-knapped gun flints is just my best guess based on a shooter's perspective.
Rick.