Merry Christmas to ALL that celebrate the Holiday.
Hi Kubur. Hope all has been well for you.
I've never been able to locate one of these interesting ball-butt Balkan pistols for my collection. At least not at a reasonable price.
I think the ball-butt is somewhat a carry over feature from the wheellock era.
It would facilitate the hand grip draw from the holster on the horse saddle, and double as a club. And they all seemed built with no trigger guard.
Very seldom have I seen any Balkan style pistol that did not include a barrel band(s). The ones that were pin fastened also appeared to European made pistols for export to the Eastern markets.
Many of these pistols show up with barrel bands from different areas of the region. And many of the bands are later, period replacements - or just newer made 20th Century replacements. Although I have seen them done with very thin wire, usually brass or silver.
It's not too difficult to make a plain barrel band from a sheet of steel, brass, or silver. But most "sheet" material is too thick and difficult to bend and work with. Search for "shim" material. About 0.2032mm is good.
Material for missing inlays: Pearl is easiest to obtain. Supply house for musical instruments (guitars) have many shapes and sizes that can be files to fit. Or just blank sheets.
Bone, even genuine camel bone can be had from suppliers for custom knife making. The bone can be cut to shape and submerged in tea where it will begin to take an aged appearance.
Colored stone type inlays would be more difficult to locate material. While colored glass or even solid colored plastic is available, neither would look right. Of course, genuine semi-precious stones shaped and polished would work, the cost would be too great. I would be looking to find the approximate size red colored beads (not see-through glass) and cut/shape to size.
Net looking pistols !!
Rick
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