My first jezail

[Atlantia]

Originally Posted by RDGAC

Oh god... why does this happen to me!? I'm now in deep trouble. I have a copper brush jammed in the damn thing and I can't get it out. Nothing I have will do the job and I'm desperate to remove it - it came cleanly off its bloody cleaning rod, threaded portion and all, and nothing I do will grip it or remove it I am, needless to say, pretty damn upset right now, especially since I was getting somewhere with this mysterious obstruction; this time the cleaning brush stuck far too hard for me to extract it, and the usual trick of twisting the rod clockwise to slowly extract it has now left me with an immovable blockage in my new and beloved gun!

You might be able to snag it if you use a woven wire 'noose', like a snare. Use a long wire (and a torch of course to guide it) to push it onto the end or the metal body of the wire brush and hold it in place while you pull it tight, then either pull or twist using a handle until you get movement.
I'd try a few different ones made from unbreakable lines like woven wire or nylon starter cord.

[Jim McDougall]

I just wanted to add my 'concurrent thread' to add some comments that I have discovered after my last post, and addressed to RDG. I wanted to add them here rather than editing them into my last post so as not to be overlooked.
As I previously noted in my last episode, these markings appear to be based on the earlier flaunched version of the EIC balemark. The two key characters selected to place within these markings are the 'I' and the '4', and where the TOWER mark would have been, the I is placed in a sequence of 5, in the same curvature and configuration.

I would suggest that the prototype for this lock's markings may well have been from an earlier East India Company gun from regions to the south in Sind, where the Company was well present after the mid 1750s after securing diplomatic relations with Talpoor. The East India Company heart shape marking in variation seems to have prevailed into the mid 19th century with the Scinde Dawk stamp, however weapons by this time were being marked with the rampant lion.

It seems quite feasible that flintlocks with the old flauched heart balemark ended up to the north in Khyber regions, and were probably remounted numerous times as well as copied by local gunsmiths. The gunsmiths of Darra Khel are world renowned for thier work at fashioning modern style guns with only the basest tools and technology. This type flintlock was probably done sometime in the early 19th century by a local artisan in Khyber regions.

Like Rick, I cannot stop thinking of Kipling's quintessant words, 'ten rupee jezail' ! Beautiful !!! History in your hands RDG.

All the best,
Jim

[RDGAC]

Aha - I did wonder when Jim would smell interesting local markings Like leading a mouse to cheese... and once more I learn. I'd no idea these were referred to as "balemarks" for a start, let alone that this enormous, engraved "4" was something more sophisticated than a local artisan's attempt to replace something he couldn't copy - I really rather feel I've unjustly maligned him, long dead though he is, and it just goes to show the danger of letting preconceptions run away with you. This is especially poor, on my part, since he obviously made the rather elegant border around the periphery of the lockplate as well.

Now, as to the age of the lock, it does rather set the mind wondering, but here we come up against another question: although this duplicates a style of lockplate decoration seen in the mid-to-late 18th Century, at what point did the Khyber gunsmiths acquire the skill of making the flintlock? In fact, another question must be asked: am I wrong in thinking that the reason many jezails made during the 18th and 19th Centuries used a captured British flintlock was that its mechanical complexity (or some other aspect of the design) taxed local gunsmiths beyond their means, for some time?

My my, mystery upon mystery...

Thanks for the suggestion, Atlantia - I can probably acquire some wire cheaply enough, but you mention using a torch to guide it. I'd be most interested to find a torch that would allow me to see all the way down the barrel of my gun, since I'm presently finding it impossible with an ordinary hand torch, but don't know what exists for this purpose; some sort of fibre-optic bore light perhaps. Do enlighten me as to what I might be able to get in this field

[Atlantia]

Originally Posted by RDGAC

Aha - I did wonder when Jim would smell interesting local markings Like leading a mouse to cheese... and once more I learn. I'd no idea these were referred to as "balemarks" for a start, let alone that this enormous, engraved "4" was something more sophisticated than a local artisan's attempt to replace something he couldn't copy - I really rather feel I've unjustly maligned him, long dead though he is, and it just goes to show the danger of letting preconceptions run away with you. This is especially poor, on my part, since he obviously made the rather elegant border around the periphery of the lockplate as well.

Now, as to the age of the lock, it does rather set the mind wondering, but here we come up against another question: although this duplicates a style of lockplate decoration seen in the mid-to-late 18th Century, at what point did the Khyber gunsmiths acquire the skill of making the flintlock? In fact, another question must be asked: am I wrong in thinking that the reason many jezails made during the 18th and 19th Centuries used a captured British flintlock was that its mechanical complexity (or some other aspect of the design) taxed local gunsmiths beyond their means, for some time?

My my, mystery upon mystery...

Thanks for the suggestion, Atlantia - I can probably acquire some wire cheaply enough, but you mention using a torch to guide it. I'd be most interested to find a torch that would allow me to see all the way down the barrel of my gun, since I'm presently finding it impossible with an ordinary hand torch, but don't know what exists for this purpose; some sort of fibre-optic bore light perhaps. Do enlighten me as to what I might be able to get in this field

LOL, hmmm yeah it is problematic.... prehaps a single LED on a wire?
Actually, thinking about it, have you tried getting a thick steel coathanger and straightening it out and bending a tiny hook (like 5mm) on the end, then attaching it to a rod for length and seeing if you can hook it round the obstruction and pull it out?

[Philip]

Bravo, I think you've come up with a potentially workable solution to that stuck brush: cut the bristles with the sharpened edge of a metal tube! The copper wires aren't very thick, after all. How about filing the end of the tube into saw teeth, get them as sharp as you can. It'll be a variation on the "crown-saw" that locksmiths use to bore holes in doors to install doorknob kits (or what surgeons use to drill holes in our heads to get at the gray matter inside, haha!). Lemme know how it works!

Now, I don't recommend using C-clamps to compress those V-shaped springs. The clamps are just too unstable on such surfaces, the main- and frizzen springs are pretty powerful. I suggest that you buy a mainspring vise, available through suppliers of gunsmith tools and those firms selling supplies to shooters of black-powder replica firearms. These handy and inexpensive devices are articulated to fit just about any size of flint or percussion mainsprings and frizzen springs (they will do also on wheellocks, but won't work on the huge external mainsprings of Spanish or Near Eastern "miquelet" locks due to their size and the way they're mounted, but the average collector has little need to disassemble those locks). The small sear spring can be restrained with a pair of needle nosed pliers. Just pinch the spring enough (use tape on the plier jaws) to relieve pressure as you back the screw out just enough to allow the spring to rotate free, then release and continue unscrewing.

[kahnjar1]

Originally Posted by Philip

Bravo, I think you've come up with a potentially workable solution to that stuck brush: cut the bristles with the sharpened edge of a metal tube! The copper wires aren't very thick, after all. How about filing the end of the tube into saw teeth, get them as sharp as you can. It'll be a variation on the "crown-saw" that locksmiths use to bore holes in doors to install doorknob kits (or what surgeons use to drill holes in our heads to get at the gray matter inside, haha!). Lemme know how it works!

Now, I don't recommend using C-clamps to compress those V-shaped springs. The clamps are just too unstable on such surfaces, the main- and frizzen springs are pretty powerful. I suggest that you buy a mainspring vise, available through suppliers of gunsmith tools and those firms selling supplies to shooters of black-powder replica firearms. These handy and inexpensive devices are articulated to fit just about any size of flint or percussion mainsprings and frizzen springs (they will do also on wheellocks, but won't work on the huge external mainsprings of Spanish or Near Eastern "miquelet" locks due to their size and the way they're mounted, but the average collector has little need to disassemble those locks). The small sear spring can be restrained with a pair of needle nosed pliers. Just pinch the spring enough (use tape on the plier jaws) to relieve pressure as you back the screw out just enough to allow the spring to rotate free, then release and continue unscrewing.

You seem to be having a lot of "fun" with this jezail, but it (by the look of it) has potential to look rather nice when finished. A WORD OF EXTREME CAUTION. When you purchase that correct mainspring clamp, be VERY CAREFUL not to clamp it any more than you need as you could easily snap the mainspring! Also I would suggest that if you do not intend to shoot the gun, that you ignore that strange obstruction in the barrel and simply make sure that any internal rusting has been killed.
Good luck.
Stu

[RDGAC]

Hi there Stu, thanks for the tipe! Mainspring vice ahoy with next month's pay packet, I should think (along with some fine files and a set of brass dentist's picks, amongst other things), and I shall be very careful indeed to avoid snapping the spring; I figure all I want to do is move it a fraction of an inch clear of the tumbler in the fired position, to allow re-assembly of the lock mechanism without having to fight (and lose to) the tension of the spring acting upon the machine. Am I correct in my thinking?

Regarding this barrel problem, such was indeed my intention. Since fouling is, as I understand it, quite hygroscopic, and since the barrel has rusted quite a bit already, I want to remove as much of the extant corrosion and fouling as I can in order to safeguard it for the future, before applying a fair bit of oil to keep it that way. This mysterious obstruction has been frustrating my attempts to get to the very bottom of the bore to clean it, hence my eagerness to remove it - not much point having a good, stable barrel if the first two inches of it are as thin as tissue paper.

While I'd dearly love, in time, to shoot a jezail, I do wonder about the wisdom of putting a piece of metalwork such as this next to one's face with a load of propellant within it. Not that I wish to cast aspersions on the fellow who made this weapon, by any means; it's simply that, without testing it at the Proofing House (which is necessary to make it legally shootable, as I understand it) there's no guarantee that the barrel will hold up - and the PH tests might well just destroy her altogether.

I think, much as I'd like to have a go with a jezail, that this one might be in for a well-earned retirement, to a place of honour on my wall