Hand Cannon Project - Help w/ Stock?

[Matchlock]

Originally Posted by katana

Welcome to the forum Mr Scratch ,

Micheal....Would stocks on hand gonnes be 'standardised' I wonder....or, if fairly standard did individuals modify to suit their needs ? If this is the case...perhaps it gives Mr Scratch more 'flexibility' in designing/making a stock to suit the barrel ?

Kind Regards David

Hi David,

Thank you so much.

And: stocks seem to have not been standardized before ca. the mid-16th century in Central and Northern Europe. On the other hand, very few of them have actually survived 600 years but the barrels were restocked again and again in arsenals. Telling from a copule of actually existing items, plus, and especially, the very scarce earliest original sources of illustration we know, I dare say that variations were quite common.

Best,
Michael

[bluelake]

Here are a couple used in Korea in the late Joseon dynasty (the entire dynasty lasted from 1392-1910).

[fernando]

Welcome to the forum, Mr. Scratch.
Just a pity your barrel is not an ancient genuine one ... even probably a recent output .
If i well understand, it is your desire to give it a nice look, mounting it in a stock format that pleases you and your medieval weapon aficionado friends, althoug not necessarily being an historically matching one.
Don't your friends give you some suggestions themselves? That would increase the probabilities of having a setup that would please them and also please you, at having had their knowledged participation.
On the other hand and as Michael confirms, stock shapes in the old days were a bit "free style" ... pass the term; this not meaning that Chinese mounted their cannons with European stocks and vice versa.
If you search well all (or almost all) the threads in this forum, you will find a countless number of handcannons, with distinct stock attitudes; some original, some following as much as possible the original idea and even some improvisations, result of observing so many examples posted here and also out there.
Then you may certainly be able to improvise your set up, compatible with your and your friends tastes; and also fitting your fireplace mantel.
Meanwhile and concerning freestyle setups, here are some solutions i found for some of my early European barrels.
Also you will find plenty coherent examples if you browse, for example, on Michael (Matchlock) threads.
All the best.
Fernando

[Matchlock]

Hi 'Nando,

Thanks a whole lot for promoting my threads, my friend!

Here is the original, actually existing late 14th century example which your fine reconstruction work illustrated at the end of your latest post is obviously based on. The hook is a modernization of ca. 1430, the earliest date when hooks on guns turned up first as I stated on several earlier occasions. The hole drilled thru the stock was most probably for pivoting on some additional mount.

It is preserved in the Firearms Museum of Suhl, Thuringia, and measures about 65 cm overall. It was a find from the attic of a nearby Schloss!!!

Best,
Michael

[fernando]

... And the second ones posted were inspired in a XV century Germanic "baton a feu" exhibited at the Chateau de Castelnaud.

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[Mr. Scratch]

Originally Posted by bluelake

Here are a couple used in Korea in the late Joseon dynasty (the entire dynasty lasted from 1392-1910).

Well, there it is! A pair of real Asian cannons, at last! The top one is especially curious, as it appears it was maybe wielded like a pistol-gripped shotgun!

After seeing this post over the weekend and thus widening my search for other nationalities, I did manage to stumble across a Chinese example that is similar to what I'm looking for, with the buttstock included. Granted, this has a longer barrel, but the technology is essentially the same, and I don't think it is a stretch to consider that guns like mine might have had similar stocks.