Hand cannon, by CANNONMAN

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CANNONMAN

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There's a great member here who asked me to make him a hand cannon. He wanted it period correct. Well they just did not have a lot of tools or imagination way back then so I made him a slightly more modern version. These are 12" long and 1.75" in dia. I even put an 11 degree crown on the modern one. Just for fun. I don't have my wood shop set up as of yet so I was not able to put handles on them. My friend has put a period correct patina on the original and a nice handle. Hope to provide follow up pics when their done. cannon hand.JPG cannon hand 2.JPG
 
More like Browning had an imagination. But it wasn't the same time period for tooling. Browning did have an advantage there. Those do look nice and cool, but not really period correct.
 
Yes to Dear John. Love my 1911's. Hey whughett! Great to be back. I got to retire with my own mill and lathe thanks to my dear Wife. Now I've got pretty much a complete wood and metal shops. Our retirement house should be done in about a month and then I get to set everything up. I was so awed by machining that I took a gunsmith course and got hooked. Made a lot of friends as I started to churn out cannons. Hope to show a few off when I get to putting them back together.BTW. The BP portion of this site rules. People are friendly and seem to really enjoy each other. I recall you were always supportive of many of my lame ideas and post. Still got ten fingers. Loving life and retirement is great! Better when our house is built. Almost two years in the making. C ya'll later.
 
Think he may be referring to a period pre-dating Browning by a few years.:rofl:
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If you think early gunsmiths didn't have any imagination way back when I would suggest you look on Youtube under the "tales Of The Gun" series and watch the episode about dueling pistols. There may be smiths that could reproduce the lavish artwork of those old gun builders but I bet there aren't many of them. And most of us couldn't afford them if they made new ones. And no they didn't have all the power tools we have now and that makes what they did with basic hand tools even more impressive.

Here ya go. If you are the impatient type then jump to 28:48. And this is just one of many.
 
I could be off base here as to time frames, but weren't "hand cannons" an idea of the MIDDLE AGES or somewhere around the time the Chinese invented gun powder. But then, the period correct, in the OP may have meant something else entirely. I seem to recall pictures depicting men in goofy looking outfits hold long contraptions with a piece of burning rope attached. History never was my strong point, but I'm thinking hand guns descended from hand cannons.

My Walker makes a pretty good hand cannon also.:) 50 grains of black, makes a real nice boom flash, and six times to boot.
 
These were supposed to be handgonnes. Very crude guns. cavemanish! I really respect the history and current gunsmiths. The artistry and abilities are and were amazing. My take was what would an ancient hand cannon, a handgonne, look like with some modern tech. A lit string on a "wire" lever was pulled to the touch hole.
 
whughett this may be what you are referring to. Goto the 5 minute mark. But the whole show is interesting.

And the OP would have had the most elaborate of all the handgonnes on the field.
 
In defense of our ancestors, it wasn't that they lacked imagination or even technique as much as it was material. In modern times we are spoiled by the ease of making quality steel. In the Middle Ages making even mediocre steel was a long involved in painstaking process. The fact they were able to make even the simplest firearms is a testament to their imagination, patience and skill.
 
whughett said:
Think he may be referring to a period pre-dating Browning by a few years.:rofl:

Welcome back cannon man. Haven't seen you in a few months. I like watching you tube videos on machining, be nice seeing you producing some of those projects.:)
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I may be miss remembering this but John Brownings father/grandfater was also a gunsmith among other things.

 
Thank you. That will be one of this evenings TV viewing. You tube on a 55inch Screen. My go to spot for video entertainment and a little additional knowledge to boot.
Officers'Wife said:
In defense of our ancestors, it wasn't that they lacked imagination or even technique as much as it was material. In modern times we are spoiled by the ease of making quality steel. In the Middle Ages making even mediocre steel was a long involved in painstaking process. The fact they were able to make even the simplest firearms is a testament to their imagination, patience and skill.
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Hello there Officers Wife, I believe what they lacked was, TECHNOLOGY, applied science, they had the brain power, drive and dexterity, but their brains hadn't developed all the knowledge yet. A million years to the wheel, a thousand to the automobile, a hundred to space and today, a computer/telephone/television the size of a deck of cards in the pocket of every human on the planet. We are limited only by the laws of physics.
 
whughett said:
Thank you. That will be one of this evenings TV viewing. You tube on a 55inch Screen. My go to spot for video entertainment and a little additional knowledge to boot.


Hello there Officers Wife, I believe what they lacked was, TECHNOLOGY, applied science, they had the brain power, drive and dexterity, but their brains hadn't developed all the knowledge yet. A million years to the wheel, a thousand to the automobile, a hundred to space and today, a computer/telephone/television the size of a deck of cards in the pocket of every human on the planet. We are limited only by the laws of physics.
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Are you trying to get me started? So be it

Keep in mind that technology is a building block. From the wheel came the automobile. From Heroes' impulse engine came the steam turbine and then the jet engine. Even the esteemed Mister Browning had the self-contained cartridge in the Spencer rifle to innovate from. Our ancestors in the Middle Ages had no such luxury. Some enterprising individual in the Middle Ages somehow came up with the idea that an iron tube filled with powder and a rock could be used as a weapon. Then a individual realized if niter soaked cord could be attached he wouldn't have to carry around an ember and the match lock was developed

We can see the universe only because we stand on the shoulders of giants.
 
Officer's Wife, you are a fount of wisdom, and much appreciated in this forum of testosterone-driven tomfoolery and geriatric shennanigans. Allow me to express my appreciation for your posts.
 
Officers'Wife said:
Then a individual realized if niter soaked cord could be attached he wouldn't have to carry around an ember and the match lock was developed
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But in the days that slow match was used they did not make it using potassium nitrate. Potassium nitrate was never used for that . That is just modern day internet gossip. They used potash and lead acetate for slow match making.
 
TheRodDoc said:
But in the days that slow match was used they did not make it using potassium nitrate. Potassium nitrate was never used for that . That is just modern day internet gossip. They used potash and lead acetate for slow match making.
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I suspect the recipe changed from place to place, person to person. It could have just as easily been said that someone using a flint and steel to start a fire got the idea it could spark fire in the pan of a flintlock. The exact composition doesn't detract from the argument that tech builds on itself. One innovation tends to inspire another.
 
Well, anyway... Hey Gary, how do you make a handgonne without modern Tech? That would be interesting. Some of you might recall my great adventure with making my own BP from only the elements that I found at my feet. It worked but I'd sure do it different today. As a nod to OW. there was a time when there was so little knowledge that a single person could actually know everything. Sadly there are still many amongst us who still believe they do. Here's a mind boggler, what is information before its information?
 
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