18th century maintenance?

[monotonous_iterancy]

The earlier thread I had about a 4th of July rifle got me thinking about how people kept their firearms in good working condition back in the 17 and 1800s.

Today we have a million different fancy oils, greases, and solvents to keep our firearms running smooth and free of rust.

But what did they do 250 years ago? Oil wasn't the commodity it is today. Not only that, but black powder is corrosive. Guns in general for that matter weren't commodities like they are today, except maybe for the very wealthy. Most households had 1 gun that was used for hunting, and possibly defensive purposes. So keeping it in top shape was essential for survival.

Does anyone know the history?

 

[rcmodel]

Boiling water for cleaning the black powder fouling.

Whale oil, or bear grease, or bees wax, or tallow, or lard for lubrication.

rc

 

[PavePusher]

Check the Laura Ingalls Wilder book "Little House in the Big Woods". It has a pretty good description of cleaning a firearm in the mid 1860's.

I remember it vividly, as it was my first exposure to firearms in literature.

It's also a great book series for anyone wanting to introduce their kids to independence, self-reliance and how to live frugally. Also makes a good pre-intro to the Foxfire series.

 

[Jim Watson]

I have seen references to "washing" guns in the muzzleloading era.

The habit seems to have declined. Greener wrote in 1910 of cleaning guns with "petroleum" and mentions water only to say "boiling water kills rust." Well, if you had wet cleaned your gun to start with, then dried and oiled it, it wouldn't have rusted from the chlorate primers.

Turpentine was used then and now to remove leading. But it is not magic, it involves soaking in turps, then a tight patch, strong rod, and a mallet.

Black powder residue is not terribly corrosive. Not zero, but not fast acting. The main agent was the priming compounds of the percussion era. There was an old store here with quite an array of old guns on the wall. It was easy to see how they were pitted on the drum and breech where hit by cap flash escaping the nipple.

 

[Cosmoline]

rc has it.

The modern oils don't work well with black powder anyway. You're still best off with boiling water, a rag and some kind of organic wax or grease. I use a mix of olive oil and straight beeswax melted together. They would use whatever grease or oil was to hand. So a buffalo hunter would use buffalo fat rendered down into grease. A bear hunter would use bear grease. A farmer might use beef or mutton tallow. Etc. I've heard of dried up wasp nest making excellent tow (their supply would not be tainted with toxic sprays). The arms of the period can really live off the land. They don't need anything fancy.

Petroleum by-products would have become more common, along with things like mineral oil and rubbing alcohol, after the middle of the 19th century.

 

[hang fire]

After being in the muzzleloading (most all are rock locks) game for several decades, I use mostly H2o to clean the BP guns, but sometimes just plain water.

http://hstrial-rchambers.homestead.com/Index.html

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Boiling water was used extensively. If you clean a gun with boiling water, the metal will be heated to the point where all the water evaporates, leaving the gun clean and dry. then you lubricate it. And, as pointed out by someone else, the water also deals with salts left by the primer.

The common cleaning "patch" was tow -- the stuff rope is made from. And any lubricant -- from whale oil (rare and expensive) to tallow (rendered fat) was used.

When I first came into the Army, we trained on the M1 rifle. After each range session, the cooks set up garbage cans with immersion heaters. We detailed stripped our rifles and cleaned them with boiling water.

But another answer to your question is "not very well." It was difficult to clean with boiling water -- especially in the wilderness -- and you had to remove the barrel from the stock. As a result, the common practice was to get your rifle in the smallest caliber you could use, and as rust and corrosion took its toll, have it "freshed out" -- reamed out and re-rifled.

 

[AethelstanAegen]

My first firearm was a reproduction 1853 Enfield Rifled Musket. You clean those the exact same way they would have in the Civil War. Hot water, patches, and some muscle. I'll admit I still clean most of my guns the same way today, though I add the step of some CLP at the very end. It's always worked out well for me and I've never had any problems with corrosion from ammo (be in milsurp or blackpowder). If you haven't fired anything with blackpowder, I highly recommend it. It's a ton of fun.

 

[alsaqr]

In my Great Grandfather's Civil War diary he mentions a hot kettle of lye soap and water for cleaning rifles.

 

[Cosmoline]

Can you dig that up for a full quote by any chance?! That sort of info is always fascinating to read.

 

[Jim K]

The most common source of light oil in the days before the "mineral" oil we know today, was whale oil, made from whale blubber (fat). It was expensive and hard to get inland, but was the best there was for lamps and general lubrication. Considered better, but scarcer and even more expensive, was sperm oil, which was also a whale product, from the head of the sperm whale. (The terms for the whale and the oil were based on a misunderstanding and had nothing to do with the whale's sperm.)

Jim