Antique Afghan Musket Restoration

[Tom-May]

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this account, or indeed, whether this will work or not.

The subject of this piece was my 'major project' for my Uinversity degree course.

The subject piece was a mid 19th Century Afghan musket (with an older barrel), collected by the British Army during or about the time of the Second Afghan War (1878-1881 - ish).

The weapon had been broken and repaired in service (hence the heavily foulded rawhide binding on the butt in Figure 1) and again by an accident in storage.

The barrel section (Figure 2) was still loaded until a week before I received it. The first job was therefore to 'boil out' the bore and, after it had been thoroughly cleaned, it was waxed, the wax then being melted with a hot air source, to fill all the corrosion pits and cavities in the bore itself.

(The results of long term corrosion by black powder combustion products.)

The rawhide binding was cleaned mechanically and with white spirit as a solvent.

Analysis of the timber of the musket was showed the wood to be to be Sheoak, Holm Oak, Oleander or an Indian Beech.

Even the crudest inspection eliminated the two oaks and the Oleander could be dismissed on the grounds of size, thus

the base wood can be assumed to be of Beech.

Walnut inserts were cut and fitted to the missing areas (Figure 3)- walnut was used to allow (on closer examination) distiction to be made between new and original material.

The break in the stock was repaired and the gaps filled with chips of walnut. (Figure 4)

A new end to the stock was made, using the remaining fragment as a pattern to build upon (Figure 5).

The various cracks and splits in the wood were glued and 'stopped'

The agent for the owners requested that the barrel be left 'in the brown', thus the differential corrosion (Figure 6) required colouring (in this case, with shellac and pigments) (Figure 7)

With the addition of the (slightly refurbished) lock - An Afghan made copy of an East India Company flintlock - the work was effectively completed and the piece waxed overall and reassembled.

On re-assembly, the piece was rewaxed (Figure 8)

The weapon will never fire again, the nature of its starting condition prevent this, but the piece will be returned to the museum as part of their 'handling collection.

I trust that this has not proved too boring.

Regards

Tom May.

[Niner]

Thanks for posting. Not an ordinary milsurp to say the least.

[dromia]

Absolutely fascinating Tom, thanks for that.

However I couldn't enlarge the first 5 or so photographs, have you uploaded the thumbnails only.

I'm glad you found your way here, when I emailed everyone on Wednesday yours came back as "mail box full".

What museum is it going to, I'd love to se your work first hand.

I do envy you your skills

[Tom-May]

Adam,

I'm sorry about the photos, I'll try to upload larger versions - the system kicked out my earlier attempts as being too large and I must have overcompensated.

The weapon belongs to the "Queen's Regiment" museum at Dover Castle (One of our lecturers has links with the museum) - The Regiment has ceased to exist, but apparently the museum is still there.

It seems they will be keeping the 'handling collection' for school parties and 'interested bodies' (whatever they are).

The piece is in our Summer Show at the moment (London Metropolitan University - The old London School of Furniture - open until about 4 or 6 pm tomorrow <Sunday> - If you are in town )

"...I do envy you your skills..."

I'm just pedestrian - if you want skills you should see what Michal and Vera (two of the girls in my graduating class) can do with restoration of veneering and of musical instruments - I'm jealous.

Regards

Tom

[Tom-May]

I'm sorry the pictures couldn't be emlarged any further, but that is the limit for attachments (and the piece was some five feet long).

I hope these are an improvement..

Tom