Heavy Hammers and Dirty Hands

One of a soldier's most important duties, whether in camp or on campaign, was caring for his firelock (musket). This treatise is meant to assist those in the living history pastime to make an oft-neglected aspect of their soldier portrayal as authentic as possible, and to discuss some of the tools, storage methods, and other matters related to soldiers’ firearms. The period method of cleaning firelocks is quite simple and effective, and the necessary equipment easily carried in a soldier's knapsack. Cleaning and maintenance ensured that muskets continued to operate properly, a point constantly stressed in period military manuals and general orders. In 1768 Cuthbertson's System for the Compleat Interior Management and Oeconomy of a Battalion of Infantry recommended that "Every Soldier ... should be instructed, by the Serjeant or Corporal of the Squad of inspection he belongs to, in the proper methods of cleaning a firelock, how to take the lock asunder, and how to join the several parts again ... It should be insisted on, that a Soldier at all times keeps his arms in such a state of perfection, as never to be ashamed to shew them; by having the inside of the lock well oiled, the outside of it (even to the smallest screw-pin) with the barrel, brasses and bayonet, not only clean and bright, but highly polished; the ramrod also must feel the attention of the Soldier, as the smoother and more polished it is kept, the easier it will return through the pipes ... the inside of the socket of the bayonet, [must also be kept clean and bright] else it will be impossible either to fix or unfix it with the necessary quickness ..."1 Eleven years later Steuben's new Continental Army manual of discipline echoed these instructions. It stipulated that among the sergeants and corporals other duties, they "should teach the soldiers of their squads ... how to mount and dismount their firelocks; for which purpose each non-commissioned officer should always be provided with a turnscrew, and suffer no soldier to take his arms to pieces without his permission." Let us examine now the conditions under which Revolutionary soldiers labored to keep their firelocks clean and the tools with which they were expected to accomplish this.

Acta Universitatis Lodziensis, Folia Archaeologica 29/2012

Journal of Clinical Forensic Medicine, 1995

Violence is one of the negative signs of our time, without age, gender and continent limitations, combining peace partnerships with bloody crimes. Aggressions using white weapons are more frequent than other vulnerable agents due to accessibility to these objects. Guns such as the knife, the ax were originally designed as tools; they were the first tools of humanity. But with time, they became weapons. There is a difference of the "weapon", a distinction that lies not in the material from which they are made but in the way humans use them. Thus, by using them as a "weapon", the rights of the human being are violated which implies liability in accordance with the law. White weapons are part of the category of mechanical traumatic agents, acting on the skin they always affect its anatomical integrity. Classification of white weapons is important because the lesions have characteristic shapes depending on the properties of the white weapon that created them.

Small Arms Survey, 2018

Although the number of craft-produced small arms and light weapons is difficult to estimate, they are prevalent and range broadly in sophistication and quality. Improvised and craft-produced firearms remain an important source of firepower for a wide range of actors, including tribal groups, poachers, criminals, insurgent groups, and even some states and quasi-state groups. In various locations, these weapons account for most of the firearms used in crime; in others, their production is institutionalized, providing essential income for local gunsmiths. Criminals outside of active conflict zones, especially in developing states and territories, appear to hold the highest concentrations of craft-produced small arms. In several countries, such firearms account for a sizable proportion of weapons seized in law enforcement operations. The vast majority of improvised and craft-produced weapons cannot be easily traced, although certain forensic and investigative techniques show promise in closing this gap.

We describe the production, function and exchange of projectile points in the Kimberley region, northwestern Australia. Our aims are to identify problems in the interpretation of residues and use-wear, and to assess whether aspects of exchange can be inferred from microscopic study of these archaeological points. For the late prehistoric and contact periods, we identify change in production technique, artefact design and function. We also document microscopic traces (use-wear, resin, ochre, starch granules and apparent blood films) on glass, stone and ceramic points from museum collections and excavated artefacts. Although ethnography suggests that size and elaborate flaking may indicate production for exchange, we conclude that microscopic traces alone do not.

1990

This study is the outgrowth of a project which I began in 1987 for Colonial National Historical Park to catalog the artifactual material excavated on Jamestown Island between the early 1930's and late 1950's. Established in 1607, Jamestown is the site of the earliest permanent English settlement in North America, and the objects recovered from these grounds reflect the range of materials produced and traded throughout Europe in the seventeenth century. A substantial number of early gunlock parts are contained in the Jamestown Collection, including all of the major ignition systems in use in the seventeenth century: wheellocks, miquelet locks, snaphaunces, matchlocks, English-locks, and flintlocks. Once I started cataloging the firearms assemblage I noticed that many parts previously had been misinterpreted providing a false picture of the type of weaponry in use. This is especially true of snaphaunces, most of which are represented by nothing more than lockplates which had formerly been recorded as wheel-locks. The classification errors of the Jamestown locks led Harold Peterson to state in his much read and cited Arms and Armor of Colonial America ". .. there are (at Jamestown) fewer remnants of snaphaunces than any other firearm used in colonial America" (Peterson 1965:27). To the contrary, my cataloging project revealed that there are more fragments of snaphaunce firearms at Jamestown than any other type. (These artifacts are enumerated in Appendix A .) The role of the snaphaunce in the seventeenth century has been understated and misrepresented as a result of this type of misinformation finding its way into the literature. These inaccurate data are used repeatedly by scholars in the field of English firearms as evidence to build the history and development of ignition systems during the seventeenth century. Not only are these researchers working on assumptions about the archaeological record that are incorrect, but they often substantiate their evidence using extant museum examples which, in many cases have lost historical context. This has resulted in as many typologies as there are researchers and a confusing dating sequence for the appearance of these early arms. My insights during this study of firearms have been aided by the fact that I started by analyzing archaeological examples which, by their nature, are unconsciously-preserved links to the past. While they may reflect the "repairs, v renewals, or conversions naturally found on weapons that have been in continual service over a long period during which various systems of lock have been introduced1 1 (Jackson and Whitelaw:77), the archaeologically-retrieved gun parts have not been deliberately altered to deceive the collector or to enhance their worth. Firearms that have survived in museum collections usually owe that survival to the fact that they are atypical in some way. Uncommon arms can be exquisite works of art constructed for a king or "state of the art" fowling pieces designed for wealthy recreational huntsmen. Or they can be just the opposite-groups of weapons stored away on dusty shelves, considered unworthy of refurbishing or modernization and enduring from their perceived insignificance; but, usually, these "worn-out and obsolete guns were like old shoes thrown away" (Mayer: 5). The value of archaeology as a source to an unbiased view to the past has been largely overlooked by firearms historians and collectors. It is hoped that this study may reawaken an appreciation of the untapped information residing in the rows of shelves and cabinets full of artifacts which are being maintained by federal and state agencies, historical societies, and preservation groups. Use of these resources helps justify the costs of their storage and curation and thereby guarantees their survival. A result all who are interested in material culture of the past should applaud. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am grateful to the following persons who assisted me in my research and helped make this thesis possible: to James Haskett, Assistant Superintendent, Historical Interpretation and Preservation, Colonial National Historical Park for his interest and enthusiasm for the subject that enabled many beneficial things to happen; to the following museum curators who permitted me to study and photograph guns and gunlocks in their collections:

Increased crime involving air weapons has led to recent proposals for licensing such weapons in Scotland. As a consequence, the comparison of striation marks on pellets fired from air weapons is of interest. Striae comparison is considered important in matching the fired pellet with the air gun used to fire the projectile, however is currently carried subjectively. This work examines an objective means of addressing this comparison and aims to investigate the longevity of the occurrence of striation marks along a series of repetitively fired pellets. Introduction:

2004