Shiny Barrel

[Manassas 1861]

How did Civil War soldiers keep they're barrel and lock shiny and rust free? I have a real problem with this.

 

[johan_steele]

Brick dust and oil.

 

[captaindrew]

Rotten Stone

 

[captaindrew]

While not period correct I always have a small piece of scotch pad and a Balisol wipe tucked behind my cleaning patches in the tool pouch of my cartridge box. They help a lot with the fight against rust.

 

[Dan Kohli]

Doesn't Civil War Digital Digest have a video on this subject?

 

[Dan Kohli]

I found it.

 

[captaindrew]

Doesn't Civil War Digital Digest have a video on this subject?

They did an episode on field cleaning, here it is, oh just saw your post. I hadn't seen that one, I'll have to watch

 

[captaindrew]

I found it.

You can use some ash from the campfire and apply the same way, actually makes a decent polish.

 

[Dan Kohli]

You can use some ash from the campfire and apply the same way, actually makes a decent polish.

I've used ash to shine most of the brass items that I have for reenacting.

 

[captaindrew]

I've used ash to shine most of the brass items that I have for reenacting.

I use it around the house some in the winter when I have the wood stove cranking every day. Does a great job of cleaning the soot off the glass in the door of the wood stove.

 

[James Brenner]

If using brick dust, try to get it from sand cast bricks, not modern bricks which are very hard and, unless finely pulverized, will scratch the metal. Many of the RevWar reenactors use brick dust and I'm sure some of the sutlers catering to them can provide it.

 

[Dan Kohli]

I use it around the house some in the winter when I have the wood stove cranking every day. Does a great job of cleaning the soot off the glass in the door of the wood stove.

That's neat. I'll have to try that next time I have to clean the fireplace.

 

[Dan Kohli]

On another note, vinegar can get rid of a light to mild tarnish. One has to rinse and dry off the items though.

 

[OhioBlue16]

While in the field you can use the fat from your pork ration and rub it on your barrel to protect it from rusting.

 

[johan_steele]

While in the field you can use the fat from your pork ration and rub it on your barrel to protect it from rusting.

With the amount of salt in that… carry some oil in a period bottle.

 

[Rhea Cole]

Here is a link to a good primer on historic firearms cleaning techniques.

Link:

Cleaning Firearms: A Historical Perspective

In our discussion about carrying conditions a little while ago, it was mentioned that condition 4 is generally used by people who plan to s...

firearmshistory.blogspot.com

Sidebar: I was deeply impressed with my first view of a cohort of French Roman Legion living historians drilling. The sunlight blazing off of their plate armor made our Civil War living historians look like a gathering of homeless people. How did the Romans keep all that plate bright & shiny?

Link:

"Their arms bright and in good order": care and wealth of weaponry in the Roman army - Res Bellica

During the course of History, displaying wealth and a good appearance has always been a mean to materially show status and power. This behaviour is also widespread in the military world, particularly in the Ancient world, and even more particularly in the Roman army. If modern days armies often...

www.res-bellica.com

 

[Rhea Cole]

Johan Steele, what did you think of the 19th Century cleaning methods? I suppose processing a sperm whale to try it out would be going a bit far…

 

[7thWisconsin]

Here is a link to a good primer on historic firearms cleaning techniques.

Link:

Cleaning Firearms: A Historical Perspective

In our discussion about carrying conditions a little while ago, it was mentioned that condition 4 is generally used by people who plan to s...

firearmshistory.blogspot.com

Sidebar: I was deeply impressed with my first view of a cohort of French Roman Legion living historians drilling. The sunlight blazing off of their plate armor made our Civil War living historians look like a gathering of homeless people. How did the Romans keep all that plate bright & shiny?

Link:

"Their arms bright and in good order": care and wealth of weaponry in the Roman army - Res Bellica

During the course of History, displaying wealth and a good appearance has always been a mean to materially show status and power. This behaviour is also widespread in the military world, particularly in the Ancient world, and even more particularly in the Roman army. If modern days armies often...

www.res-bellica.com

One of the reasons you almost always see dull armor in movies involving Romans is that if costuming used bright armor, you would be able to see the reflection of cameras and crew in the armor. The amount of post-production clean-up would be prohibitive.

 

[Joe Whitworth]

One of the reasons you almost always see dull armor in movies involving Romans is that if costuming used bright armor, you would be able to see the reflection of cameras and crew in the armor. The amount of post-production clean-up would be prohibitive.

Same with chrome trim and windshields in cars. Light reflecting off all the bright work and glass would ruin too many shots.

 

[Patrick H]

You can use some ash from the campfire and apply the same way, actually makes a decent polish.

I was going to suggest ash. Tobacco ash is usually very fine grit, but time consuming to collect. Campfire ash might have harsher grit, but would sure do the job and be in ample supply.