55 brass mounted rifle

[ian45662]

Do you guys know if the 1855 brass mounted harpers ferry rifles had color case hardened locks? If not were they polished or were they browned?

[R. McAuley 3014V]

Back in the late 1970s, I had an opportunity to inspect an original Model 1855 Harpers Ferry Rifle that was one of the "USM" marked specimens. This was one of the rifles made by Harpers Ferry Armory as a model or pattern rifle, complete with its original "armory" finishes, much like the model rifle included in the inventory of the Harpers Ferry machinery sent to Fayetteville in 1861. Although it was the later iron-mounted pattern, the lock was color case-hardened as were the band springs, and side washers, while the butt-plate, trigger plate and guard, patch-box, together with the barrel bands and rear sight were blued. The only parts finished bright was the ramrod and sling swivels as best recalled. The barrel too was still in its original "red-bronze" finish, a special varnish containing dragon's-blood resin, which rendered the barrel a very uniform reddish, bronze color. The recipe for this varnish is 1 oz shellac, 0.1875 oz (or 1/5th oz) Dragon's blood resin, to 1 quart of alcohol. But if you are debating whether to provide a color-case hardened finish for the lock, then you may as well go the full way and provide all the "armory" finishes. No sense in going half way, especially if you want your rifle to be just like what was made at Harpers Ferry. Or you can go with the all bright, used look, like most people today are more familiar.

Historical use of dragon's blood lacquers
http://www.springerlink.com/content/8548057p12364545/

Dragon's blood resin (about $16/oz)
http://www.scents-of-earth.com/dragonsblood.html

[ian45662]

So the brass mounted rifles barrels were not browned then? And what process did they use to color case harden the parts?

[R. McAuley 3014V]

I have often wished that I had taken some pictures of that USM rifle but I believe there is another USM rifle in the Springfield Armory collection. I want to say that the rifle I examined was dated 1858 or 1859, as opposed to 1860 or 1861, which supposedly the latter two years, the iron-mounted rifles were left in the white? However, the source for that information was not conclusive. Unless someone else here knows differently, since the brass-mounted rifles preceded the iron-mounted rifles, quite likely the barrel finish would have been the same. As for the color case-hardening process, if you want to do this yourself, you'll need a furnace, a crucible large enough for the lock plate, and of course, the bone charcoal. Brownells can fit you up with all of the necessary equipment and medium, but there are numerous gunsmiths around the country who have already made this investment, and could do the work for you. A Smyrna, GA, gunsmith by the name of Henry Marshall was the gent who color case-hardened my Yeck Smith in 1983 for about $50. I had previously seen a shotgun he had done, which is why I approached him to do the Smith.

[ian45662]

I will have to have the parts sent off to do color case hardening but I just wondered what process I should tell the smith to use to get the desired color. I wonder if there is a source on the internet that would provide pictures or where I could find govt "specs" for the rifles

[Jim Leinicke 7368V]

That red-bronze laquer barrel finish was also used on '55 rifles made at Fayetteville, as my example has quite a bit of it remaining under the stock.

Jim Leinicke

[R. McAuley 3014V]

The best color is achieved through mixing bone charcoal (a pulverized charcoal made from bone and horse hooves) with wood charcoal, closely packed around the part to be hardened inside of a crucible to reduce the amount of oxygen present. The results vary with the temperature (upwards of 1450 degrees F) and length of time fired, and the type of quenching fluid (i.e. water, light oil, wet sawdust, etc.) as well as how quickly quenched. There are a lot of variables involved in heat-treating processes because if the part is hardened too hard also makes it very brittle, so the part must be tempered to make it more durable. Generally, a part is color case-hardened, first, and tempered, second.

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1026 ... DENING_KIT (http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1026/Product/COLOR_CASE_HARDENING_KIT)

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt ... CCsQ9QEwBQ (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_m3l9S6DeB9I/SadVv4UItjI/AAAAAAAAADM/ALY_Pg_GiYc/s400/Stevens%2BFavorite%2B4.JPG&imgrefurl=http://wwwdanthegunman.blogspot.com/2007/12/color-case-hardening.html&h=300&w=400&sz=29&tbnid=c-XViNhmBo55hM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcolor%2Bcase-hardening&hl=en&usg=__Amx1FnU7xIbJwRSsIRe6HGV5074=&sa=X&ei=JYYNTKLMEoH68Aabm53LBg&ved=0CCsQ9QEwBQ)

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt ... CC8Q9QEwBw (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.hobbygunsmith.com/Archives/Apr04/ColorCaseII.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.hobbygunsmith.com/Archives/Apr04/Interview.htm&h=960&w=1280&sz=151&tbnid=oz2njXHnu1_PCM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcolor%2Bcase-hardening&hl=en&usg=__lZWdf5M4VlHkOF9aJU21fL4o8v4=&sa=X&ei=JYYNTKLMEoH68Aabm53LBg&ved=0CC8Q9QEwBw)

[R. McAuley 3014V]

Here is an 1861-dated specimen of one of the last "iron-mounted" Harpers Ferry Model 1855 Rifles to be made, and has trace remanents of the original armory finishes as noted previously:

http://www.collegehillarsenal.com/shop/ ... ductid=330 (http://www.collegehillarsenal.com/shop/product.php?productid=330)

[Yancey von Yeast, 8073]

Thanks for the laquer finish recipie. I had been looking for that and wondered if that process had been lost in time. Has anyone done this? What type of shelac? Do you use denatured alcohol?

Thanks,
Yancey

[R. McAuley 3014V]

Considering that I shoot a iron-mounted Model 1855 Rifle, I may have to undertake a little experiment myself and see how that dragon's blood recipe works, especially in light of this 1861-specimen that clearly retains some of these original armory finishes. I'm thinking that perhaps with the barrel browned and the reduced glare off the barrel, maybe by next Nationals, instead of breaking 6 for 8 on the pigeon board, I can break 8 for 8! You know it's going to be a long morning when after the first volley, you're the only one who broke a pigeon on your cold shot!

[ian45662]

Just bring plenty of amo

[GSusat]

1855 rifles have often been a soft spot for me.

The brass mounted ones officially were browned barrels with color casehardened locks, while the iron ones were suposed to be finished bright. That being said some of the Iron mounted rifles I have looked had browned barrels and case hardened locks. In a discussion on another forum a sugestion was made that all the locks were hardened and then some (ones destined for Iron mounted rifles) were polished bright. I guess the question there is did the armory use one or two processes for hardening.

While the offical production count shows only 10 rifles produced in 1857 - the fiscal year did not run with the calandar year. 1857 is the earliest date I have seen on one. I too have seen the USM 1855 rifle in Washington. It is a beauty. Interestingly it had a guide grouve on the baytonet lug that did not make it into production. At the Baltimore show every now and then really nice ones turn up for sale. They are pretty to hold.

So do you get to use the figure "8" front sight with a brass mounted rifle?

George Susat

[Blair]

There are known examples of the "early" brass mounted '55 Rifles with the US "M" prefix dated 1856. How are these explained?
These have browned barrels with "color" case hardened locks.
What is amazing about these are that they match the M-1841 Rifles. Also known as Harpers Ferry Rifles.
So, where does this number of "10" Rifles produced in 1857 comes from?
I can't begain to guess.
Were these production arms produced at Harpers Ferry?
Or is this what Harpers Ferry produced as US "M", the "M" meaning model /pattern arms they produced in 1857?
And what of Springfield?... did they produce any of these "M" pattern firearms?
Where does this number "10" come from?

The weapon depicted on this site is very unique, http://www.collegehillarsenal.com/shop/ ... ductid=330 (http://www.collegehillarsenal.com/shop/product.php?productid=330)
Unique for at least two reasons.
* First is the overall finish... mostly blued with a browned (maybe) barrel. Some of the rust blued parts in and from the time can oxidize out to look brown in color. The only way anyone can know what came from the respective Armory is to look on the under side of the parts on the weapon. The part of the barrel protected by the stock channel is a great place to start!
* Second is the date on the lock.
Springfield had stopped production of the '55's in late 1860 to start tooling up for the "new model" M-1861, while Harpers Ferry continued on with the '55's, until it was captured.
It is a well known fact that both National Armories were interested in which of the National Armory finishes, Bright, Blue or Brown would serve best in both the field and in storage during the late 1850's.
The arm on the a fore mentioned site, is a perfect example of this ongoing experiment. Not but a few such arms would need to be made up to get the desired results.
Has anybody seen this type of finish variations on Springfield made M-1855's?
Blair

[John Holland]

Hi Blair,

I'm not being argumentative, but I think you are mixing "Apples & Oranges"....Springfield never made a 2 Band 1855 Model Rifle, only 3 band Rifle Muskets. The M-1855 2 band Rifles were only made at Harper's Ferry, and the requirements for finish of the two differed greatly. All 3 band Rifle Muskets produced at both Armories were completely bright. The Harper's Ferry 1855 Rifle had all together different requirements.

JDH

[GSusat]

On the production of the 1855 rifle. I was not at home and did not have access to my books and did not make the references as I should have but here they are. The "10" comes from Table 1 in the back of "Harper's Ferry and the new Technology" by Merritt Rose Smith. It is a very good book and full of interesting information. Anyway Table one gives the production figures for Harper's Ferry and for the year 1857 it lists 10 rifles produced, 1 rifle musket produced and 1 pattern rifle and 1 set of Verify instruments. The table is compliled from the Secretary of War reports.

I have a copy of the Sec of War report for 1856 and wanted to look at the dates since the fiscal year was not the calander year. It is interesting - Jefferson Davis's report at the begining is dated December 1, 1856. Col. Craig's report (no. 14 - Col. of Ordnance) is dated Novemer 11, 1856. But the reports from the armorys are headed " principal operations at the armories and arsenals during the year ending June 30, 1856." Springfield went first followed by Harper's Ferry. From this it seems the fiscal year went from July 1- June 30. So the 10 rifles produced in "1857" would be 10 between July 1 1856 and June 30 1857. So there can be more than 10 dated 1857.

Also during the July 1,1855 - June 30, 1856 period Springfield produced 3 1855 rifle musket - Model guns and 5 - 1855 rifle musket barrels (again under the heading "Model Arms" They do not producing any complete standard production 1855 rifle muskets but a significant number of parts including 12,493 barrels. Harpers Ferry on the other hand only note that they had produced machines and tools for the new rifle musket and at the rifle works they had produced tools and machines for the model rifle.

The next year is when they show producing one model rifle. And that is the only pattern rifle shown produced at Harper's ferry for the 1855 rifle. In spite of that it does seem they would have produced a pattern for the iron mounted rifle - which one of the earlier posts mentioned seeing.

The illusive information in the production records of HF is the report for the year 1861. This book's table stops with the year 1860 and lists nothing for 1861. I have seen the figure of 420 rifle produced in 1861 but am not sure where that comes from. It might be an estimate, which if the July June fiscal year is consistant seems like a low number or it may have been an estimate fo just was produced in 1861.

Finishes on the rifles seems like there is some variety with browned barrels and casehardened locks showing up on Iron mounted rifles, though I have only disassembled less than 10 of them. Still a small study group.

Anyway they have long been an interesting field of study...

George Susat

[Southron Sr.]

Last, but not least:

If you live anywhere within driving distance of Chattanooga, TN the Fuller Gun Collection is on display at the Chickamagua National Park.

Thirty odd years ago when I wanted to build my first Brass Mounted M1855, I wrote the Curator at Chickamauga and requested permission to view their M1855.

I made an appointemnt and on the day and time of my appointment, I showed up at Chickamauga, The Curator showed me into a room and provided me with a pair of white cotton gloves. Then he handed me their example of their M1855 Brass Mounted Rifle-it was in "MINT" condition.

I was allowed to photograph the rifle and take measurements-matter of fact, all the NPS people I dealt with were wonderful and helpful as they could be.