Author Topic: My new Toys (Read 2657 times)

Soot Sucker · « **on:** December 25, 2004, 12:50:10 PM »

Happy Holidays everyone!

I got my 2 new CHRISTmas presents. The first one is a bronze Eprouvette mortar. made by Beaufort Naval Armorers. It has a golf ball sized bore. It's a great looking hand-finished piece. Not a single imperfection that I can see, no small "pitting" which is common on bronze pieces. The owner of BNA (Jim) really does some fine quality work. Also, one heck of a nice guy to talk to.

(click on photos for larger size pic)

My second new toy is a bronze British Grenade Mortar made by Cannons LTD. It weighs 16 pounds and feels like a nice solid piece. The finish looks pretty good but the bore is a bit "rough"... about half way down the bore there is some very shallow pitting and just isn't as smooth as the rest of the bore. Also, on the exterior it appears they perhaps over polished or buffed some small areas of the surface. Lastly, The bore was advertised as having a 2 1/2" bore but it came with a aprox. 2 3/16" bore. Overall its a nice solid piece. I wasn't looking for a show piece anyway...all my "toys" are shot often. and for the money I recommend it.

Got to admit...Bronze sure is purty :grin:

Whatcha think of them?

Regards to all,
Dave

Double D · « **Reply #1 on:** December 25, 2004, 01:26:36 PM »

Flat black rustoleum will help kill the shine... :-D

Evil Dog · « **Reply #2 on:** December 25, 2004, 03:03:18 PM »

Use the "High Temp" version of rustoleum..... will last longer :agree:

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #3 on:** December 25, 2004, 03:44:55 PM »

And then there's the bake-on flat black gun finish.

But seriously, nice shine. Good color.

I had my first beer-can caliber mortar bright chrome plated.

Soot Sucker · « **Reply #4 on:** December 25, 2004, 05:12:39 PM »

Thanks guys for your painting suggestions :wink: They sure are bright, I could not use a flash when taking these photos or all I got was camera flash and no detail.

Any ideas on what kind of bed or sled I should use for the grenade mortar? any plans?

Thanks

Lee1966 · « **Reply #5 on:** December 25, 2004, 06:10:30 PM »

I like them both. Your one lucky guy Soot Sucker.

Mortar me want nice shinney one like yours. :grin:

mtnman37879 · « **Reply #6 on:** December 26, 2004, 04:32:29 AM »

Ignore the paint remarks, they are just jealous (as am I). Those beauties will ring like a bell when fired. Good shootin'

Blaster · « **Reply #7 on:** December 26, 2004, 05:44:42 AM »

Really nice looking mortars. Almost too darn purdy to shoot. I guess I'd be taking more time keeping em shined up than shooting em. Used to do that with motorcycles when I had them. Wife always said that I spent much more time cleaning/polishing and looking at them than I ever did ride them. Now when firing my cannon, with the brass musket cap striker in lieu of a fuze, I sure get a lot of discoloration on the brass striker base and I'm wondering if the blackpowder residue will also stain those nice looking brass mortars?? I merely use Simichrome (a good metal polish) on the stains and it does clean them up real easy.
Soot Sucker, you can be quite proud of those two shooters! Blaster (Bob in CO) :-)

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #8 on:** December 26, 2004, 07:07:54 AM »

Quote from: mtnman37879

Ignore the paint remarks, they are just jealous (as am I). Those beauties will ring like a bell when fired. Good shootin'

My first beer-can caliber mortar (3/8" thick walls, coehorn powder chamber, HRS) rings when fired.

All the other mortars, 1" thick walls, calibers of golf-ball, beer-can, 24oz soda-pop bottle and 4" PVC pipe do not ring. It may just be that the others have a support touching the barrel at about the mid point.

When anvils were cast, the test for the integrity of the casting was to fill the bottom cavity (or the hardy hole) with powder and placing it on a solid base (like another anvil) to launch the anvil in the air; hence, the phrase "ringing the anvil" referring to the event.

Evil Dog · « **Reply #9 on:** December 26, 2004, 12:29:57 PM »

Hey Tim.... did you know that a full pound of Fg will launch a 100 pound anvil about 150 feet straight up? Amazing what truely bored people will do at a rendezvous.

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #10 on:** December 26, 2004, 02:22:35 PM »

Quote from: Evil Dog

Hey Tim.... did you know that a full pound of Fg will launch a 100 pound anvil about 150 feet straight up? Amazing what truely bored people will do at a rendezvous.

Sounds like cabin feaver.

We've shot the mortar in the dead of winter (Iowa) on the frozen river. Since the banks were 15' high it was about the only place to get out of the wind. AND usually we'd fire either cross wind or with the wind, but once (ONCE) into the wind. With elevation of 45 degrees the can went up smoothly until the wind caught it. It landed behind us.

Blaster · « **Reply #11 on:** December 27, 2004, 03:07:01 AM »

CW, sounds like a super heavy duty hard hat area when the mortar projectiles land BEHIND you! :wink:

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #12 on:** December 27, 2004, 03:23:16 AM »

Yes. We were just standing there to one side. It was 0* or colder, just 3 or 4 of us out in the middle of a frozen river in the middle of no where. The can went straight and insted of arching down it arched up (still up there at 75 to 100' and lazily drifted back 50 or 100 feet behind us. Cool to watch, slow moving projo.

It would not have been cool if we couldn't have seen it at every stage, or if there had more than the 3 or 4 of us ANY WHERE in the area.

That was in college. As you may have heard me say before, I knew for YEARS that I'd never llive to be 21 years old. 'Ya gotta be tough if you're stupid" comes to mind as well.

Double D · « **Reply #13 on:** December 27, 2004, 02:08:03 PM »

Jealous, I'm not jealous of anybody that has that much brass to polish. I graduated from the U.S. Marine Corps Brass polishers school called MCRD in 1966. I was officially terminated from all brass polishing duties August 1972 and have the honorable discharge to prove it! I am allergic to Brasso! Break out in a rash just thinking about it. I start hearing voices sounding distinctly like R. Lee Ermy's. Gives me the chills just looking at thinking about it. errr, where's that black spray paint.

Is pretty though.

For what it's worth, as far as I can ascertain bronze guns were not polished, they were darkened.

Soot Sucker I have copies of plans for a 1770 British cohern mortar base. Check your PM

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #14 on:** December 27, 2004, 02:51:02 PM »

Quote from: Double D

.... For what it's worth, as far as I can ascertain bronze guns were not polished, they were darkened. ....

I know of two bronze cannons that were ALWAYS polished. Mounted right outside Battalion HQ's of the Field Artillary OCS Battalion. Even had that duty once or twice.

Double D · « **Reply #15 on:** December 27, 2004, 05:28:25 PM »

CW,

I know of a brass grounding rod for an electrical panel box in a quonset hut at MCRD that was shined daily...

Soot Sucker · « **Reply #16 on:** December 27, 2004, 07:24:01 PM »

Thanks everyone. I don't mind a little "patina" I'm not going to go crazy polishing it. :eek:

Double D ... Thanks for the plans. However I am unable to find your PM in my inbox? Am I looking in the wrong place?

Regards,
Dave

Double D · « **Reply #17 on:** December 28, 2004, 02:21:22 AM »

Well... I thought Ii sent you a PM...weren't you thinking that you got it...Man this being over 50 has it's moments...

It's sent now, sorry.