Heres my dad's latest. There are lots of records for painted trade guns in the Southern colonies in the 18t century. Red and blue are the most common colors. It's definitely a unique look. Colonial Williamsburg has a lot of information on them, as well as contemporary builder Clay Smith. I did the floral work for him, he has a hard time drawing stick people. He should have it all buttoned up in a couple weeks.

Nice Work

but .. yeah- No on the paint

Can't misplace that baby in the woods lol

I am sort of interested in the paint

18th and early 19th century paint was mostly linseed oil , pigment and turpentine as a drying agent.

what did you use for paint?

I have some friends that did some very nice die jobs on their maple 10/22 stocks , Rit die form the grocery to stain the blond maple stocks red and blue they then sealed it with a clear poly but linseed oil could have also worked

Milk paint would have been common then also, and possibly what was used. An old issue of the CW magazine had an article on the blue guns, but I can't find it at the moment. Dad used a modern paint, not sure what brand. The only blue gun that I know of is in the CW collection. The blue is only left underneath the inked/painted vine pattern, and was not known until some fancy imagery was used to try to highlight the vine work. They discovered the blue paint under the ink.

I'll add that linseed oil was not documented real well at all as a gun finish. Shellac and varnish were very common. These trade guns were made as fast and cheap as possible.

A nice gun but if it was mine, I would get the scraper, steel wool and tung oil out

Its just plain boring maple under that fancy paint job.

Dude I would take pine as an alternative to that ...... One thing, no one will steal it.

Not saying that I don't appreciate the work and all that but for me personally, If I bought it, I would start scraping and sanding on the way home

I get it, it's definitely not for everyone, or many for that matter. They are pretty popular among the reenacting crowd, especially native reenactors.

Its a love/hate for sure.

What did the old guys make shellac and varnish with?

I like it!

Fess up, you fell into the port potty again

When you say southern colonies, is that just the English ones or does it include Spanish and French Florida and Louisiana?

I've always been curious what arms might have been seen and in use in the area the would become the Mississippi territory considering my people arrived there not long after Fort Fort Tombecbe were abandoned..I imagine you could see French Tulle de Chase and Spanish miquilets as well as British arms.

English trade in their southern colonies. Virginia and the Carolinas. Maybe some into Georgia. Some may very well have made it further west than that. I haven't done much research into those areas, but I'd suspect a fair number of fusils for sure.

Great artwork. But what a waste. No such thing as BORING maple with todays stains. Golden oak stain or special walnut and then you did your work in black . Whoa nelly !!!! But certainly some talent you guys have....

Certainly not a waste when you are going for a historical reproduction. Just because things look funny or weird to us now, if that's the way they were, that's how we'll make them. Plus, its a great conversation starter at public demos.

That should've been Fort Toulouse and Tombecbe. Folks forget the French in the southeast thinking just Louisiana.

Fort Toulouse was at the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers forming the Alabama river near present day Wetumpka north of Montgomery. And Tombecbe was up the Tombigbee almost to the present Mississippi line well north present day Aliceville and Demopolis.

And those Forts swapped hands multiple times. First to the British following the Seven Years/French Indian War then to the Spanish following their assistance in our War of Independence and ultimately US control in 1802.

I think that would've been an interesting time to have lived.

That's four changes of ownership in just 40 years.

I think my daughter needs that, is it .62?