Who made this musket?

[rick35ovi]

I won this on an internet auction sight, it is a reproduction 1844 Harpers Ferry marked musket with blued band springs, blued screws, and blued trigger. I haven't recieved the musket yet so i can't be sure of the maker yet. My question is why the blueing on certain parts?

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: Who made this musket?

That is an Armi-Sport '42. The work has some of the hallmarks of John Zimmerman. The bluing of small parts is one of the features that he does. You'd have to ask him about the particulars on that.

I've seen original muskets with blued rear sites. But, I've never seen an original with a blued trigger, bandsprings, or screws... and I've seen some super-minty muskets! I have, however, seen a contract US M1861 lock that has never been installed on a musket and had not yet had the color case hardening polished off of the exterior lock face! Pretty cool!

[rogue]

Re: Who made this musket?

1844 Harpers Ferry lock is also the mark of Loyalist Arms of Canada and Indja. Mr. Zimmerman does blue some of his metal, but he also darkens the stock somewhat, and his metal stamping is somewhat smaller than most and often looks like the letters were stamped individually. His work is excellent, and if the weapon is his make you did very well indeed. . I hope the price was good for your sake if not a Zimmerman.
Steve Sullivan

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: Who made this musket?

Steve,
I had a look at the Loyalist Arms website, and the musket shown above is pretty clearly not one of their products. I am confident that it is an Armi Sport.

[rogue]

Re: Who made this musket?

One can but hope!
Steve Sullivan

[rick35ovi]

Re: Who made this musket?

I will have less than $300 in it by the time it gets here, I checked loyalist website also and it doesn't look the same, but alas one won't know until it gets here. i will let you all know!

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Who made this musket?

Hallo!

I cannot quite tell from the small size of the pictures, but yes, it appears to be an Armi Sport M1842 and not an Indian M1842.
If for no other reason, the appearance of the parts, and the Italian hardwood stock versus the Indian's "teak."

And yes, one of the "signature" features og John Zimmerman's work is the restruck dates done by individually stamped number stamps with depth, alignment, and spacing problems.
Herr Zimmerman also has a penchant for blueing parts, including at times the ramrods.

NUG, at the Armories or Contractors, parts that were heat treated were "black" such as screws. Parts that were case hardened were mottled (by not the mottled look produced by the bone charcoal method of color case hardening or its modern ersatz cyanide gas treatment used by the Italians.). Springs were polished, but the process of hardneing and annealing/tempering left them 'blue."
These were also polished bright at the armory. The exception being the rear sight base, leaves, and screws on some that were left "black" and not always polished bright. The other excpetion was the M1863/M1864 Springfield that retained its colored hammer and lockplate.

I have examined a few mint and minty unissued/unused M1855 and M1861 Springfield/Harpers Ferry made rifles and rifle-muskets that had blued band springs that appear as original to the piece that I cannot explain though.

And last but not least. Without hijacking the thread, and urging lads to use the SEARCH function for previous discussions, Herr Zimmerman is capable of and does excellent work. He also has done, and does, some questionable work.

Others' mileage will vary...

Curt

[rick35ovi]

Re: Who made this musket?

Here is one more pic i found.

[kaelin]

Re: Who made this musket?

Rick,
What internet auction site did you win this off of. I am looking for a 42' or a 1816. For that price, its a good start.

[rick35ovi]

Re: Who made this musket?

These don't come up very often but if you sign for auction alerts from this site, www.gregmartinauctions.com, they will alert you when they have upcoming auctions. Another good place to look is a site called www.proxibid.com, they have many different types of auctions to choose from, everything from real estate to junk but every now and then you will run across a decent gun auction.