Fabian23

Took it to the 50m range today using what components I had at hand. .450" lead round ball Doubled up .34mm patches, the outer one greased. Guestimated load of 50gr Swiss 2 BP (FFFg) Once I figured out the average point of aim it was reasonably easy to hold the black. Certainly accurate enough to pick a specific target out of a crowd. Once the match is burning well the lock is very fast and reliable. Recoil is a short tug on the cheek, not painful at all. Next I shall seek out slightly larger musket balls so that I can just use one patch. The powder load seems about right for 50m and may switch to a coarser grain.

Folks, the project is 99.9% complete. I applied a few layers of cold blue to the barrel which has turned a very pleasing dark bluish grey, like a faded blue which fits the overall patina of the piece very well. During the process I discovered that there is a silver(?) bead on the rear of the front sight, which is a nice touch. The barrel is pinned with whittled down bamboo BBQ skewers. The lock is now also tuned to catch the cock safely and it snaps down gently but swiftly upon release. All I need to still do is source a new rod since the original snapped at some point and is missing about 3”. I may take a few shots with it eventually.

Cleaning and honing the barrel was been slow going so I decided to dare to attempt pulling the breech plug. With the barrel firmly clamped I gently heated the breech area with a blowtorch and pretty quickly some stinky black ooze started bubbling up around the edges of the plug. No idea what it was but it smelled like burning tyres and it didn’t catch fire in the flame of the torch, it just dried up. Using an adjustable spanner on the square while keeping the heat on the barrel I was quite quickly able to tease the plug out. It’s in remarkably good condition. The face is a bit pitted but that is easily cleaned up.

I described a few posts above how I made the pin 😉

A quick update, next on the list was the 4 barrel lugs of which only one actually aligned properly with the stock holes, another factor which made me think it is a composite gun. The aligned one I left alone (1st pic). One of the others was partially detached so I could see that they were soldered into slots cut into the barrel. I therefore used the same method for the three new lugs in their proper positions. Now I need to finish honing out the bore and prep it for a reblue.

OK, thanks for the clear answer. My search continues. So far I have only seen anecdotal evidence on various muzzleloading forums saying it is possible but sadly I need more tangible proof. I suspect that most woods have been at least tried, even if later disguarded as unsuitable or superceded by better ones.

I have a question on a professional level unrelated to my Teppo. I work in patents and I am trying to prove that various woods have been used in the making of stocks for firearms. There is one which has eluded me for now and that is Mulberry and I know it was/is popular in Japan for cabinet making. Was it by any chance also used for making matchlock stocks? If so I would be very grateful for a documented and dated source (prior to 2024) confirming it.

Well I have to make it good enough that I can sell it as 100% original for a billion dollars when I retire

Stock cap finished and tacked in like the original. The fit is 99% there but I don’t think I can improve on it without a few decades of apprenticeship. Much harder than I thought it would be.

After much contemplation and trial and error I have finished off the axis pin. I first tried the rolling method using a piece of sheet brass taken off a brass 12g shotgun shell rolled around a 3mm drill bit, which worked but the brass was too thin, about 0.2mm. Instead I rummaged around my bits boxes and found a 4mm brass tube with 0,5mm wall thickness - perfect! I cut a 3cm section, slit it down one side, annealed with a short blast of the blowtorch it to make it pliable and then gently hammered it on the 3mm drill bit to make the sides of the slit meet. The diameter was still slightly too big for the hole in the pan so I used the hole itself as a die to size the brass tube down to the right diameter by tapping it through. On the lathe I cut down a piece of bar stock to form the axis pin head, inserted the brass tube and soldered it in. All that remained was shaping the head with hand files and fine grit paper, drilling the cross hole for the wire and trimming the pin to length. 😊 Ammonia patination next and then it’s making a new stock cap 💪

This is truly a wonderful forum thank you 🙏

If anyone can clarify the construction of the axis pin I would be very grateful

One more reason to have little paper cocktail umbrellas at home

Interesting, I’ve been looking for clues online as to its composition. I had assumed it was a solid hollow pin with a head. I have seen some also with a cross hole just under the lower surface of the pan. I’m not too fussy about originality but if it’s easy to make it the original way then why not.

Thanks! I have proceeded in very small steps every day, planning ahead what cuts to make and how, to ensure I don’t mess up. One turn of the handle the wrong way on the mill and it’s back to zero. Drilling the pin hole required making a simple sacrificial jig which then served as a guide for drilling the real piece. Now it is indeed just a case of finishing a bit of shaping by hand, smoothing the edges and patinating. The axis pin will be a quick lathe job.

Almost there

Update 2: Most critical phase, drilling the axis pin hole, is done. If I had messed it up I would have had to start all over again. Now it’s lots of shaping and filing.

The amount of tweeking needed to finish the lock off properly and the difference in mon on the lock and stock made me question the homogeneity of the piece. Glad to find out here that it appears authentic 😊

Work in progress. Last time I did this I did it all by hand. A mill makes it much easier.

I have not attempted to remove the breech screw. The end surface viewed with an endoscopic camera looks fine so I will not attempt to remove it. Another piece I need to remake is the little curved butt cap insert. The original was split at the bend. Lots of filing work ahead. Re-repatination: My question was what colour should the barrel be? Black, blue, brown?

Thank you very much for the information! The seventh on the list does indeed look like the likely candidate. I'll post pictures of the stock once I've finished with it. The barrel was this shiny grey when I got it. I used a marker pen to bring out the text for the photo. Should the barrel be blued or browned? For the bore size it is quite odd since it also appears to flare out internally towards the muzzle, with the main bore being just over 12mm and tapering out over the last 7cm to about 13mm at the muzzle. Depending on the windage a 2 monmé ball could be correct if it roughly equals 11mm. I'm using engine cylinder flex hones to clean it up btw. A long slow process but it seems to be working. I wouldn't expect muzzle wear from wooden ramrods so I was wondering if the bore taper was perhaps intentional to aid loading? More questions: Are there historical records of typical powder loads? I have not been able to determine whether balls were loaded tightly patched in the bore, sandwiched between wads like a shotgun or as loose rolling ball.

Hello all the way from snowy Switzerland! I joined this forum since most of my internet queries on Japanese muskets led me here almost to the antipode. Many firearms wash up here from all over the world and I came across this teppo for very very little a bit before christmas. I had one many moons ago which I was forced to sell so I was keen to get a replacement. I bought it with the intention of restoring it where necessary so be able to take at least a few shots with it so purists be warned To my inexpert eye it appears to be a plain military musket, possibly even a composite piece for display. The barrel is 101cm long with a gently flaring muzzle and from what I can gather from a first translation over on gunboards, the markings indicate a double wrap barrel made by Goshu Kunitomo Kyubei Yasumine. The bore size is approximately 12-13mm and internally lightly pitted but not irreparably so. As seems to be quite common, the pan cover is missing so that is on the to do list. I had to make one of my previous one too so it isn't my first rodeo. The top of the barrel has a five petaled flower kamon which I have not been able to identify although the closest I could find was "Oda" and the underside of the stock has what appears to be a lead or pewter "Ii" kamon. The lock is plain with no markings. When I received it the sear axis pin was missing and the sear had been punched, but not drilled for the pin, nor had the tail of the sear been adjusted correctly to allow sufficient retraction of the sear nose upon pulling the trigger. An axis pin has been made and the sear tail was been correctly bent to funtion properly with the trigger. The serpentine axis pin was also far too lose, causing the serpentine to slip the sear nose if the musket was knocked so I made a new one of those too. The serpentine no longer wobbles and the lockwork now operates smoothly and safely. Oddly the lockplate was also slightly too large, as in a fraction of a millimetre. This could be due to wood shrinkage or the lock is not original to the musket, either way, some careful light sanding was all that was necessary to make the lockplate fit snug in the stock. The stock has what lookes like a period repair on the left side of the barrel channel with a 20cm long insert of matching wood bonded in place. Aside from that it is in good condition. A small section just ahead of the pan had a few woodworm holes but these have been treated and filled and the odd non-structurally significant cracks stabilized and filled. The original ramrod is present but unfortunately it was snapped off flush with the end of the barrel channel. Luckily it came out easily pushing it out with a pin in the expansion slot. The discrepency between the crest on the barrel and the crest on the stock and the not-quite-fitting unfinished lock make me think that this is perhaps a composite display piece, which makes my restoration (perhaps) a little less blasphemous. Any observations as to its possible origins and approximate date would be appreciated. When I get around to firing it I'll have plenty more questions because I'd love to try out some "Hayago" quickloaders. p.s I am aware that it appears to be the convention for people to refer to the components of Japanese arms using strickly Japanese terminology, why is this? When I write in English about the lock counterplate on one of my french muskets I don't call it a contreplatine or nor do I refer to the Stecherabzug when writing about the set trigger on one of my German guns. I find it baffling, anyway apologies for not doing so, I have enough languages in my head already