Matchlock parts

[Peter Bleed]

               Recent posts about tanegashima move me to ask – once again – about Japanese matchlock “parts.” A while back I asked for help in trying to find a couple of lock replacement parts. That inquiry got me in contact with few people, but no parts. I am sure that there is a market for antique gun parts in Japan, if only because I saw old guns that were/had been repaired. I also recall having seen incomplete matchlocks being bought by Japanese dealers, “in the old days.” I take that to mean that repairs could and can be handled in the land of the Rising Yen. None the less, what I heard was that matchlock parts are not to be had in Japan.

               Dixie Gun works USED to sell replacement parts for their matchlocks, and they still sell a couple of pins and springs, but they are sold out of Hibasami and other external bits. I take that to mean that somebody has been buying those things and doing work with them.

There may be a market out there since there seems to be some demand.

Peter

[Bugyotsuji]

The way things are in Japan, such bits are of little interest to most, and passed along in a sort of bucket-brigade they probably all end up in the hands of one or two folk who work on them. 
 

Recently I found some photos of parts which I once had and gave away. See below. Someone also offered me three stocks with partial lock mechanisms, but I gave those to a local artisan too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Peter Bleed]

Thanx, Piers. In a couple of weeks I will be co-teaching at National Park Service class on the archaeology of guns. In that context, I have once again been thinking about how guns fail and how they are treated. Failures are, and always were,  very common so I am sure that Japan HAD lots of little bunches of odd tanegashima parts. And, of course, you are right, those bunches have always tended to go toward guys who knew/know how to use them. When I was going to Japan, I foolishly spent too much of my time hanging with academics. I wish I had found the gun guys.

Now I am interested in preserving - and enjoying - guns that need attention.

Peter

 

 

[Justin Grant]

I have purchased bags of parts over the years. E-Bay used to have one or two people that would sell these bags of mixed parts, sometimes barrels and stocks. Don't see it much anymore. But I also collect and restore old Winchester Levers (1873 and 1876 Models) and it used to be that parts were prolific, and now, only modern reproduction that don't always fit.

 

I think some cat is bagging it all and will hold us as financial hostages when timing is right and we need parts.