Post by Robert Braun on Nov 8, 2005 11:06:22 GMT -5
Simply stated, the "pick and brush" (sometimes known as "whisk and pick") was a wire and a small brush, usually of horsehair, suspeended from a length of chain or leather strip. The wire or pick cleared the touch hole fo the rifle or musket of gunpowder fouling; the brush swept the reside from the touchhole and pan.
Deemed by many vendors as an "essential" item for "black powder shooters" there is relic provenance for a wide variety of pick and brush sets from 1812-1840.
For common militia use, a homemade variety is probably best: a simple wire pick and homemade brush sespende by two leather thong from the shooting bag or the button hole. The sets shown in numerous catalogs that use brass chain are very nice, but also less represented. The pick and brush from on eof these sets can be pirated to make a nice pick and brush assembly that is closer to those seen in surviving relics.
For those looking to use Army pick and brush sets along with "issued" cartridge boxes and U. S. Army muskets, the choices are more limited. Such sets were manufactured using a "bar" style of chain, of brass wire (for Artillery) or semi-metal (for Infantry) after the War of 1812. Similar styles were noted from archaeological excavaction at the depot at Sackett's Harbor, circa War of 1812.
There's just one problem. Practically noone offers the correctly made bar-chain style pick and brush accouterment!
Reason: The sets or pieces thereof seen in the literature and in the archaeology show the wire bars bound (literally wrapped around) with wire of a smaller guage-- presumably to give the link additional strength against bending. Only ONE such product has replicated this feature!
It would be wise for authentically minded militia protrayers to secure pick and brush appendages that more closely macth the originals!
Bob Braun
Deemed by many vendors as an "essential" item for "black powder shooters" there is relic provenance for a wide variety of pick and brush sets from 1812-1840.
For common militia use, a homemade variety is probably best: a simple wire pick and homemade brush sespende by two leather thong from the shooting bag or the button hole. The sets shown in numerous catalogs that use brass chain are very nice, but also less represented. The pick and brush from on eof these sets can be pirated to make a nice pick and brush assembly that is closer to those seen in surviving relics.
For those looking to use Army pick and brush sets along with "issued" cartridge boxes and U. S. Army muskets, the choices are more limited. Such sets were manufactured using a "bar" style of chain, of brass wire (for Artillery) or semi-metal (for Infantry) after the War of 1812. Similar styles were noted from archaeological excavaction at the depot at Sackett's Harbor, circa War of 1812.
There's just one problem. Practically noone offers the correctly made bar-chain style pick and brush accouterment!
Reason: The sets or pieces thereof seen in the literature and in the archaeology show the wire bars bound (literally wrapped around) with wire of a smaller guage-- presumably to give the link additional strength against bending. Only ONE such product has replicated this feature!
It would be wise for authentically minded militia protrayers to secure pick and brush appendages that more closely macth the originals!
Bob Braun