BELGIUM is not a dirty word...

...except in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.


By all accounts, this old percussion pistol is from Belgium, although I can't find a mark one on it. It's similar in style to a lot of pistols of the period (c. 1840's). Like another piece I recently posted, it was probably for sea service based on the (swiveling) iron ring on the buttcap. It's .75 caliber, so it packed a real punch.

I invite you to compare it to a very similar, but slightly earlier piece here.

Here's an old relic...

Much like this old blogger, this piece has seen better days. It's most likely an Allen & Thurber center hammer pistol in .30 caliber, although any factory markings have long since rusted off. It's probably the little brother of "Double Trouble", and appears in my 7th edition Flayderman directly above the double barreled variant. Like it's brother, it was made in limited quantities in various barrel lengths (a few thousand).

The reason it's so decrepit is simple - this is a dug relic. The reason the wood's intact is that is was dug up in a barn in Maryland. This kept the piece dry enough to preserve the wood grips AND the functionality of the mainspring, but small pieces (e.g. sear, trigger guard, trigger return spring, etc.) and fine details (barrel stampings) have been lost.

By the way, here's a safety tip. Old muzzleloading firearms, even dug relics, have the potential to be dangerous. An old charge and ball may remain in the barrel and be viable hundreds of years on. If you ever find, buy, or inherit an old muzzleloader, do the following before doing anything else:

First, with the muzzle pointed away from you or anything/one you value, use a wooden stick or dowel at least as long as the barrel and that fits loosely into the barrel to probe the barrel's depth.

Second, note how deep the penetration is my marking the stick at the muzzle.

Third, remove the stick and lay it alongside the barrel (it's still pointed away, right?) so that the mark you made lines up with the muzzle. If the end of the stick that you inserted reaches beyond the touch hole, you are probably safe from remnant charge. If, on the other hand, your stick cannot reach beyond the touchhole, STOP! Something's in the barrel. You're best and safest bet is to take the piece to a competent gunsmith, treating the thing the whole while as if it was loaded, cocked, and primed. Accidents of this sort are rare, but they have happened.

Double Trouble...

What's this, you ask? Why it's none other than an Allen & Thurber double barreled, single trigger pistol, made in the 1850's. According to Flayderman, only an estimated 500 - 1000 were made...
...at the Ethan Allen factory in my favorite little city, Worcester, MA.

This one is marked "Allen & Thurber Worcester" on the top between the barrels. It's a percussion weapon, meaning that it was made with technologies post-flintlock but pre-cartridge (if you don't know what that means, use Wikipedia or go read something geared more toward your intellect). Even though it's double barreled, it would have been loaded with balls (like a pistol) rather than shot (like a shotgun).

The caliber is .36, and the rifled barrels are 6" long. The hammers can fire one at a time, or together, depending upon the order in which they are cocked. The so-called bag handle is surprisingly comfortable to hold, and the "ergonomics" of this piece seem well-designed. Modern manufacturers of small pistols would do well to take another look at some of these old sidearms.

This would have been a nice, concealable handgun for use as a primary self-defense weapon, or as a last-ditch back-up.


By the way, I friggin' love Worcester, MA. I know this is probably anathema to those who actually live there, but Worcester has seen me through some of my best and worst of times. Someday, I'll regale you about the time I drunkenly improvised some "free jazz" on a borrowed guitar at "open mic" night at the now-defunct Zara jazz club. But not tonight...