General Musket Care

It's been too long since I have posted, so I thought I would drop a quick note on keeping the musket looking good. Back in the day, the wood of the musket was finished using some oil--like whale's oil. Since you can't really find whale's oil too easily these days, Dixie Gun Works has a synthetic whale oil available. I purchased that a few days ago and have spent the last few days applying it to the stock of my musket. It leaves a really nice sheen to the wood without any stickiness. The only downside is that the oil smells like rotten fish. Hopefully with reuglar coats of oil, my musket stock will stay brand new.

Taking care of the stock is easy compared to keeping the barrel bright and shiny. The steel barrel is not stainless so it pretty much rusts if you look at it. To keep it looking good, I apply some Simichrome (a great German-made metal polish) with some fine steel wool. After polishing the steel, oil (not whale oil) is applied. This adds a protective coating to the metal so it won't rust as easily.

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