I bet the oldest item in the images is the wooden stand ...
Just look at the crispness of the drilled touch hole - a 15th c. barrel smith would just have punched the hole through the red hot barrel ...
Of course, that would have left a notable mold around the hole which, at the same time, would have held enough priming powder for the igniting iron to set off the load!
All this is so blatantly obvious that it seems just unbelievable.
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Last edited by Matchlock; 11th October 2014 at 04:24 PM.
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