Pirate Pistol Redux

This post is a follow up to Pirate Pistols.

I finally had time to go back and re-finish the ‘wooden’ parts of these plastic pistols. I used the technique in TribalDancer‘s steampunk pirate gun mod on Instructables.com. With this particular pistol I only re-finish the ‘wooden’ part because the ‘metal’ part already looked pretty decent.

I did this on my back porch, at night, with almost no light. It was nearly impossible to really see what I was doing and I had to go inside between layers to try to get an idea of how it was looking. Not quite up to my usual exacting standards but here is the result before and after:

Pirate Pistols

If you are looking for pirate pistols to make your pirate costume complete, you have several options.

1. Buy actual black powder pistols or accurate reproductions. The issue for me with this option (although I do have one reproduction flintlock) is cost and weight. For some this option is just too expensive and for others the reality of traipsing around the faire (or whatever your event is) with several extra pounds of steel and wood shoved into the front of your trousers just isn’t very pleasant.
2. Buy cheap crap that looks terrible. The issue here is…nevermind.
3. Buy something inexpensive that can be transformed into something that looks good.

I took the 3rd approach with this pistol:

I started with a very inexpensive plastic flintlock from a store called Savers (it’s a thrift store) at Halloween. I always hit the thrift and costume stores around Halloween looking for anything new that is inexpensive and can be used as (or converted to) a decent prop, accessory, or costume.

In the second picture I have sawed off the flared end because I prefer the straight barrel look. The third picture shows the end of the barrel with a piece of black leather hot-glued inside the end.

The next step is to re-finish it using the technique in TribalDancer‘s steampunk pirate gun mod on Instructables.com. With this particular pistol I will likely only refinish the ‘wood’ part because the ‘metal’ part already looks pretty decent.

Once that’s done it will look pretty decent, be very light-weight, and the plastic pistol itself was under $4.00.

UPDATE: See the follow up post here – Pirate Pistol Redux