Canon?

[davinci]

Found this today! It's heavy. Looks like a mini canon of some sort? Anyone help identify and what age and value would be?

 

[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

Interesting, shaped "like a canon", has a touch hole, but no trunions ?

 

[Hunterhound]

Did it come with a mini pirate ship? Just kidding. Where did you find it? Looks to be in great shape if it was a ground find.

 

[NHBandit]

Interesting, shaped "like a canon", has a touch hole, but no trunions ?

This is what I noticed as well. Doing a Google images search while spelling cannon correctly I found none that don't have trunnions for them to pivot. Maybe some kids high school machine shop class project ? Hard to make one with trunnions on a lathe. In any case it's a cool find. Please understand too that I'm not trying to be the spelling police. It just makes identifying things way more difficult if you spell it wrong when doing a Google search. I typed in antique brass cannon and got a ton of hits but didn't find any like yours. It really looks like something someone turned on a lathe.

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

nice find
ZDD

 

[Mackaydon]

'Touch hole' seems to be located too far forward.
No markings anywhere?
It may be the barrel of an antique brass report cannon.
Don........

 

[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

'Touch hole' seems to be located too far forward.
No markings anywhere?
It may be the barrel of an antique brass report cannon.
Don........

"'Touch hole' seems to be located too far forward."

+1

@ NHBandit, no problem, usually in a rush, don't proof read.

 

[gman7665]

That is Cool !!! is that a Hex Screw in the hole ? Also looks like it was painted RED ? Thinking Maybe a Handel ? something slid down inside and tighten by the Hex Screw?

 

[unclemac]

signal cannon...like this one

Militaria | S and B Collectables-

 

[davinci]

signal cannon...like this one Militaria | S and B Collectables-

Wow! I think you're right it's a signal canon. Most don't have trunnels or whatever you call those things on the side. This is made from bronze not brass.

What exactly were signal canons uses for and what age would you estimate mine to be?

 

[gunsil]

It is a machine shop made cannon for making noise on the 4th of July, etc. It's bore is too small to be a real signal cannon. The one in my photo is a steel one which the machinist simply mounted in a steel block with set screws. I have seen ones like it and yours mounted on simple wooden blocks held down with a U-bolt. This one is a little fancier with a raised groove for the brass strap that holds it on the wood block. These will actually shoot a ball if desired, but were made mostly for use with a paper wad for noise making.

 

[gunsil]

Davinci, yours looks more like brass than bronze, too yellow in color. They have been making these for years, yours could be a hundred years old or much newer. There are guys making them today, I see them at gun shows occasionally. There were many nice small cannons commercially available from the late 1800s to the early 1900s so I think most of these machinist made cannons are newer than the 1920s. As to value, I paid around $30-40 each for the ones I pictured. You can get a piece of wood, make a groove in it and mount your barrel with a U-bolt, put about 30 grains of black powder and a wad of newspaper, and make a nice BANG!!

 

[davinci]

Thank you everyone! Since I won't shoot this I put it up on eBay for 99cents no reserve and figure to let the market decide value. I'm no expert on these cannons.

Here is link:

http://bit.ly/1kiHZYf