206 THE ARMS TRADE OF BELGIUM. 
and screwing on the breech and breech-nose ; brazing and filing the 
tenon and sight ; cutting, by a machine, the outer surface of the 
chamber to a perfect octagon ; drilling the touch-hole and lodging the 
nipple. After garnishing, the barrel is proved twice ; first with 27£ 
grammes of fine powder, a ball and two wads ; therefore more than 
three times the ordinary charge, which is 9^ grammes of infantry pow- 
der. Finishing the barrel includes the following operations : 1« 
" Basculage," — i.e., fashioning and adjusting the break-off and joint ; 2. 
" Adoucissement, — "i.e., smooth-filing and polishing the barrel, joint, and 
sight, and adjusting the bayonet ; 3. Exposure in a damp room for a 
month, in order to test the metal under the effects of rust ; 4. " Syste^ 
mage," or percussioning, — i.e., fashioning the lump, and fitting the lock 
firmly to the barrel. This is a peculiarity of the Belgian musket. The 
break-off joint is different from the English breech-tang, which is 
screwed into the musket, and by some of our officers considered 
superior* 
The bayonet is manufactured of two metals welded together, — viz., of 
soft tenacious iron for the socket, and of hard steel of " two marks " 
for the blade, which must offer great rigidity. The terms " two marks " 
or " three marks " are used for steel which, in the process of refining in 
bars, has been bent two or three times on itself. The blade has, after 
welding, to be tempered, annealed, ground, polished, smooth-filed, and 
proved. The socket is bored, turned, jagged, and fitted with its 
locking-ring. The ramrod is made of the same steel as the bayonet- 
blade, but receives a softer temper. 
The -Belgian is a back-action swivel lock, composed of eleven pieces. 
Two of these, the lock-plate and the cock, are of tempered iron ; nine 
others of steel. The cock alone is stamped in a ram-block. The other 
pieces are all forged by hand in common smitheries on a coal-fire ; then 
filed, adjusted, tempered and polished, and viewed by the comptroller 
after each of these operations. Two smiths, twelve filers, and six fitters 
will make ten or twelve locks in ten hours. The steel pieces are 
tempered a la volee, which consists in heating them to cherry heat and 
then plunging them in cold water, and then annealed. The two iron 
pieces are tempered en paquet, or case-hardened, — i.e., superficially con- 
verted to steel by heating in a crucible with a cement of wooden soot, 
or calcined hoofs, followed by immersion in cold water. 
The furniture of the Belgian musket consists of twenty-eight pieces, 
including the break-off, the trigger, the trigger-guard, the cross, heel- 
plate, three bands, rings, screws, rammer-springs, sights, &c. The 
manufacture of all these is conducted like that of the lock-pieces. 
The whole musket consists of forty-four pieces. 
The stocks are made exclusively of walnut-wood, which grows 
abundantly in Belgium. The desiccation is effected in the factory itself, 
• * Vide " Report on Small Arms," page 268. 
