The following letter was received from Sr. Homero F. de Castro who is employed at the National Heritage Museum in Brazil and who has written articles on the various Brazilian Comblains:

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Subj:  Brazilian Comblain
Date: 98-01-13 22:52:01 EST
From: ahfc@centroin.com.br (Adler Homero F. de Castro)
Reply-to: ahfc@centroin.com.br
To: KDColoSpgs@AOL.com

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Dear Sir,

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Surfing in the net, I found your site, with information on the Brazilian Comblain, and I thought I should e-mail to your with some comments - I hope you will not find this an abuse of your patience.

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 I copied the text of your site, to present the comments:

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M1874 Brazilian Comblain
(note:  Website author's original text, to which Sr. Alder responds, is presented here in blue)

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 There are 6 diferent models of Comblain infantry Rifles in Brasil, as well two artillery Carbines and two Cadet rifles. The first infantry model, which I believe is the one you are refering to in your text is know as "model one" or Model 1873. The 1874 weapon (model 2) is a local variant, with a small modification in the trigger guard and in the stock.

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GENERALLY:  This rifle is a distinct variation of that rugged dropping-block creation of Hubert-Joseph Comblain of Liege, initially adopted adopted as the Belgian Comblain in 1870. It is seen with alternatively a bronze or steel receiver, and may also be properly called a sliding-block action. Walter indicates that manufacture is unknown, possibly Francotte, but the rifle illustrated was manufactured by Nagant, also of Liege.

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 I have never seen a brazilian weapon with a bronze receiver. Brasil made a lot of different orders of Comblain in Belgium, as the rifle was the offical army pattern from 1873 up to 1892 (some state police forces also used it, some of them well into the 20th century, but in this case the weapons were chambered for 7X57 mm smokeless cartridges). Here is a listing of some factories that sold Comblains to my country, but it should be noticed that this is not intended to be a complete listing:

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E. D. Malherbe;
EM & L. Nagant;
Beuret Freres;
VCS CGH, Suhl (?);
G. Mordant;
J A & C (?);
Pirlot & Fresart

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 In my experience, the Nagant rifles and carbines are of the latter patterns (4, 5 and 6), so they are usually bought after 1885.

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DISTINGUISHING CHARECTERISTICS:  For general Comblain distinguishing charecteristics see the Belgian Comblain.  The basic receiver of the Brazilian model is both shorter and chunkier looking than it's European cousin, its receiver style being more like the Chilean Comblain. The Belgian Comblain has a longer, more elegant receiver than either its Brazilian or Chilean counterparts. The Brazilian Comblain's hammer lacks a cocking spur as it is housed within a shroud, making it one of the first concealed hammer guns. Additionally, like the Chilean, this variant's lower tang is a seperate piece fitting into a mating slot in the back of the receiver and held in place by a specific transverse screw at the receiver's lower back and the rear sling swivel is attached to a seperate plate which itself is attached to the lower front of the receiver. The Belgian Comblain's lower tang is an integral part of the receiver housing and it has a fully exposed hammer with cocking spur and the lower swivel is attached to the buttstock.

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 Also, I wish to note that although the literature cited in your site always mentions the Comblain caliberas 11,4 mm, this is wrong. Only the model 5 rifle (of which only 10.000 were bought, in 1885), has a barrel of this caliber. Although the ball used had a caliber of 11,6 mm, the barrel was a standart 11 mm one - in fact it was a copy of the one used in the French Chassepot.

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 I wrote, some years ago, an article on the Brazilian comblains in a local magazinem, but I do not know if this could be of interest to you, as it is written in Portuguese.

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 I hope this comments are of interest to you, if you have anything to say about them, please send a E-Mail to me.

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 Best wishes,

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Adler H. F. de Castro
ahfc@centroin.com.br

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and from additional correspondence with Sr. Homero:

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They are always blued, even the police weapons. I do not remember the exact method used in bluing them (I can look down in my notes, if you wish), but the resultant color is very near black, without the "blue" shadows seen in North-American weapons.

No military Comblains here have exposed hammers. Indeed I have only seen one of this kind of rifle in Museuns, and this one is the National Historical Museum, which keeps the guns used in army trials.

... as one of the first of the local modifications was to add a screw to prevent the block of becoming loose during operations.