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Brown Bess Lockplate Modification

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Josh Sawyer

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Hello all. I have a Brown Bess musket that I’m going to turn into Committee of Safety musket. As part of that process I want to remove the lock markings. My question is do I need to weld over the Stowe 1776 and the crown GR before beginning the filing/polishing process? The Stowe 1776 is fairly deep. Thoughts and help on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 

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1776

Definitely weld.
I have no experience welding at all and don’t have the tools to do it. There are plenty of welding and machine shops near me I can take it to. What do I need to tell them so it gets done right?

Thanks!
 
Ask Dave Person before you take it to the local welder, I’m sure they are great at bale spikes and gates- keep gun parts away from them!
 
Hello all. I have a Brown Bess musket that I’m going to turn into Committee of Safety musket. As part of that process I want to remove the lock markings. My question is do I need to weld over the Stowe 1776 and the crown GR before beginning the filing/polishing process? The Stowe 1776 is fairly deep. Thoughts and help on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

You have to weld up pedersoli lock plates, the engravings are too deep and the plate is too thin to file off the markings, welding the plates can be complicated too. If you’re using an oxygen acetylene torch, You’ll need to pre-heat the plates up to a red color and begin welding while it’s red, or else your welds will be diamond hard. Your flame tip should be set to carburizing, as most mild steels used on lock parts are not mild enough for a neural flame, never use an oxidizing flame tip, it will burn up the part, and cause warping and disfigure the metal. For filler metal mild steel generally works very good, coat hangers work pretty well as a filler as does picture frame wire, flux core MIG wire works great too. For flux i use borax from centaur forge, but most flux powders work just fine.

Generally what works best is low amp TIG welding on a pulse setting for lock plates.

Here are a few i recently ddi this year, still working on the Tower Lockplate.

The border engravings are tougher to weld over on a newer pedersoli lock, they’re very deep on this lock I left those
alone.

The lock on the bottom I removed the markings on the original lock which was a miroku bess and makes the lock Wilson, this was for a New Jersey style long land custom project. You can still see some of the engravings under the pan, decided to leave that on there because the area is very hard to polish out and the owner was satisfied with it.
 

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Okay new question….is there anyone on here who is capable that would be willing to weld mine up and remove all the markings? I’m not interested in trying to attempt it myself. I’ll mess it up. I’m also going to stay away from any old welding shop. I need it done right and I’m willing to pay.

Thanks!
 
Okay new question….is there anyone on here who is capable that would be willing to weld mine up and remove all the markings? I’m not interested in trying to attempt it myself. I’ll mess it up. I’m also going to stay away from any old welding shop. I need it done right and I’m willing to pay.

Thanks!
You are in contact with Dave. He knows what he is doing. Send it to him and be willing to spend the wait time for competent work.
 
You are in contact with Dave. He knows what he is doing. Send it to him and be willing to spend the wait time for competent work
Dave would be an excellent option but he’s curre
I thought the Stowe plate was kind of rare. There was someone on eBay selling a pedersoli lock plate with the markings removed last week.
They may be rare but that doesn’t mean anything to me. They are not correct at all for people like myself who want purely authentic Rev War impressions. Stowe may have been someone of importance to some people and it’s a nice tribute and all but I personally have never met the man or even heard of his name until I started doing research on this lock therefore the back story of the lock has no meaning to me.
 
You will never have a "purely authentic Rev War impression" with that gun. Certainly not if you're trying to make a CoS musket out of it.
It is rare. He'd be better off selling the whole gun and buying an Indian import to modify.

It is rare. He'd be better off selling the whole gun and buying an Indian import to modify.
If it’s so rare, how much are you will to pay me for just the lock?
 
Dave would be an excellent option but he’s curre

They may be rare but that doesn’t mean anything to me. They are not correct at all for people like myself who want purely authentic Rev War impressions. Stowe may have been someone of importance to some people and it’s a nice tribute and all but I personally have never met the man or even heard of his name until I started doing research on this lock therefore the back story of the lock has no meaning to me.
Then just buy the one on eBay. Like Nick and Dave say, the pedersoli will never be 100%. Of course you never met him, he’s dead.
 
Okay. To me $800 for the entire gun doesn’t scream rarity.

Lately used Pedersoli’s have been down in price id say 800-1200 depending on condition.

Defarbed they bring in a little more depending on what’s represented, i think a neutral militia musket is always the best option.. neutral meaning no discernible markings of any kind and a US surcharge on the guard, stock or Barrel.
 

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