Brown bess lock problem?

[mike alexandre]

Any news on the lock problem ?

 

[KHickam]

Just to ask another question. A friend had a Sea Service Model Bess yesterday - and he wasn't getting much spark - even after changing and knapping the flints - I thought perhaps he should have the frizzen re-hardened. Your thoughts? He did get it to go off 2 times out of about 40 falls of the cock - the sparks were weak - when he got any.

Suggestions?

 

[mike alexandre]

After checking to make sure the flint is set correctly in the jaws ie approx 1/16th to 1/8th inch away from the frizzen when the cock is at half cock and trying the flint bevel down and bevel up IMO its likely to be one of two things.(ensure the frizzen and flint are clean with an alcohol wipe)
1. the frizzen needs hardening -you can check this by drawing a file over the frizzen surface and if there are file marks left on the face it needs hardening.

2. the mainspring is weak and is not driving the cock fast enough to get a spark - this you should be able to tell by the force required to pull the cock back - if its very easy and the cock flops forward as opposed to springing forward chances are the main spring is stuffed.
Hope this helps - no doubt many others will comment on my advice.
Additional thoughts are - the lock is clean and lightly lubed, the internal lock screws are nipped and theres nothing binding inside the lock

 

[DJ33]

everything is working fine now. I don't know if what I did was the right way to fix the problem, but it worked. first of all, I cocked the hammer back to full cock and let it ahead to where it was stopping at half cock, and I took the lock off to see if it was catching on the edge of the half cock notch. it was. Put things back together. I saw that the trigger was hitting the trigger gaurd. So I took some fine sandpaper and took alittle material off of the trigger gaurd behind the trigger. tried the hammer again and it was working easier. So I took a little more off and now it's working great, no hanging up. Can't even tell I sanded the gaurd, blended nicely. Thanks for the help everyone. I guess it did need just aliitle more trigger travel.

 

[mike alexandre]

Nice to know and thanks for the update.