Fixing Locks

[James Kibler]

I don’t blame you a bit, Dave. You’re a saint for working on these.

I just find some of the manufacturing processes from this part of the world to be fascinating. Check out some of the many YouTube videos if you’re bored.

 

[deerstalkert]

I don’t blame you a bit, Dave. You’re a saint for working on these.

I just find some of the manufacturing processes from this part of the world to be fascinating. Check out some of the many YouTube videos if you’re bored.

I have a nephew that is the chief cook and bottle washer in charge of a 400k acre forest preserve in Cambodia.
he was home for his dad's (my brother) 80th birthday.
showed me pictures of the primitive firearms he confiscates from poachers.
most if not all were hand made in villages that are really just emerging from the stone age.
the first 20 years he was there he developed water systems for these villages. then he would have to go back and rebuild the system, the pipe would all disappear in a wink, and smoothbores would magically appear!
i need to get him to send me the pictures. some of the craftsmanship would be worthy of Rigby or HH.
most were stocked with teak, but some were stocked in rosewood. dreamy stuff.

 

[11Bravo]

I sure wish I had seen this great thread earlier. I had both locks apart and cleaned and inspected but had I read this post first I would have made a few fixes.
Dave, you should appreciate the posting I made recently about my recent purchase as you know the quality of the current reproductions.
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/early-reproduction.170194/

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
I finished the fusil lock a while ago but haven't had time to post anything.

Here it is before we worked it over.

We turned an absolutely terrible mess into a workable lock. After correctly shaping the tumbler, sear, and bridle, I cased hardened and tempered them. I also reshaped the main and frizzen springs, and hardened and tempered them. You can see how much of the lock plate I filed away to thin it such that the tumbler protruded enough so the flint cock did not tighten against the plate. I made screws to replace those that were bent and polished all the working surfaces. Some useful information: the springs on India made guns seem to be of medium carbon steel at best. I cannot get them to harden properly heating to bright orange and quenching in canola or some other light oil. They seem to require quench in water or better, brine. Tempering is the same as other springs, 750 degrees for 1 hour. I case hardened the frizzen packed in charcoal at 1600 degrees for 3 hours, let it cool and then heated again with a torch until bright orange and quenched in brine. The toe was then heated slowly to blue. It came out well. I also welded some steel to the trigger bar to reduce the horrendous creep and adjusted the pull from almost 15 pounds to 3 just by polishing the tumbler notches and changing the profile of the upper edge of the trigger bar from deeply convex to straight.

Last weekend I hosted Warner's Regiment "Green Mountain Boys" at my home for live firing their muskets. In the link below just click the "X" to close the "login" window.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/23029904837/ One of the events I planned was shooting at gongs and other targets from different positions. One of the targets was this barrel from an India-made "Ketland officer's fusil". I hung it from wire so it could spin when hit and folks shot at it from 25 yards. I hit it twice and another shooter once so it was hit 3 times. The cracks extend almost the full length of the barrel. It was a fun target to shoot and had a nice ring when hit.

dave