Did you know?
Various arms scholars have examined original wheellocks made in the 1500s and have observed striations under high-power microscopes, on the sides of the pan where the wheel intersects it and projects up into the firing or powder section of the pan. This suggests that the hardened wheel itself was used as the 'rotary milling cutter' to cut the slot precisely to the wheel's dimensions.
On the best of the wheelies examined, there was only a ~0.07mm or 0.003" clearance between the wheel and any part of the priming pan, to which the scholarly paper, "Leonardo, the Wheel Lock, and the Milling Process" states that that degree of precision serves as proof that only the wheel itself could cut such an accurate and precise fit, especially when being done 'way back then'.
To be machined, the pan blank and wheel would be held onto a jig, if not the actual lockplate itself, where the pan itself would be suspended above the wheel by the 'single pivot point' that holds the pan to the lockplate. These same scholars/researchers believe the single bolt holding the pan on was intentional, as one would turn the wheel by an outside force, while the pan was slowly lowered or pivoted down onto the spinning wheel.
Man, that must have been a long arduous grinding or cutting process ... but pretty darn cool, no?
Various arms scholars have examined original wheellocks made in the 1500s and have observed striations under high-power microscopes, on the sides of the pan where the wheel intersects it and projects up into the firing or powder section of the pan. This suggests that the hardened wheel itself was used as the 'rotary milling cutter' to cut the slot precisely to the wheel's dimensions.
On the best of the wheelies examined, there was only a ~0.07mm or 0.003" clearance between the wheel and any part of the priming pan, to which the scholarly paper, "Leonardo, the Wheel Lock, and the Milling Process" states that that degree of precision serves as proof that only the wheel itself could cut such an accurate and precise fit, especially when being done 'way back then'.
To be machined, the pan blank and wheel would be held onto a jig, if not the actual lockplate itself, where the pan itself would be suspended above the wheel by the 'single pivot point' that holds the pan to the lockplate. These same scholars/researchers believe the single bolt holding the pan on was intentional, as one would turn the wheel by an outside force, while the pan was slowly lowered or pivoted down onto the spinning wheel.
Man, that must have been a long arduous grinding or cutting process ... but pretty darn cool, no?
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