Frizzen Gets Stuck

Just finished up a Georgian pistol build but I am plagued with a problem. The frizzen opens but does not fly all the way forward when dry fired (with flint in jaws of course). This happens all the time with my flintlock builds but I always cure it with lube on the frizzen spring and the bolt that the frizzen rides on. I also polished the inside of the frizzen so it will role up easily. Just wondering what other explainations are out there. I always cure the problem, just wondering what other causes would be out there.
- Terril

 

[Zonie]

The feather spring is too stiff or the cam on the bottom of the frizzen that pushes against it is too high.

 

[jdkerstetter]

Check to make sure the frizzen screw is not too tight also. If it was overtightened it could be binding the frizzen.

First thing I always do is remove the spring and see if the frizzen moves smoothly when not under tension. It should be loose and move freely, but without slop side to side.

What make is the lock and model is the lock? Enjoy, J.D.

 

How would I weaken the frizzen spring?

 

The lock is a Small Queen Anne's pistol lock as seen here.

 

[Flint311]

Any frizzen marks on the barrel? If the lock isn't square to the barrel flat, it can happen. Loosen lock bolt to check. Seen it before.... Good luck!

 

[petew]

Not enough clearance and rubbing against the wood.

 

[jdkerstetter]

Chambers Queen Anne? That's a good lock. Did you take the spring off to see if everything else works as it should?

Lighten the spring only after you've eliminated all the other potential problems. To do so you have to remove metal from the working leaf (top in this case) with a file. You can't put it back once it's gone.

It's not an exact science....file, polish, try, repeat. File lengthwise and make sure all scratches are polished out before you try it each time.

Good luck and Enjoy, J.D.

 

[Zonie]

IMO I would consider removing a small amount from the bottom of the cam on the frizzen before I would mess with thinning the spring.

I think it's easier to stone off a little and try it to see what the effect was.

If you do decide to thin the spring, remember this important point.

Removing material from the side of the leaf has a 1 to 1 effect on how easily the spring bends.
If you remove 1/4 of its width the load at any given deflection will also be reduced 1/4th.

Removing material from the face of the spring (the thickness) reduces the load by the cube of the amount removed.
Without getting into numbers, a very small decrease in thickness will produce a very large reduction in the springs force.

In both cases, because there is less material in the crossection of the spring the stresses will increase.

As long as the amount of material removed isn't too great, doing this shouldn't decrease the springs life.

 

[54ball]

The lock should work fine from the box. No major things should have to be done to it.

So here are some things to check for....

#1 flint too short

REMEDY- move flint out some

#2 flint too long

REMEDY- shorten flint or move it into the cock more, may have to notch the leather, bevel up bevel down depends on the flint sometimes you have to flip them to get the proper strike

#3 Frizzen face too rough causing binding

REMEDY-polish frizzen face with fine emery-cloth, this allows a slick surface for the flint to skate on and still produce sparks

#4 lock canted in inlet towards the barrel causing frizzen to bind against barrel

REMEDY- polish frizzen enough to clear barrel, if severe enough you may have to inlet bottom edge of lockplate deeper to straighten the inlet.

#5 frizzen bound in it's axis or pivot point.

REMEDY- remove frizzen spring and operate frizzen by hand to see if it operates freely... if bound loosen screw, it still bound remove screw and polish contact surfaces, be sure if you do polish it that no grit gets into the threads or on the pivot surfaces of the screw or frizzen.

#6 lock bolt bound

REMEDY this is caused by the plate warping when the bolts are too tight check by seeing if lock operates while being held out of the gun by hand, do not tighten lock down so tight and if the lock has to be cinched down to meet barrel properly check inlet..

 

[M. De Land]

Looking at your picture ,my feeling is that the frizzen spring is not shaped quite right and should have a bit of bend on the top leaf toward the rear where it acts against the cam.
I cured that problem on my match pistol after making a new frizzen spring by putting a bit of a bend in the spring where it cams on the bottom of the frizzen. This required annealing ,reshaping, re-hardening and drawing the temper. It probably needs just a bit of hump bent into the top rear of it. Mine works perfectly now.
Don't remove any material off the bottom of the frizzen cam until you try the spring fix. That will be much harder to repair if screwed up. A spring can always be re-annealed and re-shaped until it works right without removing metal. Mike D.