Middlesex Village Trading Company

[Anthon94]

I found this shop and was looking at a few of there flintlocks. Has anyone bought from them? Wanted to get a few opinions about the quality before buying. From what I can see they are made in India. Thanks

 

[LRB]

The best of them are rather poor in quality, but they can be tuned and reworked to be halfway decent. You should treat them as a kit in the white. The locks especially need reworking, including smoothing and case hardening the critical parts. Most come with 20lb trigger pulls, if you are lucky enough to be able to pull it at all. If you cannot do the work yourself, in my opinion, the end result of having to pay a gunsmith to do it, would not be worth the cost. On the other hand, you may get lucky. Some do.

 

[Steve Blancard]

Use the search function on this site and look for "Middlesex". This has been discussed a number of times. But as mentioned, the quality varies. Some folks are happy with them, others are not. It depends on what your abilities are, what you expect and what you plan to do with it. I bought a Middlesex 1816 Springfield musket. After some work on the lock and complete refinishing, I have a very servicable musket for reenacting and blank firing.

 

[Darkgael]

The replies are consistent with my experience. I have two MVTC firearms - a caplock 20 ga (actually about 17 gauge) Howdah and a 14 ga. blunderbuss.
The howdah had what had to be a thirty pound front trigger and not much less on the rear. I was able to lighten the springs and polish the sear, etc so that both are now about ten pounds. I'm OK with that.
The blunderbuss - flashier in appearance than I'd like - has worked just fine since the day I fiirst fired it. No complaints.
Pete

 

[Stumpkiller]

I am curious to know how they get all the metal in a lock to look the same? Sideplate, screws, frizzen, springs. All look like (over)polished "in the white" bare metal. I have never seen one in person but before I bought one I'd want to know how the necessary tempering of springs and frizzen can be accomplished without discoloration.

I am flabbergasted that they can produce a flint double shotgun for $695. The barrels, locks and unfinished stock blank should cost more than that as components. Where are they cutting corners? Barrel steel? Spring steel and tempering?

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

 

[fitter]

JUNK

 

[Parzifal]

I have handeled some of their arms and they seem as good as any non-custom flintlock.

I have been eyeballing that flintlock double for about a year now.....

Anyone here buy one yet??

Looks like a great project!

 

[Steve Blancard]

The frizzen on my MVTC 1816 Springfield is definately hardend. It is a dull gray color and not polished, it also sparks like crazy. I don't know about the internal lock parts, as they are all polished. But they are holding up fine so far.

 

[engravertom]

I am curious to know how they get all the metal in a lock to look the same? Sideplate, screws, frizzen, springs. All look like (over)polished "in the white" bare metal. I have never seen one in person but before I bought one I'd want to know how the necessary tempering of springs and frizzen can be accomplished without discoloration...

I don't know how you could harden and temper without discoloration, but polishing after the fact can make everything shiny, without taking away the temper.

Take care,

Tom

 

[engravertom]

I think labor cost is the answer. raw steel is not the biggest cost in barrels and locks.

Just because labor is cheap does not mean it is poor in quality or skill. You don't always get what you pay for. Sometimes more, sometimes less. usually there is a correlation though.

As an engraver,I know folks will pay more for work done in NYC than in other places. That doesn't mean the work will be "better". It costs more to do business and live in NYC. That cost is reflected in the price. No doubt there are gun makers in our country who have retirement income, or a working spouse, who can charge less than others who don't have that advantage. Their work may be excellent, even though it costs less than others.

Price is only one factor to consider.

take care,

Tom

 

[torn moc]

I agree ! I just got a Middlesex Heavy Dragon from a member on this forum and it is exceptionally nice !

 

[SR James]

I handled one of the flint doubles at the Tulsa show in November. I was not impressed. It was very wide across the locks and handled like two pipes bolted to a 2x4. Trigger pulls were atrocious, but more importantly, the lock geometry was not very good. Didn't get to spark test the locks. Fitting in general was poor. Overall, it was very heavy and clunky. I was initially interested in these, but not since I've seen one.