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Hello ALL. This may not be the best Forum to post this lock. But I'll start here based on past interest from other members. If the Moderator decides to move this Thread, that's OK.
Of passing interest is this turn of the 20th Century copy of a Portuguese lock. Some of you old-timers (like me !) may remember these locks being sold in the Dixie catalog back in the 1960's/70's. Turner Kirkland had a nick name for them and called them Lazzarino locks. LOL Turner found a large supply of these locks in a Belgium warehouse back then. As the story goes, these crude locks were originally made in a Belgium shop for trade with the locals in South Africa. The shop patterned the lock after a Portuguese lock from the original period, but in as simple and cost effective manner as possible. The Portuguese connection likely due to their long influence in the Region for many years. The locals would be familiar with them. Original Portuguese locks are somewhat unique looking. They utilize a hammer that is similar to a Spanish miquelet, but the mainspring is mounted internal like a regular flintlock. The original locks used one of two different safeties. One was a dog-style safety that was a simple thumb piece mounted outside the lock plate and turned backwards to engage a notch on the front toe of the hammer. The other style was to simply cut a second safety notch on the tumbler like a regular flintlock. In the case of these latter made locks they have neither safety feature. I guess the maker of these locks didn't worry much about the locals having their guns on full cock all the time. LOL Just make a lock in the simplest, most economical way possible. No polishing, etc. What appears to be a dog-style safety on these later locks is rigged and doesn't move. It's simply a styling addition. Possible considered a hammer type stop (?). Anyway, for what ever reason, most of these locks were never shipped to the South African Continent. And eventually ended up with Turner. Occasionally, these locks turn up for sale on the Internet. And most sellers have no idea what they are. In fact, there is one for sale now that has three holes in the lock plate and shows it was originally mounted to a gun. But it's pretty rusty looking. In all my years I've only seen one authentic South African musket with this lock mounted. All of these locks today show up in their original, unused condition. So that's the back story as I understand it. LOL
A couple years ago I got the itch to see if these crudely made locks could be made to function/spark better. So I sent the lock to Earl Kathan (when he was still doing this type of work) to see what he could do. Earl was able to tune the mainspring and frizzen spring and harden the frizzen. The lock then functioned and sparked excellent (and still does today). Not being satisfied with well enough, I recently send the lock back out to Paul Ackerman. Paul eas able to cut an additional safety notch in the tumbler and give the lock a very light polish, but keep the original cruder finish intact. The lock can always be polished out to a finer grit later if desired. While the lock was with Paul, I had him make me a new ring-style Spanish type top screw I had a casting from Blakely & Sons (I think). So, the lock now looks better, and certainly performs better. Real happy how this turned out. Thank you Earl and Paul.
Here are some pics. The first set shows the lock in it's original form. The second set shows the finished lock today. Just for fun. Thanks for looking.
Rick
Of passing interest is this turn of the 20th Century copy of a Portuguese lock. Some of you old-timers (like me !) may remember these locks being sold in the Dixie catalog back in the 1960's/70's. Turner Kirkland had a nick name for them and called them Lazzarino locks. LOL Turner found a large supply of these locks in a Belgium warehouse back then. As the story goes, these crude locks were originally made in a Belgium shop for trade with the locals in South Africa. The shop patterned the lock after a Portuguese lock from the original period, but in as simple and cost effective manner as possible. The Portuguese connection likely due to their long influence in the Region for many years. The locals would be familiar with them. Original Portuguese locks are somewhat unique looking. They utilize a hammer that is similar to a Spanish miquelet, but the mainspring is mounted internal like a regular flintlock. The original locks used one of two different safeties. One was a dog-style safety that was a simple thumb piece mounted outside the lock plate and turned backwards to engage a notch on the front toe of the hammer. The other style was to simply cut a second safety notch on the tumbler like a regular flintlock. In the case of these latter made locks they have neither safety feature. I guess the maker of these locks didn't worry much about the locals having their guns on full cock all the time. LOL Just make a lock in the simplest, most economical way possible. No polishing, etc. What appears to be a dog-style safety on these later locks is rigged and doesn't move. It's simply a styling addition. Possible considered a hammer type stop (?). Anyway, for what ever reason, most of these locks were never shipped to the South African Continent. And eventually ended up with Turner. Occasionally, these locks turn up for sale on the Internet. And most sellers have no idea what they are. In fact, there is one for sale now that has three holes in the lock plate and shows it was originally mounted to a gun. But it's pretty rusty looking. In all my years I've only seen one authentic South African musket with this lock mounted. All of these locks today show up in their original, unused condition. So that's the back story as I understand it. LOL
A couple years ago I got the itch to see if these crudely made locks could be made to function/spark better. So I sent the lock to Earl Kathan (when he was still doing this type of work) to see what he could do. Earl was able to tune the mainspring and frizzen spring and harden the frizzen. The lock then functioned and sparked excellent (and still does today). Not being satisfied with well enough, I recently send the lock back out to Paul Ackerman. Paul eas able to cut an additional safety notch in the tumbler and give the lock a very light polish, but keep the original cruder finish intact. The lock can always be polished out to a finer grit later if desired. While the lock was with Paul, I had him make me a new ring-style Spanish type top screw I had a casting from Blakely & Sons (I think). So, the lock now looks better, and certainly performs better. Real happy how this turned out. Thank you Earl and Paul.
Here are some pics. The first set shows the lock in it's original form. The second set shows the finished lock today. Just for fun. Thanks for looking.
Rick
