Scottish Musket lock

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FlinterNick

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Scottish Lock project done. Very interesting primitive style flintlock good sparker too
 

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Awesome, it's like a cross between a "classic" flintlock and a miquelet lock

Good point, the Scottish at the time were very much influenced by catholic Spain it wouldn’t shock me if this lock was designed. Based off of Spanish locks.

The mainspring is extremely strong for its size, its design and shape fits the early Spanish styles too.
 
Very nice. Amazing how simple the mechanism is.

Simple but every millimeter matters very much on this lock ,the location of the parts are very critical to its essential function.

For example the sear tooth that engages the tumbler at full cock is very small, there wasn’t much purchase when it had assembled it, it needed around 1-2mm of extra steel on it, so i TIG welded on some steel and reshaped it to give it a full purchase and moving the sear closer wasn’t an option because of the half cock that would rise too close to the bolster and the middle of the plate needs enough clearance for a screw that bolts the lock down.
 
Trying to figure out how I’d forge that sear spring with the tenon. Might be a bit of filing involved!

The original casting had a square that was very out of proportion. It was intended to just sit inside of a square cutout which was casted over. With the permission of the owner, I drilled and broached out the square, its much more effective and maintains an original style.

I filed off the casted square and welded on a 5mm square with a #2 jewelers torch tip oxy acetylene I kept the heat moderate in the realm of a neutral flame ( to decrease weld brittleness and carburization) so as to not ruin the spring. I do the same with when welding screw bosses onto springs.

If i had to make one again, I’d probably dovetail the spring to the top square at 40 to 50 degrees next time, essentially it would be two pieces… or a blind screw might work with a round boss instead of a square tenon.

But believe it or not the lock mortise of the stock presses against the tail of the spring, keep it steady in place.
 
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I like the dovetailing idea for creating it using period approaches. I could dovetail it and braze it. Harden at below braze temp for the quench, then off to the races. I have to think of non-welding approaches because I never learned welding. Might try to find a course but there’s a huge difference between cobber-level welding and the precision needed for small parts with tight tolerances.
 
I like the dovetailing idea for creating it using period approaches. I could dovetail it and braze it. Harden at below braze temp for the quench, then off to the races. I have to think of non-welding approaches because I never learned welding. Might try to find a course but there’s a huge difference between cobber-level welding and the precision needed for small parts with tight tolerances.

Welding is pretty essential for me, but I recommend for lock work and even hardware a very small torch, i use the smith tiny torch or the even the medium light duty torch is good. It’s really just practice, and when i need to weld up in high detail i use a TIG welder, easy. MIG is easiest though but more messy.
 
Hi Nick

Nice job. The lock is a good example using an earlier form of the horizontal sear. Looks like she sparks like a banshee. LOL

Having to add a slight amount of material to the nose of the sear. I know just what you were running into. Original Moroccan snaphaunce locks we find today, about 95% of them will not hold (or barely hold) in the cock position. It's due to the sear nose having been worn down too short from use. And likely, the Moroccan lock makers never hardened anything. LOL

With TRS kit, it's possible that the original lock the castings were made from had a sear with it's nose already worn down (?) Great job with your fix.

Rick
 


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