unusual sear on a percussion pistol

[George]

I'm looking for information on this lock and the pistol it's on. It has a sear arrangement like that on a snaphaunce, but has two sears which provide both half-cock and full-cock positions.

Hammer down:

On half cock:

On full cock"

I'll post again with pictures of the lock mechanism.

I've run this pistol by the board a few months ago, but maybe there are some new heads, now, or some new ideas in an old head. :grin:

Spence

 

[George]

I've never seen anything like the mechanism of this lock. On the right you see a sort of box with a long arm projecting. That box is made up of two solid metal blocks and a very thin lid. The right block is fastened solidly to the lock plate by the big screw. The lid is a thin sheet of strong spring steel, and it is also fastened solidly to the right block. The long arm is fastened to the spring lid. The left block is fastened to the other end of the spring lid, but is not fastened to the lock plate. It has the two sears as part of it and they protrude through the lock plate. The mainspring and "tumbler" function as usual to force the hammer forward/down, but are not in any way connected to the sear/firing mechanism, which is a completely separate unit.

Left block down on the lock plate which forces the sears through their holes to engage the dog on the hammer and hold it in place:

Pressure by the trigger on the long arm forces the tip of it to the rear, flexing the spring steel lid and raising the left block, retracting the sears and firing the pistol:

Whatcha think?

Spence

 

[Zonie]

What you seem to have there is......A most unusual lock.

The idea of the sear operating thru the lockplate on a portion of the cock or hammer is not new.
It was used on the Snaphance and on the many forms of the Miquelet locks.

The idea of two sears, one being a safety and the other being for the full cock position also was sometimes used on these types of locks.

What is interesting is that compared with the Snaphance, the Miquelet and the Flintlock, this lock has a feature (besides the percussion hammer) that is much later than the Snaphance.

I believe the use of a mainspring link such as your lock uses was not developed until fairly late in the Flintlock era.
This link method of transmitting the mainsprings force to the tumbler was carried on in many of the later percussion locks.

It may be that your lock was made in Italy, Spain or one of the other Mediterranean areas where its (currently) unique sear design was so popular on the Miquelet locks?

 

[curator]

The lateral sear behind the hammer/cock is typical of locks from Italian and "eastern-mediteranian" countries. Your gun could be Italian, Romanian, Turkish, or from one of the Slovian states. Spanish arms would have the sears in front of the hammer. This sear arrangement was used until the cartridge period. Your gun appears to be mid-nineteenth century. Look for proof marks on the underside of the barrel.

 

[goon]

I have nothing valuable to add to this conversation - just wanted to comment on the ingenuity of whoever thought that lock up. That's just cool!

 

[miqueleter]

Spence, you are not the only one wondering. Noel Corry in a 1962 article on percussion miquelets in the Gun Report allowed that he had never run across such a sear setup, until he noticed one in a Sevilla shop. I have taken the liberty of scanning a couple images from the article. Your pistol is by definition a miquelet-the sears make it so. Sorry about the poor quality-old magazine.

 

[George]

Miqueleter, you rang my bell with that one. I checked Wikipedia and found an excellent article on miqueletes, and it had something interesting to say, that percussion miquelets were used until the beginning of the cartridge era. It also said that they frequently had their hammers sculpted in the shape of dogs or fish, and that a place where that was very frequently done was Eibar, a place famous for its gun manufacturing since the 16th century. It is located in extreme northern Spain in the Basque region.

Intriguing.

Thank you for the lead, that will keep me busy for a while.

Spence

 

[George]

Good info, thank you. The barrel appears octagon to round and is tapered and flared. There are deeply struck touchmark and several silver inlays on the flats at the breech and an unusual wedding band. The barrel is all round underneath, no flats, as is the barrel channel. It has been many years since I had the barrel off, but I don't recall any proof marks. I'll have to take a look.

Spence

 

[George]

I have nothing valuable to add to this conversation - just wanted to comment on the ingenuity of whoever thought that lock up. That's just cool!

It had me shaking my head in admiration when I first discovered how it worked, I promise you. The action is smooth as silk, the trigger is light, crisp and clean. Somebody knew what he was doing when he developed that lock.

Spence

 

[wulf]

If you remove the hammer, I think you will find
a scallop on the inside under the top of the
tail so that both sears can pop out at the same
time...They seem to be connected and work to-gether as one...both in and both out...one piece.
Wulf

 

[George]

Can't say about the scollop, wulf, but you are right about the sear. By pulling the trigger you can see the sears move in and out, and they are obviously either attached together or made as one piece, both move in and out together.

Spence

 

[wulf]

HA...Thank you. I remember the last time you posted that picture I tried to figure out how it
worked based on those I made with two seperate
sears. These pics showed more clearly that they
were one piece and I concluded they could only
work as such if there were a scallop on the in-
side of the tail....But I already said that...
Thanks again for posting additional pics...
Wulf

 

[George]

The lock has a half cock position as well as a full cock position. The difference is only in the way the sharp edge of the dog at the back of the hammer/cock engages the sear. On full cock there is very little contact, and the dog slips off that sear easily, allowing the hammer to fall. In the half cock position there is more contact between the dog and sear, not so much as to overlap, but along more of the sharp edge and deeper. You can make the hammer fall from half cock, but only by exerting extreme pressure. Since both sears are as one piece, the half cock sear can't interfere with the hammer falling because it has been retracted along with the full cock sear. Hope that's clear.

The beauty of the way the sears work is that it requires only that a spring flexes slightly, then relaxes.

Spence