Weird eBay flintlock

[Philip Chua]

Here is my RE-WORKED Belgium lock. A different top screw (from TRS) to give it a better look, frizzen hardening, slight mainspring reduction, and if you look closely, a second notch cut in the tumbler for a safety. Should have had the lock polished out more - much more. LOL Oh well. But it functions much better.

For you guys that decide to make a gun using these locks, might be a good idea to purchase a second lock (if the price is reasonable) for spare parts.

Rick

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much obliged for the great pics of the rewoked tumbler! Have file will travel!

 

[Sam squanch]

here are some examples of a more refined Portuguese lock…

 

[Rudyard]

Here is my RE-WORKED Belgium lock. A different top screw (from TRS) to give it a better look, frizzen hardening, slight mainspring reduction, and if you look closely, a second notch cut in the tumbler for a safety. Should have had the lock polished out more - much more. LOL Oh well. But it functions much better.

For you guys that decide to make a gun using these locks, might be a good idea to purchase a second lock (if the price is reasonable) for spare parts.

Rick

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Yes better but perhaps missing the main point .My lock has three holes for the side nails & pre hardened viii type file marks seemingly fitted to a gun .I had mused to make one up their stocking is quite distinctive, loosely Madrid in style,
All good Stuff Ile have to dig out the Nigerian Dane gun . always wondered if some PCV along that Equatorial West coast took one home to the US as a souvenir it would be about the only way one could get there . I have Very high regard for Peace Corps, VSO & Cuso ,Volunteers that helped me wondering along that unhealthy coast .Recently by chance I linked up to a UK V .S. O. who was teaching just north of Mopti on the Niger river in Mali like other Ex Pats he declared he had toyed with the muse to visit his old base but today its very troubled by Terrorists & Strife we never knew . So dismissed the notion .I did get tangled up by Surette & idiot police . Ex pats had companies or Church stuff reasons to be there but they didn't wander along hitch hikeing so Naturally I MUST be a spy . What a 20 year old had to spy on didn't seem to occur to them .( The' boys in the bush 'where fine as rural folk tend to be .)I got a sort of bush Telegraph as' Johny Walker 'Once Stopped a whole village football match in the Ivory Coast as the whole assembly came to visit me as I wandered past, However I digress
.Regards Rudyard

 

[Philip Chua]

Here is my RE-WORKED Belgium lock. A different top screw (from TRS) to give it a better look, frizzen hardening, slight mainspring reduction, and if you look closely, a second notch cut in the tumbler for a safety. Should have had the lock polished out more - much more. LOL Oh well. But it functions much better.

For you guys that decide to make a gun using these locks, might be a good idea to purchase a second lock (if the price is reasonable) for spare parts.

Rick

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So to remove the cock to file in a half cock notch and just generally clean it up so you drive that pin or whatever it is through the tumbler arm from front to back? It would appear that’s the way to go. I imagine I will use my wooden jig for driving the tumbler off the cock with a punch. I’ve had to do that before. I shoud then be able to get the bearing surfaces cleaned up and smoothed. Not going to make it pretty as I now have a project in mind for this. On the right springs - the more I work this action it’s getting easier to work so may not have to do much to get it smoother other than work the springs (this is unused and prob not fool around e annealing.

 

[rickystl]

Hi Philip

I myself did not do the work on my lock. But the guy who did explained it to me. Driving that pin out and the rest of the lock will easily dis-assemble. As I recall, the tumbler and shaft are one piece. So the tumbler/shaft and hammer are all held together with that single pin. The original Portuguese locks are built the same. You might remove the mainspring to allow the hammer to move freely to give you more room to work (?)
As I recall, Forum member Sam squanch (above) used one of these locks to make a pistol. He might also provide some hints.
Yes, your lock is likely never been used. Most of these locks you encounter today were from that original Dixie Gun Works inventory back in the 1960's and 70's. Notice no holes were drilled in the lock plates - which in our case was good. LOL

Rick

 

[Philip Chua]

Hi Philip

I myself did not do the work on my lock. But the guy who did explained it to me. Driving that pin out and the rest of the lock will easily dis-assemble. As I recall, the tumbler and shaft are one piece. So the tumbler/shaft and hammer are all held together with that single pin. The original Portuguese locks are built the same. You might remove the mainspring to allow the hammer to move freely to give you more room to work (?)
As I recall, Forum member Sam squanch (above) used one of these locks to make a pistol. He might also provide some hints.
Yes, your lock is likely never been used. Most of these locks you encounter today were from that original Dixie Gun Works inventory back in the 1960's and 70's. Notice no holes were drilled in the lock plates - which in our case was good. LOL

Rick

I have a pistol stock with an Ed Rayl 40cal smooth bore barrel. Don't know of this is the lock for that project though.

 

[Rudyard]

Yes Sam had it years" rough as bags " but they worked & thusly are interesting in their way . I bet these knockers never aspired to make a Nigerian ' Dane gun' alt names 'Foo Foo' gun or Country gun ' . I got a flint lock made by a village blacksmith in Ikorudu Federal Nigeria .So coming across a length of galvenised water pipe, seemed of course, I wedded it to make a' Dane gun'; After; one Jimmo Babatundi a Yoroba tribesman. I fine bored it a bit proofed down a rabbit hole Rabbits objected naturally .Light years from A Kibler 'paint by numbers' but no accounting for taste . The gunmakers of the world then & now are /where people like us who catered for the market demands of their regions . I at least think of them that way 'Rudyard

 

[Rudyard]

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Two pics top being the' Weird' / Lazzarino lock & two below are Nigerian Dane gun the small bags being filled amulet's with magic stuff to ward of evil spirits . Plus a British West Africa half penny ( Debil Debils & Togalossis ect being trouble some for shooters , the cheaper guns needed more of course )The shiny barrel band is from a sugar sifter it has ONE CUP impressed on it & another half way up says' 2 CUPS' . Ile tell you this is to gauge the amount of powder & wadding to secure the ball or 6' nail the lesser charge for Duiker or ' Bush Deer 'the other an Elephant load ( Don't laugh too hard while I was there a hunter had been fined for shooting an Elephant up north in the Fulani region with a 6" nail )whether he was successful I cant recall l but I never loaded it so fully .
.Rudyard

Slightly stretching the elastic.

 

[SDSmlf]

Slightly stretching the elastic.

In the States the marketing folks call that a comfort fit.

 

[rickystl]

For comparison, here are two original Portuguese locks. Note the lock on the top has the functional external safety catch in front of the hammer and only one full-cock notch on the tumbler. The lock on the bottom has a second safety notch cut on the tumbler, so an external safety was not required. Also note that the tumbler/shaft is held with an end pin. That's just how they were built.
These latter Belgium made locks were meant to very roughly copy these Portuguese locks. But in the most economically way possible.

Rick

 

[tenngun]

That is a Belgian copy of a Portuguese trading flintlock for sale in Africa. Look up “ Portuguese knot flintlock “ and you will see your lock is a crude copy of these. Turner Kirkland bought a bunch to sell , at a low price. These were made in the 1920’ -1930’s I think. You can tune these to work, RickySTL did just that! And you can make a very unusual musket with it!

I was about to post North African post WW 1 trade
Put it on a camel gun and play Rif or is it Raf
I always get my rifraf confused

 

[yellowhammer]

...Did meet a one legged man in Calcutta who had rowed a boat following the coast from UK he had been mugged in India and offered me a trip but he was going the wrong way hardy soul never knew if he made it to Australia but hope he did .
Meandering Rudyard

@Rudyard , Cool post.

As far as your rowboat dude, he could have made it from there, shore hugging all the way, to Singapore. Maybe he crossed over the Singapore Strait at Batam, island hopping to the East side of Sumatra. He might even have got lucky and got across the Sundra Strait alive. But... rowing across the Timor Sea to AUS in a rowboat? He's probably sitting on Davy Jones's locker... The poet in me hopes he made it...

 

[Rudyard]

I was about to post North African post WW 1 trade
Put it on a camel gun and play Rif or is it Raf
I always get my rifraf confused

Nothing very secondry about the ones shewn. The really ' bargain basement 'ones where UG LEE but worked fine enough ,Getting your Rif confused with your Raf is quite normal we all do . Just never much let on about it ! Its Medical Name is ' Gun Buff Itus' . I don't think there where many camels in Brazil or Mozambique .Maybe Angola its dry . No such got to 'North' Africa not generally but who knows probally some gun collectors there now .

@Rudyard , Cool post.

As far as your rowboat dude, he could have made it from there, shore hugging all the way, to Singapore. Maybe he crossed over the Singapore Strait at Batam, island hopping to the East side of Sumatra. He might even have got lucky and got across the Sundra Strait alive. But... rowing across the Timor Sea to AUS in a rowboat? He's probably sitting on Davy Jones's locker... The poet in me hopes he made it...

Dear Yellow Hammer ' The poet in me agrees entirely I hope he made it .I went through that Passage crewing a Steam Corvette (Ex HMAS Gladstone) /' SY 'Akuna' from Brisbane river, a delivery job to Singapore me being Fireman 8 to 12 Watch, they told us "It would roll on wet grass " but we had a calm trip .Steam & Black powder are related elements . Ide a good bit to do with Traction engines but little Idea running twin Triple expansion engines happy with my keeping the 190 PSI up to ensure at least on my watch we didn't bob around like a cork between the Great Barrier reef & the Queensland coast . The' SY 'is so it as a ' Yought' we needed less OHS interference other than the retired Captain & The Engineer & ' Sparks ' where just steam buffs happy to get a trip .We had a picture in our Mess it was of the' Loch Venacore' sailing ship. Wede point an Oily finger at it & Declare "Thats A Real ship" & our favourite saying was "Bung in the 95s! &" To Hell or Melbourne !" 95 s being large orfice fuel injecters best suited if chased by other warships . We just kept her at 10 notts till we enterered the Roads at Singapore where blowing a boiler tube wouldnt so much matter . To keep on topic the second officer brought a 303 So I bought some old rounds in Cairns to blaze away over the Stern at empty tins . But it was the time of the mass exidos of Vietname's boat people and Pirates where about .
Regards Rudyard