Frizzen learning curve!

Please Lord calm the told you so brigade!
Some of us a limited to what we can buy hence my purchase of the faux trade gun from Pedersoli. In one years ownership it has taken plenty but only just!!
That darned lock is a pain and being a fussy fiddler had another look at it! It has been quite reliable will flints I cut/napped, not pretty but they worked. Back on the commercial flints and poop goes the reliability.
Studying the lock action I decided to alter the heel/cam area.

The built up heel seems to evened the load on the frizzen through the flints stroke on it and although lacking a field test for now, in the gun room the commercial flint seems more reliable than it did the night before. So here is hoping!
It is a poor lock for sure though!
I envy you fellers who have easy access to good lock makers!
Comments welcome but no whipping please!

B.

could you get a new lock from one of the US makers to replace yours, maybe the gun makers lock from Chambers and file your own plate.

That seems really scarey to me

I like looking at other locks to observe the angle incidence of flint to frizzen. I dont know really but think this one is to close to a right angle!

B.

I filmed it sparking gents. In bright light mind!
Looks good but why does it eat flints?



B.

The Pedersoli should be of good quality !? , are your flints good quality , mine are imported from England and are top self items , but you still get a dud at times that breaks way to easily .Your vid is hard to judge from ,even by double tapping the pause button .

It is a poor video, I have stills captured but can not upload

The flints are English but ironicallythe ones I hammered my self (it would be an insult to cal it knapping) were more reliable and lasted longer.
I notice in some videos on YouTube the sparks are a lot dimmer but still ignite the pan.
I wonder if the cock main spring is to heavy!?

Thanks gents.

B.

Yeah , the flint you made your own out of is much better quality , the deeper the flint is found the better it is , this was known even in the stoneage in the flint mining areas of England .Perhaps flint supplies are made up from a lot of surface stuff now days .

Any thoughts?

B.

Nath I may have posted this before, T.O.W claim that their Davis locks are suitable for fitting to the Pedersoli trade gun. I have spoken with them and they say that it should require only a minimal amount of work to fit. I will probably get one myself in the near future.

You having same trouble brother?

B.

I'm a fiddler as well. What had to happen on my lock was to first bend the cock serpentine a little forward to get the strike angle closer to about 60-65 degrees or so and I also had to re-harden the frizzen face.
If it strikes to straight on it will eat flints!
Also had to shorten the coil main spring to give it more tension.
After each accumulative addition to the lock it began to spark more reliably and now is a consistent performer as long as the strike edge is kept sharp by pressure flaking occasionally.

It may be that the main spring is too heavy. I built two fowlers last winter and used the same lock on both. I ordered the locks at the same time from the same builder. One ate flints like crazy and the other was perfect right out of the box. I narrowed (not thinned) out the main spring a little at a time until it quit smashing flints and now performs perfectly as well. These locks are large locks from a very reputable maker and are very nice. My thoughts are this: if you are thinking about replacing the lock anyways, then why not tinker around a little more. What do you have to lose.
String

M.D. said:

I'm a fiddler as well. What had to happen on my lock was to first bend the cock serpentine a little forward to get the strike angle closer to about 60-65 degrees or so and I also had to re-harden the frizzen face.
If it strikes to straight on it will eat flints!
Also had to shorten the coil main spring to give it more tension.
After each accumulative addition to the lock it began to spark more reliably and now is a consistent performer as long as the strike edge is kept sharp by pressure flaking occasionally.

Click to expand...

Thanks MD, those things you list above I have done too withe exception of adjusting the spring tension.
B.

stringbean said:

It may be that the main spring is too heavy. I built two fowlers last winter and used the same lock on both. I ordered the locks at the same time from the same builder. One ate flints like crazy and the other was perfect right out of the box. I narrowed (not thinned) out the main spring a little at a time until it quit smashing flints and now performs perfectly as well. These locks are large locks from a very reputable maker and are very nice. My thoughts are this: if you are thinking about replacing the lock anyways, then why not tinker around a little more. What do you have to lose.
String

Click to expand...

This is interesting, it does seem quite heavy!
Where did you actually narrow the spring? Across its width?
Thanks.
B.

Mainsprings on original locks are often very heavy. They wanted the gun to go off, and were satisfied with 20-30 shots from a flint.

Mainsprings on original locks are often very heavy.

Click to expand...

A ml'er friend of mine is a gunsmith. Another club member gave him an original (? I have doubts) to do some repairs on. The lock is not real large nor is the mainspring. But, it is well made and the spring is very strong. I was greatly surprised at how strong it is for a relatively small spring. Not a gunsmith or metallurgist here but I'm curious about what kind of steel might make for such a powerhouse in a tiny spring, especially 'back in the day'. :hmm:

My guess is that it's more about leverage and spring geometry than it is about spring material.
Most spring stock even now days is nothing more than high carbon steel usually 1075 or better.
The first digit denotes carbon steel and the 75 means that there is .75 percent of it in the steel.

I agree. Also in consideration would be that if a smaller lock, less leverage is available in cocking it. The top of the cock is closer to it's fulcrum/pivot.

I'd say the main reason it's eating up flints is that you've got them in upside down. :wink:

When you put them in "bevel down", you end up with a self-knapping flint. It hits the frizzen the same way that you hit it when knapping, so with each strike on the frizzen, it chips away at the flint.

Never considered that Chris, but you may have something there.