Flash pan design / colors

I see flash pans with a brass cup around the pan, flash pans that are brass, and flash pans that are gold plated. Do these features have historical or functional rational of just for looks? Any other interesting trivia about lock design / details?
I have a Pedersoli Mortimer and the flash pan is polished and dished toward the flash hole for 1/2 of the length, and the outer half is purposefully roughened, I guess to distribute the powder. Anyway the pan has design detail. The lock is color case, fast, easy on flints, and super reliable.
In the same area, I always thought blue screws were really special like on a Colt SAA. I really like blue screws on a lock or other parts. I guess they are blue for looks.

I believe the flash hole liners on expensive fl were platinum to keep down the erosion. I've not seen an entire pan coated. Got any pictures?

I also feel but don't know the screws in SAAs were heat-blued to make them hard. But I don't know for sure on either case.

Are you maybe talking of a cap lock? They have brass cups you can get that go around the nipple. They help protect the wood from getting charred.

OP may have seen brass flash deflector usually seen on Brown Bess used in re-enacting.

There is a historical precedence to it. Many of the early model Springfield flintlock muskets and rifles had brass pans on steel lock plates.

Here is a picture of a rifle currently for sale on TOW. The gold colored flash pan got me wondering about the details of the pans.

Brown Bess flash guard. Is it for flash reduction or reliability, such as rain or snow protection?

It is to protect a person to the right of the shooter from the ejecta of a shot from the BB. Many put them on rifles also. If shooting at a range with other shooters on the line it is a very good safety and courtesy thing to have if other measures are not available.

That is a pan flash cover to stop the pan flash from burning the soldier in line to your right. Primarily used with military arms where close files(shoulder to shoulder) are used in the lines. It serves no other purpose and does not improve the arms abilities.

Very good information. I never thought of the vent jet for the next guy over. I thought it was for rain or to focus the heat into the vent hole.

Hi,
The brass pans were sometimes seen on military muskets, French model 1777 and later flintlock muskets had them as well as some US muskets, which more or less copied the French. The brass pan helped prevent damage from corrosion from the powder flash. However, it also cut costs on lock production because the pan was separate from the plate and could be cheaply cast. Plates with no intergal pans could be much more cheaply produced.
The English fowler below has a gold lined pan and touch hole. These were popular on high-end guns to prevent corrosion. Later in the 19th century "platina" (platinum) was substituted for the gold because it was harder.


dave

Davis sell a lock with a brass pan.

When you shoot in a line, watch out for left handed shooters. I usually make a point to get a bit further away from most. Some forget I throw flame from the other side.

Caplock shooters like those guards too. Little bit of cap sheet metal fly off at times.