Spanish Miquelet Lock

[puertorico1616]

Hi,
I am interested in know more of the Spanish "miquelet" flintlock and to build a musket from a kit. There were various typs: Madrid, a la moda, Italian among others. TRS offers a kit for the Spanish 1789-1792 musket with the Miquelet lock. Does anyone out there have any comments about its quality and what level of skill is required to complete this project. This would be my first musket do-it-yourself kit, am I biting more then I can chew. Any comments would be helpful. Thanks

 

[Elnathan]

Welcome to the board!
TRS lock part sets are just the rough castings - no instructions, no guarantee that the parts will fit properly (they are cast directly from the originals, without compensating for shrinkage during the casting process or wear on the originals), no heat treating done.
If you are a competent machinist, or have assembled lock kit or two before, it could make a challenging but do-able project. If you haven't had any experience doing this sort of work, then you probably should get someone to assemble it for you (TRS offers this service for at least some of the lock sets they sell, and you can shop around as well).
As for the rest of the kit, as I recall the people who have dealt with them thought that the pre-inlet stocks were pretty rough and required a lot of work to correct. You might be better off getting the metal parts, a diagram (does TRS sell those for this model? The site is down, so I can't check), and a nice walnut blank and having David Rase or Fred Miller inlet the barrel, drill the ramrod hole, and maybe profile it on the bandsaw. That might save you a lot of hassle in the long run - folks often say that it is more difficult to correct a poorly done pre-inlet stock then to do it from scratch - and maybe some money as well. Any money you save can be put into tools, which seems like a better investment in the long run, I think.

What exactly is your level of experience? I built a snap-together kit (drill a couple holes for the woodscrews, slap on a coat of finish) which taught me nothing because I didn't actually do anything, then went straight into a scratch-build, with a lock built from a kit and the stock from scratch. I even made the sideplate, thimbles, and nosecap myself. I did have someone to coach me through it and help correct my mistakes, which made a huge difference. Point being, I think that you have to do something to learn and that assembling a gun from a blank isn't as daunting a prospect as it might first appear, particularly if you have someone nearby who can give you advise.
There aren't any miquelets in general production that I know of, so unless you can afford to pay someone to make one, you will have do it yourself.

 

[Brasilikilt]

Hey Juan

I too am interested in a miquelet lock for a Spanish escopeta.
I, like you have never tackled such a project and plan on taking it one small step at a time.

I've done plenty of internet searches, but have only come up with a few pictures that hint at how the internals work.

I know that a fellow member Wulf has built them from scratch. If we ask nicely maybe he will post some more detailed photos and explain what the parts are :wink:

 

[benvenuto]

Juan,
just beware TRS have their spanish guns categorised in the wrong way and have a lot of misleading infomation on their site because they havent been able to get spanish language historical sources like I have.

I have a great spanish book I got from the Military Museum of Monjuich in Barcelona that covers all the muzzleloading models from 1700-1870 in great detail. It was cheap, but unfortunately I can't tell you how to order it. I have searched for the author's name online but no luck so far. Hopefully soon I will translate some and put it on my own site with the matchlock info i already have.

This is definitely a long and involved project, but there are a few of us here who would follow your progress wih interest

The main points:
The matchlock was mainly used before 1700.
In 1702 the new king (a bourbon from france) gave orders for matchlocks to be phased out
In 1712 the first known contracts for flintlocks were issued - pressumably they had the "spanish lock" the same as earlier guns dating back to the 1660's

In 1715 a report states that the muskets being produced were far from identical in calibre and pattern.
In 1717 the first standard pattern was agreed upon, based on the french model with a "french" flintlock. This is called “Royal Model of 1717” -the only time a model includes a date in its name until 1815.

There were contracts issued in 1725 and 1753 but despite changes in the pattern official correspondance calls them "new model" muskets.

Models for branches other than Line infantry were named after the branches "cavalry carbine", "musket for cazadores" (light infantry), "musket for dragoons".

From what I can tell (so far) the "escopetas" on the TRS website were never official military issue and were confined to miltia and private citizens

 

[Stophel]

I find the Italian Miquelets much more attractive.

I MIGHT have a decent line drawing showing the workings of a Miquelet. Let me look.

 

[twobirds]

Hi Juan:

One option you may consider is to have TRS assemble the lock for you. I ordered one of the #505 escopeta kits with an assembled lock, since I had never seen a miquelet lock and I had no idea of the lock geometry. TRS did a pretty good job of lock assembly...left a few casting lines that I would have filed out...but the assembled lock worked well and was nicely finished with color-casehardening.

Actually TRS kits are not the easiest to learn on. I started with a Dixie Mountain Rifle kit years ago, assembled a couple of pistols, and then a longrifle for my wife before I did the TRS escopeta. And the TRS kit still gave me some problems.

I wasn't thrilled with the TRS pre-carved stock. A misplaced ramrod hole and misplaced triggerguard inlets gave me some problems. No real problems with their metal parts. Just lots of filing and polishing.

Take your time and think through each process. Read Mike Brook's gunbuilding tutorial. And turn to the guys on this forum to walk you through the rough spots. I'm sure that your gun will turn out well. Mine did.

twobirds