Suggestions on a Hawes Tower Flintlock

[parrothead]

I was looking for a nice Tower flintlock pistol to go along with my Brown Bess and found a Hawes in good condition listed online. I thought I had read somewhere that Hawes had these made in Italy so I bought it thinking the quality would be good. It turns out the Hawes Towers were made in Japan. The pistol is in new like condition and looks to never having been fired. I found out the reason for that is because the lock on it is a real junker. The main spring is too weak to spark and the frizzen needs a lot of force to open (the hammer will not even open the frizzen on firing). Does anyone make decent replacement springs for these locks, or for that matter an entire lock, or is this nothing more than a wall hanger??

Thanks in advance!

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Takes alot of work to improve those guns to shooting condition. It is as if they are a joke that keeps going round and round in muzzle loading circles. People buy them and pawn them off on others after discovering their short comings. FIRST: Check the fit between the lock and frizzen and both of those with the barrel flat. if there are large gaps you may not even want to mess with it. On mine there is a 1/8 gap between the frizzen base and the barrel flat. Totally unacceptable. The springs can be adjusted and the soft frizzen can be half soled easy enough.

I got one in near mint condition, for the same reason. If you view it as a challenge and learning experience, then fine. Other wise, for a person who wants an out of the box shooter, they are a major waste of $$$$.

( and some folks rail against the reliability of Spanish and Indian made guns)

 

[parrothead]

Here are some photos of the mentioned areas. The frizzen is pretty flush and the pan is up against the barrel flat. The 3rd photo is the hammer at full cock and the last is once fired showing how little the frizzen opens. Any suggestions are welcome.

 

[cullen1780]

From the photo, I'd try pulling the flint further back in the jaw. Cut a hole in the fold of the leather so that you can get the back of the flint closer to the jaw screw. Try bevel up and bevel down.

Good luck.

 

[bpd303]

I have a pair of those Japanese tower pistols. It took a lot of tinkering to get both to shoot. One had the same issues yours has. Both of them needed the frizzen hardened. I did mine with Cherry Red. The one with the hard opening frizzen required the frizzen spring to be lightened, which was done on a belt sander by thinning it and beveling the edge plus polishing. It took a lot of trial fitting to get it balanced with the main spring.

The other needed a new main spring, which I had to make. Both required the flash hole to be opened up for reliable ignition once they were sparking good.

 

[Silky921]

Maybe try a different flint and switch bevel up/down.

 

[Zonie]

First, don't mess with the cam that pushes against the frizzen spring on the bottom of the frizzen.

I am not one that usually suggests thinning a flat (or bent) spring but in the case of your pistol I've got to say, "That frizzen spring is about twice as thick as it should be."

If you choose to thin it down you will probably need to grind it or use a belt sander.
Just remember, all of the grinding/sanding MUST be in the direction of the long leaf.
NEVER grind or sand across the spring in the narrow direction.

Also, the frizzen spring's only job is to keep the pan lid (frizzen) closed. It is not there to create resistance to the blow of the flint hitting the frizzen face.

I think thinning this spring down will allow the frizzen to open when the flint hits it.

While we're messing in the area, if you have a fine toothed flat file, try filing the corner where the frizzen face meets the edge.
If the file cuts away slivers of metal the frizzen is too soft to work well.
If the file just leaves a polished surface without removing any material, the frizzen does not need to be hardened.

 

[bpd303]

Another tip about thinning flat springs, do not let it get hot enough to remove the temper. I use a can of water and dunk the spring to keep it cool.

 

[parrothead]

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. Out of curiosity I took the frizzen spring off and did a dry fire. The gun has a strong spark and looks like it should work fine. Tomorrow I will try and grind the frizzen spring down a bit to see if I can reduce the pressure on the frizzen. And yes, grind long ways and not side to side.

 

[bpd303]

Just go slow and try it often, I'll take a picture of mine for ya.

 

[bpd303]

My camera doesn't take very good close-ups but I think you can see the bevel on the frizzen spring, just to the area the frizzen cam rides on the spring.

 

[Dwight Dutton]

This is a decade old thread but these guns are still circulating. I just got one. It dates from the era when much unlike today "Made in Japan" was a synonym for "manure".

It is low grade steel with imperfections, all the parts are overly thick and roughly machined, the end of the barrel looks like some gang banger just sawed some of it off, and when I took it apart the inside was full of metal shavings and just dust. Notably- NO powder residue, nobody has ever been able to make this thing work. Also no oil.......

Scoring on the inside of the barrel seem to indicate it was loaded at one time and then unloaded by someone who didn't have the right tools. Its almost where you can call it a "non firing replica".

However, after a generous application of Ballistol and just taking the frizzen spring completely off, it WILL spark, so I'm guessing I can shoot it on a range as long as I fire it immediately. And I can probably get a frizzen spring made for some other gun and use this one as a spare leaf spring for my truck.