Jun 112016
 

Dick had a strangely agricultural gun with a fairly primitive flint lock that he wanted derusted –

big-lock-gun

Its a strange agricultural looking gun with a very long barrel and what looks like a home made stock – the leather bands were the attachment points for a sling – they are the best made bits ot the gun – not sure why anyone would want to restore it, but there is no accounting for taste!

 

alock before

As found – heavy rust caking the mechanism and screws and action seized

big lock derusted

After electrolytic derusting – some clean metal visible, frizzen free.  I popped it in the Aga  for an hour as a precaution against hydrogen embrittlement, although I think it very unlikely in this old metal..

big lock brushed

After fine wire wheel – a good soak in WD 40 or thin oil  plus a low viscosity solvent and it will all come apart and clean up…. about 10 minutes work so far. Notice it is still cocked – I need to let down the spring before proceeding.

big lock front brushed

I’ve now disassembled the lock – it turned out that the sear spring was broken and held together by rust – all the screws came out without marking the heads, but I sheared off a bit of the blade of my wide fine slot screwdriver and had to re-grind it.  A couple of tips –  the normal easing oils do not pernetrate as well as they might and I give parts a squirt of gun oil followed by a squirt of gun cleaner or acetone or some other volatile liquid that will carry the oil into the thread,  also when you come to unscrew a screw that has an exposed end its worth having a go at screwing it in a fraction along with unscrewing it, as they often have a bit of rust or a burr stopping them backing out .  Having got everything apart I wired all the bits with holes in them together with iron wire and put them back in the derusting bath to clear the hidden surfaces….

a-electolytic

The bundle of bits being electrolytically derusted to clean hidden surfaces – see Beginners’ Guide No 2 

a-tumbler-lathe

a-tumbler-pivot

Replacement shaft for tumbler  turned and the tumbler held with setting wax and drilled out to receive it. The cock shaft has a 4 B.A. thread tapped in it – I use mostly use UNF but Dick prefers B.A. and he will probably finish the job.

alock4

I TIG welded the apex of the sear spring (it works!)  and temporarily fitted the tumbler bits – it now needs the square cut for a cock and once the alignment is sorted the shaft needs silver soldering in position in the tumbler.  You’ll notice that there is a lot of  clearance in the tumbler hole in the bridle – I have learnt the hard way that its best to copy the original clearance- if you try to make it a close fit the alignment of the lock plate hole and the bridle hole may  not be perfect and it may jam – its particularly true on poor quality lock s like this one. 

  2 Responses to “Dick’s large gun”

  1. Could well be mistaken, but there seems to be quite a similarity between your flintlock and the trade guns that were sold to the Canadian indians. Especially the quite distinctive trigger guard and long barrel.

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