Lock Plan

[FrankG]

Heres a lock plan that can be modified .I used it a basis for mine.

[Chaffa Hosa]

You had to go and post that didn't you
I'll be building me a lock before long

Question How does the pan cover open?

[FrankG]

This one is meant to have pan attached to barrel and the cover has a piece that is above and below and pivots on bolt through pan. I attached pan to lock plate of my own design with cover pivoting on pan.

[Chaffa Hosa]

Does it open as you pull the trigger or do you have to open it manually?

[FrankG]

Manual operation .

[Chaffa Hosa]

Manual operation .

Sort of a safety

[FrankG]

Oh ya deffinately with that rope glowing right above it .Its a little unnerving at first , but you get coordinated after a few times .

[mongrel]

You had to go and post that didn't you
I'll be building me a lock before long

Question How does the pan cover open?

On the simpler versions of the matchlock, wheellock, and snaphance, the pan is opened by hand just prior to shooting. From the diagram it appears that's how this one works (as you all discussed and worked out while I was typing this  ). On more elaborate (usually later-period) matchlocks, and much more frequently on the wheellock and snaphance, either a cam or a bridle link of some sort opened the pan automatically.

If this all seems inefficient -- it is, very much so, by our standards and even by the standards of the "true" flintlock era, which began in roughly 1600. "True" flintlocks and at least one of their prototypes, the Spanish miquelet, have the combined frizzen and pan cover in an "L" shape that we're used to seeing. On other, earlier mechanisms the means of igniting the priming powder, whether by mechanically-produced spark or a match, involved parts separate from the pan cover. Again, we see this as inefficient, but to add to the enjoyment and the history lesson that comes from playing with these antique systems it's helpful to look at things from the point of view of the original gunsmiths and shooters. They didn't have the later systems and improvements to compare to. They only had what had come before -- and in that sense what we see as primitive and inefficient becomes, for its time, a marvel of modern technology.

[tom-h]

here is a picture of the lock ,frank crafted for my matchlock when pulling the trigger it is a smooth as silk and almost effortless but very positive at the same time.