Author Topic: Beck patchbox hinge  (Read 4045 times)

Offline sqrldog

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Beck patchbox hinge
« on: January 12, 2013, 03:47:50 AM »
Hi I'm a new member first post. My name is Tim Cosby. I jokingly tell people I'm just one "r" short of being a great hornsmith. I live just south of Montgomery AL. Been involved building and shootimg since the early 80's. I am now building two left hand Becks for my sons. I have a question about the hinge on Beck's patchboxes. Beck, Beyer and Peter Berry most of the time used a unique hinge on their patchboxes. a good example of this is the Peter Berry patchbox on the cover of Merrill Lindsay's The Kentucky Rifle. Beck used a similar but more refined hinge. I have asked several really good builders how this hinge was made they didn't know. Does anyone on ALR know how this hinge was made. The purpose so I've been told was to limit the lid travel to 90 degrees. I have made several patchboxes using the usual hinge, but this one is a little different. Any comments or help is appreciated.
P.S. I also enjoy following a good squirrel dog.

Offline Dr. Tim-Boone

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Re: Beck patchbox hinge
« Reply #1 on: January 12, 2013, 04:02:26 AM »
Welcome to ALR Squirrel Dog!

Take a look here.  http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=7071.0

Use the search feature and you  will find dome other comments as well
« Last Edit: January 12, 2013, 04:03:17 AM by Dr. Tim-Boone »
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Offline bgf

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Re: Beck patchbox hinge
« Reply #2 on: January 12, 2013, 04:04:12 AM »
I think this one is informative as well:
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=17953.0

Offline sqrldog

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Re: Beck patchbox hinge
« Reply #3 on: January 12, 2013, 04:32:41 AM »
Thanks for the quick response. Take me a while to digest this info and some experiment to see how I I can use it. Still somewhat of a mystery. I like Tom Snyders box a lot. Tim

Offline Dave B

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Re: Beck patchbox hinge
« Reply #4 on: January 12, 2013, 05:26:51 AM »
This detail is only filed into the hinge barrels on some as in this JP Beck piece. You can see the hinge is made in the standard manor. I believe that the Peter Berry piece from the book slip cover is of the same vein.




I think it is pure decoration or an attempt to make the hinge look slimmer and cleaner. IMOP
Dave Blaisdell

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Re: Beck patchbox hinge
« Reply #5 on: January 14, 2013, 09:55:17 PM »
Tim,

We had a long discussion of this a couple years ago.  Bottom line is those "hinge stops" along side the barrel of the hinge are just filed in.  It works best to bend the hinge with the barrel of the hinge only slightly elevated above the plane as the lid or finial.  This put the centerline of the pin on the plane of the bottom of the lid rather than centered on the lid.  It's a bit more of a trick to do this than just bending it with the barrel elevated but it's clearly what Beck did.  It was probably over kill but I built the lid and finial out of .080" brass rather than 1/16" which gave me lots to work with for filing stuff in. 

Tom

Offline sqrldog

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Re: Beck patchbox hinge
« Reply #6 on: January 15, 2013, 01:10:23 AM »
Tom
Thanks for the reply. I've been in the shop playing with brass trying to get the hinge right before I build the patchboxes for the boys rifles. If I can get a pathbox nearly as nice as yours I'll be happy. Probably should have  just built them classic Lancasters instead. Really like the last plane I got grom you. Tim