Original lock HDTDT

[David R. Pennington]

Looking again at the posts on hand making lock. Some had separate pan / bolster, some appear to have all one piece. We're these forged in dies or welded up? I don't have access to originals to examine. How did they do it?

[jerrywh]

 Not only have I examined several original locks but I have personally hand forged six different locks in different ways both with a coal forge and a propane forge. In my opinion most of the locks were forged in dies but some were also welded up and some even had the bolsters brazed on but not many had brazed on bolsters. The ones I saw that had brazed on bolsters were individually made and were not regular production imports. The English locks looked to be forged in dies.  The hardest way is to forge weld the pan and bridle on a plate.
   I was only able to achieve that by carefully fitting the parts together and holding them in place with a rivet before welding. The bridle is formed after welding the pan and bolster on the plate. This is hard to explain without pictures.  The welding is done on an anvil that is heated to about 800 ° prior to the welding operation and must be placer very close to the fire. The reason for that is -- those small parts cool so fast it is very difficult to weld before they cool too much. I think some of the smiths actually put the anvil in the forge for operations like that.  there may be other ways to do it but I fooled with that stuff for 30 or 40 years and I never found another method that would work for me.
   I quit that stuff about 20 years ago because there is no money in it but it is a lot of fun. Besides my arms won't stand the hammering anymore. I still have the last hand forged lock I made with a propane forge. In my opinion it is worth $2000.00 to make a hand made lock and that is poor pay at that. McDonalds is a better job than that.

[David R. Pennington]

Thanks for the insight. I have been rolling it around in my head trying to figure it out. I see what you mean about the parts cooling too fast. I learned real quick you can forge small nails easier from larger stock because the smaller stock cools too fast.

[Mark Elliott]

Jerry,  I believe the going price for a hand forged lock is $6000, not that there are very many takers. 

[Clint]

In order to make a lock out of wrought iron we need to stop thinking like a person who wants to have an iron lock and start thinking like a blacksmith. I have been a blacksmith for 45 years so that's easy for me. I have examined thousands of wrought iron artifacts and I would say that a large percentage of them were made by welding smaller pieces into larger pieces. It is not unusual to see strap hinges made up from two or three pieces etc. The message here is that welding was as easy and routine as any other forging activity of the day.  The basic flaw in most forge welds is too much heat and probably too much flux. To make a rifle size lock I will start by hammering a piece of iron to five eighths by three eighths of an inch about two inches long . pinch one end down to 1/4 x1/4 and forge a long piece of quarter x onto it for a porter bar. This piece is the bolster and it wants to be welded flat onto the edge of the plate. Make your pan five eighths square by one and a quarter inch long . hammer a porter on that one too. The lock plate could be quarter by one and a quarter with no porter bar. Put the plate and the bolster in the fire and bring the heat up. You can use a little bit of borax if you think you need to but go light with it. When you get up to welding heat grab the plate with your hammer hand and bring the bolster with you.  Put the plate on the anvil and position the bolster on the plate. tuck them together with moderate hammer blows and carefully watch what you're doing. Do not wildly thrash around with your hammer trying to fill the shop with sparks, look closely at the surface of the metal and stop when you're welded (6 to 10 hammer blows). Back in the fire with the pan and repeat. You now have a rectangular plate with the bolster and the pan welded on one edge. email me and I will put some pictures together that will make more sense.

[James Wilson Everett]

Guys,

Most often I make a German style lock with the detachable pan as in the current topic of making a gunlock.  However, occasionally I do weld on the pan so the pan & plate are one piece.  I simply heat the rough formed plate & a bar for the pan to the correct welding temperature, both pieces look "greasy" or there is a surface "shimmer'.  Then I simply press the two together, without any heavy hammering.  This ends up with an OK, not perfect, weld with still a whole lot of cutting & filing mostly to make the pan fence.  This thin section of the pan fence is too thin to effectively weld at the same time as the pan.  I weld on the larger bar or block for the pan, then file & cut the rest, leaving the thin fence.  I have never had a pan to break off (yet) but as you can see in these two photos, the weld is imperfect.  Actually, everything looks very nice until the gun is shot many times and the B.P. corrosion shows up the flaw.  I am still learning and my work is far from perfect, but here it is.

Jim, from Ssumba village, Wakiso district, Uganda East Africa