Folks, the original M1836 Johnson and Waters flintlock pistol I finished restoring about 8 months ago came to me as a partially done reconversion. The barrel had already been welded up and a touch hole drilled. So I didn't have qualms about finishing the pistol as it was to remain in the recently deceased owner's widow's possession and only put on display in a glass case. The Widow wanted that pistol finished as her husband had worked on and off on it for years and she wanted it done in his memory. He was also a fellow traveling man, so all these things were part of that decision.
I had to take a business trip down to Smithfield, VA a couple days ago to pick up a bunch of guns from a customer who is also a dear friend. Laying on an occasional table was most of an original small Queen Anne wood stocked flint pistol. I wrote "most of" because it had been "percussioned" by just screwing in a nipple into the top of the barrel and did not have the modified flint or percussion hammer anymore. The pan looks like it was cut and filed smooth to the face of the lock. (This type of conversion was common enough here in the South and especially around the time of the War Between the States.) The round faced Queen Anne lock plate is smooth except for the tumbler sticking out from it. The pistol is just a little too big to be considered a "muff" pistol and probably is better described as a small traveling or overcoat pistol. The pistol was a very good quality pistol when made as there is some engraving on the iron buttcap with spurs and an unusually long and even more heavily engraved ramrod thimble. I've always had a special "thing" for these small full wood stocked Queen Anne pistols and rounded English flintlocks in general.
My friend is interested in having the pistol put back into some kind of working condition as it is a family piece that goes back many generations and the pistol may have been purchased by by one of his ancestors when new and imported into the U.S. in the 18th century. I'm having a bit of a quandary about what to suggest for it.
The usual way these were originally "percussioned" was to modify the original flintlock cock, or hammer as some say today, by welding on metal to form the percussion hammer. I could do that with something like a Peter Dyson and Son, ltd. repro flint cock and part of another repro percussion hammer welded together. I also have some collector blood in me that is suggesting that is the "correct" thing to do. However, the pistol is almost begging me to put it back into full flintlock form. But there is something I don't know enough about before doing that and hope someone here can help me.
I am not a professional welder and honestly not a very good amateur welder. I can weld smaller parts, but filling the hole in the barrel from the percussion nipple with weld is beyond my abilities. I have the services of an excellent professional welder who I trust to do work even more difficult than this. What I don't know is if filling the hole with weld will make the barrel too weak in case someone ever tries to fire this pistol. I could make a threaded plug to fill in the hole, but am not sure if that is strong enough to withstand firing especially as this is a smooth bore round barrel and not an octagonal barrel. I'm concerned someone after us tries to shoot that gun and it becomes a grenade in their hand, even if documentation not to fire it is included in say a display case for the pistol.
I've thought about re-converting it and not drilling the touch hole all the way through the barrel, but someone in the future may go ahead and drill it on through and try to fire it. I realize no one can do everything to prevent foolish actions by others now or in the future, but that is on my mind.
I've also thought about doing the flintlock re-conversion and then putting a plug of epoxy bedding in the bore at the breech so the pistol can never be successfully loaded and fired even if they drill the vent hole out. Of course I would use mold release beforehand, so the epoxy could be drilled out successfully in the future and I doubt most anyone who would be foolish enough to fire it would drill it out.
Any thoughts ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.
