Hi and thank you all,
I appreciate the comments. I worked hard on this one and I have to admit, it is a bit of a fantasy piece because there was no standard to work from unless I copied an original example. But I did my homework and arrived at a plausible design. There were a few rifled fusils but the vast majority known were smooth of carbine or musket bore. However, because there is no standard pattern, I made up a story for what a wealthy lowland Scot officer might order from a good London or provincial maker. The Scottish heritage is from the tiny thistle engraved on the butt plate frame. The bent arm with sword on the side plate indicates courageous leadership. The rest of the engraving is classic English rococo. Richard, the shell is from a Bailes gun. He was one of the greatest in my opinion but he suffered from the poor payment behavior of his wealthy clientele. The side plate was used by Verncomb, Ketland, and several others. Mine is different in that I left a solid shield of brass in the center rather than open loops of rope. That gave me the opportunity to engrave the bent arm. I am always inspired by the past artists but I attempt to display my understanding of their work by creating designs of my own that seem unambiguously derived from those historical roots. The lock is interesting. It is set up just as the original it is based on. Note the flint jaws do not over lap the pan very much. Also note the face of the frizzen is almost flat, no arc. It took me a bit to figure this out. The parts were cast from an original lock complete with wear. After cleaning up the cast frizzen and its casting imperfections, it was very thin and light. After looking at original Twigg locks, I knew that thinness was wrong. So I soldered a thick hardened sole on the frizzen and I suspected the flat thick surface would work with the flint cock geometry to create great performance. I am was completely correct and the lock produces sparkler sparks right in the pan. It has the advantage that the flint is not right in the pan explosion and should remain cleaner longer. It taught me that there is more than one way to skin a cat as long as you understand the physics. This is priceless knowledge.
Thanks again for your comments and interest in my work.
dave
