Correcting Brown Bess Cock Angle

[Burgess_rudy]

I have a Pedersoli Brown Bess and when the cock is at rest it is pointing past the front of the pan instead in the center of the pan like my Chambers English Lock. What would be the best way to correct this. Heat the curve of the cock to Red and then hammer it slightly till it moves?

I have pictures of original Brown Bess' and they all point toward the center of the pan.

[Longknife]

  Heat it up but don't hammer it , just bend it carefully , a little at a time. You also must consider how you will change  the angle that the flint strikes the frizzen. If you bend it will it still strike the frizzen at the correct angle and open the pan? Also, if the lock works good and you are geting good fast ignition, then leave it alone---You may be asking for more trouble than you have now!!!!!!!!!!...Ed

[LRB]

  Be sure to have the jaw screw in, and all the way down, or you might not be to put it back afterwards.

[T*O*F]

Where the flint points is immaterial.  You can make it point anywhere you want by proper flint selection.  You are probably using flints that are not hand picked.  Each flint has a different profile.  Some are heavily beveled, some are flat, some are thicker than others, some are longer than others.  You need to find the profile that is ideal for your gun, and then go thru a vendor's box and hand pick flints which match that profile.

[hammer]

Good point, LRB.   What I have done in the past is to clamp the jaws onto the end of a thin flat file.  By heating the part of the neck that you want to bend you can then press straight down on the end of the handle so keeping the jaws square: no misalignment.  Also by adjusting the base of the cock in the vice jaws so the end of the handle is a set distance from the bench top or other stop you can easily control the amount of bend.

Peter.

[Burgess_rudy]

Thanks for the great replies. I don't know If I have the courage yet to try it, though I want to. I'll check on the price of a new cock to see if it's worth it.

[J.D.]

I you bend the cock too far, just heat it up and bend it back to where it was.

I bent the cock on my bess and had to use flints bevel down, for the most part. Long flints work ok bevel up, but need to be turned over as they wear.

I also bent the frizzen to the rear of the plate, and gave it more radius.

With those modifications and after pack hardening, it is a reliable sparker.

I really like Hammer's idea of clamping bar stock in the jaws and rotating the base of the cock in the vise to achieve a more precise amount of bend.

God Bless,
J.D.

[Habu]

I'm with TOF; I shot > 100 pounds of powder through a Bess with a similar lock.  I didn't bother to correct it until I rebuilt the lock.  Pick your flints, clap them solidly in the hammer. 

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

This is a picture of the lock of my 1st Model Brown Bess, from TRS parts sold through TOW quite a few years ago.  The flint in this picture is worn from shooting perhaps 100 shots, so it has a more or less equal bevel top and bottom, and is quite short.  It points well forward of the centre of the pan, yet gives wonderful ignition.  I wouldn't even think of changing this one.  I'd like to see a similar close up picture of yours before I passed judgement on whether it needs tweeking.