L & R Manton Lock

[leviathan]

   Thinking about using the Manton percussion lock on a gun.  Can any of you suggest any ways to make it look more like a true percussion conversion? I know the pan isn't evident on this English lock like the Siler percussion conversion. Just wondering when the first conversions from flint to cap were going on in the early-mid 1800's if the pans were always left on or were some completely removed? Thanks guys!

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I've seen 'em both ways.  I have a converted Ketalnd fowling piece and the remnants of the fence of the pan remain after the pan was filed off flush with the plate.  Often, this little bit was removed too, eliminating everything that was flint.  That's how the commercial efforts usually are.

To get a percussion conversion plate correct, convert a flint plate to percussion.

[Bob Roller]

   Thinking about using the Manton percussion lock on a gun.  Can any of you suggest any ways to make it look more like a true percussion conversion? I know the pan isn't evident on this English lock like the Siler percussion conversion. Just wondering when the first conversions from flint to cap were going on in the early-mid 1800's if the pans were always left on or were some completely removed? Thanks guys!

I have made bogus locks by using the flint plate and partially removing the pan and then filling the frizzen pivot screw hole and the frizzen spring holes with brass plugs. I usually threaded the holes and brass rod and hit them with a flat punch and hammer and then file them down.

Bob Roller

[Acer Saccharum]

Do as Bob says with the holes.

I've seen the pan filed right off flush with the plate, and the fence left standing; and the fence also removed on others.

Consider a later style commercially available hammer, one that does not really look English, but American hardware store.

[gunmaker]

Cut a "filed off pan & blast deflector" from a thin piece of steel---solder on plate, even drill Frizzen holes and plug....be resourceful...

[Hungry Horse]

 I just finished a conversion on an old Dixie Gun Works flintlock that had such bad geometry that it wasn't worth trying to make work as a flinter. I sawed off the pan, but left the flash fence. I plugged the extra holes with a piece of scrap copper ground wire, that fit pretty well, and hammered a nice head on the outside, but did a shallow countersink on the inside, so I could file it flush after hammering. I wanted it to look like a field conversion, rather than a smith made one. It turned out pretty well. I also added some new made cap erosion with some cold blue,and some bleach, which came out pretty well also. What ever you do if you use the bluing and bleach don't breath it.

  Hungry Horse