Author Topic: A Lock from a British Shotgun  (Read 10752 times)

Offline Hudnut

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A Lock from a British Shotgun
« on: December 02, 2017, 04:35:55 AM »
This is the lock from my James Wilkinson 16 bore shotgun, dates to September 1822.







Note how the frizzen is fitted to a circular extension of the lockplate; the lockplate itself is tight to the barrel.
« Last Edit: December 02, 2017, 04:38:59 AM by Hudnut »

Offline D. Taylor Sapergia

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #1 on: December 02, 2017, 04:41:39 AM »
Ah...the art of the lock filer!!!  Wonderful lock.
D. Taylor Sapergia
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Art is not an object.  It is the excitement inspired by the object.

Offline Hudnut

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #2 on: December 02, 2017, 05:11:50 AM »
Note how the lock fits against the barrel.
A couple of photos showing the lock inletting, and the silver overlays to protect the stock at the breech of the barrel.








img safe
« Last Edit: December 02, 2017, 05:14:25 AM by Hudnut »

Offline Pukka Bundook

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #3 on: December 02, 2017, 05:44:28 AM »
Very nice lock and very nice gun!
I always admire the breech filing as well as the lock.  Beautifully done.

Can I ask how you know the date so exactly?

Best,
Richard.

Offline Curtis

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #4 on: December 02, 2017, 06:27:20 AM »
That's what I would call a real beauty!  Nice looking gun as well.

Curtis
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Sometimes, late at night when I am alone in the inner sanctum of my workshop and no one else can see, I sand things using only my fingers for backing

Offline Hudnut

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #5 on: December 02, 2017, 07:23:07 AM »
A chap in the UK has the Wilkinson & Son books.  I obtained a copy of the page where this gun was entered.  Unfortunately, the buyer was not recorded.  On the page there are 14 or 15 guns listed, over a period of several weeks.  2/3 were percussion.  All the flint guns were singles; single and double percussion guns.  Most of the guns did have the name of the buyer.  The names of the 3 primary workmen who made the gun are listed.



The bore is shiny.  The gun has obviously been used, but was always cleaned and looked after. 
Note that the top of the frizzen is chipped.  The top jaw and screw are replacements.  I suspect that the lock was snapped without a flint, resulting in the frizzen being chipped, the screw being broken and the top jaw lost.  The top jaw is old, and correctly shaped, but free of engraving.  I made the screw, to replace a horrible new one that did not fit.
« Last Edit: December 02, 2017, 07:31:07 AM by Hudnut »

Offline Pukka Bundook

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #6 on: December 02, 2017, 06:11:45 PM »
Hudnut,
A pal has a Wilkinson rifle, and using the same information was able to date his piece as well, and who had it made.

Very nice to find such details!
It looks to have had the hammer (frizzen) re-faced;  Is this correct?

R.

Offline Hudnut

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #7 on: December 02, 2017, 08:12:30 PM »
I don't think so.

Offline Majorjoel

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #8 on: December 02, 2017, 09:41:23 PM »
The round, just about invisible fit of the frizzen upon the pan really makes this lock appear to be truly waterproof!
Very fine workmanship! Those British lock makers were at the pinnacle of their profession!

Thank you Hudnut for sharing this with us.



 
Joel Hall

Offline Pukka Bundook

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #9 on: December 03, 2017, 12:55:01 AM »
Hudnut,

I see a line down the side of the frizzen, both sides. Isn't that a re-face I see? 

Joel,

Quite agree on the top flight lock filing!

Offline smylee grouch

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #10 on: December 03, 2017, 01:54:44 AM »
It sure looks like a top quality lock and gun. The workmanship is quite obvious. I'm wondering how fast the lock/gun fired with the pan away from the barrel that way or am I seeing some thing that isn't there.

Offline Hudnut

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #11 on: December 03, 2017, 02:16:46 AM »
I don't know if the frizzen was ever refaced.  Maybe it was made with a facing.  I'll have really good look at it in bright light and see if there are any clues.  The area of the face where the flint first makes contact can be felt - the lock has certainly been snapped.
I have not fired the gun, so I cannot comment on how fast it fires.  The lock does spark!  I doubt that a British sportsman who could afford a first class gun would accept less than stellar performance.
The gun is certainly shootable - I've just never done it.  I'd feel sick if a spring were to break, or the gun damaged.  No springs have failed in 195 years, so probably aren't going to now.
The touch hole is the usual platinum type, w/patent breech.  Here is the bore, with a little penlight at the bottom, pointing toward the breech plug.





I really had hoped that the buyer had been recorded in the record book, and that I could trace the gun.  It came to Canada in 1962.  The previous owner's grandfather was from Scotland, and had acquired it post-WW2.
« Last Edit: December 03, 2017, 02:25:24 AM by Hudnut »

Offline Mike Brooks

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #12 on: December 03, 2017, 02:43:59 AM »
I'd be bird hunting with that!
NEW WEBSITE! www.mikebrooksflintlocks.com
Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'?

Offline Don Stith

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #13 on: December 03, 2017, 04:23:04 AM »
Looks like a variation of the self priming pan. I have an English double barrelled flinter with  self priming pans

Offline Hudnut

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #14 on: December 03, 2017, 06:24:26 AM »
No, it is just a waterproof pan system.  The lockplate fits tight against the barrel, and the frizzen fits closely to the ring extension of the lockplate.





« Last Edit: December 03, 2017, 06:29:53 AM by Hudnut »

greybeard

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #15 on: December 03, 2017, 09:46:48 AM »
A body cannot help but to love those high end British guns. Bob

Offline Rolf

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #16 on: December 03, 2017, 02:18:14 PM »
Thank you for posting all those detailed Pictures. It's a rare treat to see that Level of skilled work.

Best regards
Rolf

Offline Nordnecker

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #17 on: December 03, 2017, 03:32:42 PM »
^ 2nd that.
"I can no longer stand back and allow communist infiltration, communist indoctrination and the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify our precious bodily fluids."- Gen Jack T. Ripper

Offline snapper

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #18 on: December 03, 2017, 04:35:06 PM »
on the thumb piece, is that a Griffin?

Thanks

Fleener
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Offline Hudnut

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #19 on: December 03, 2017, 08:20:51 PM »
I believe it is a wolf.

Offline D. Taylor Sapergia

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #20 on: December 03, 2017, 08:39:18 PM »
The stock's butt architecture is interesting.  I personally don't care for the pitch angle, but it has the effect of forcing the comb down and away from the face upon firing, thereby preventing cheek slap.  The opposite can be seen in the French Fusil de Chasse style.

It's been a pleasure to study these images.
D. Taylor Sapergia
www.sapergia.blogspot.com

Art is not an object.  It is the excitement inspired by the object.

Steve-In

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #21 on: December 03, 2017, 09:37:46 PM »
My brother had a Wilkinson SxS percussion for a while.  The locks had been converted from flint but the quality and manner of the conversions gave doubt if the gun was originally flint or percussion.  It had a similar triggergaurd.  Overall it was a work of mechanical art.  He was offered another nice British double and some cash so as far as I know it is still percussion.

Offline Hudnut

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #22 on: December 03, 2017, 10:26:33 PM »
When a British gunmaker converted a quality flint gun to percussion, a new set of patent breechplugs would be made and fitted, and the locks altered to suit.  A friend had a cased 1812 Joe Manton 20 bore double converted in that manner.
Here, drums would usually be fitted to the breeches, pans cut off and plates notched.
The barrel marking on this one is Jas Wilkinson & Son London Gunmakers to His Majesty.  That would have been George III.

Offline Hudnut

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #23 on: December 04, 2017, 12:27:47 AM »
Hudnut,

I see a line down the side of the frizzen, both sides. Isn't that a re-face I see? 

Joel,

Quite agree on the top flight lock filing!


The frizzen does appear to have a face.  I cannot tell if it is a reface or original.  If it is refaced, the work was done to the same standard as the rest of the lock.

Offline Hudnut

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Re: A Lock from a British Shotgun
« Reply #24 on: December 04, 2017, 12:31:11 AM »
The stock's butt architecture is interesting.  I personally don't care for the pitch angle, but it has the effect of forcing the comb down and away from the face upon firing, thereby preventing cheek slap.  The opposite can be seen in the French Fusil de Chasse style.

It's been a pleasure to study these images.

The gun shoulders very smoothly with a heads up stance. 
The gun may very well have been stocked according to the wishes of the buyer.