Something I just noticed...
The frizzen doesn't look all the way forward yet all the fire and fury has happened.
Am I wrong?
I have been told that with a well tuned lock that a ball will exit the muzzle before the frizzen opens all the way...
It appears that bit of info has some truth to it.
Mike
What is far more likely is that we're seeing the frizzen after it has rebounded. I have video of 80 or more locks taken at 5000 frames per second. Included in this set some of the best English locks from the early 1800's. In none of those videos does the pan ignite before the flint completes it's motion. In fact, in some cases the frizzen rebounds more that once before the pan ignites. In those 80+ videos there was only one lock whose frizzen did not rebound. In that case the man who held the lock for the video had his thumb pinched when the frizzen came to rest.
BTW, the fastest lock I ever timed was a Joseph Manton lock owned by Lynton McKenzie, (.0299 sec). In another test with a highly tuned lock, the mechanical time was about 40% of total time, with the remaining 60% occuring after the mechanical time was complete and the sparks are in the priming powder. I'm sure this varies from lock to lock and with the quality of the prime. In this case the priming powder was Goex 4fg.
More information can be found at:
https://www.blackpowdermag.com/category/videos/Regards,
Pletch
