Hi,
I mentioned in another thread that I would do one on working over an L&R Queen Anne lock. I was asked to do one by a left-handed friend and accepted the job mainly because lefties have few choices. If they want a round-faced lock there is only one readily available choice, the L&R Queen Anne. So to help them and others make do, I am posting this thread. I don' imply that you need to do everything I do to have a decent lock but any of the tasks will help. I am not going to show finishing the exterior just what is necessary to improve function.
The QA lock purports to be from the 1750s period, which is actually long after Queen Anne who died in 1714.
Locks from that era usually had long sear springs such that the hole for the spring was always hidden behind the flint cock. It wasn't until the 1770s that short springs became common and 2 screws shown behind the flint cock. The other problem is that the lock is not up to the quality of similar locks made during that period but it can be improved a lot. The photo below shows QA lock along with an original lock from the 1760s showing the long sear spring.
how to upload pictures on the internetI also show the QA lock and a Chambers round-faced English lock. The Chambers lock is very close to the original.
The QA lock has improved over the years. The photos below show a new one and one I purchased 4 or 5 years ago. Note the sear is longer and larger on the new lock. That is a big improvement.
The bridle was simplified and made a bit more crudely and the mainspring was changed from a cast spring to their new flat forged spring. The new spring is an improvement in one sense because it is oriented such that the lower leaf is straight when the lock is at full cock. I show that feature below along with the Chambers lock. The lower leaf on the old spring bent upward at the middle.
Another improvement L&R made was the geometry of the sear and tumbler such that the sear bar always returns to the same position on the lock plate when at rest, half, and full cock.
The older version moved around. Below is an example of poor geometry with respect to the sear. Note how much the sear bar moves and is in 3 different positions at rest, half, and full cock. That makes it very hard to install a simple trigger such that it maintains contact with the sear regardless of cock position.
So the new L&R QA lock has some solid raw material with which to work. Now for the issues. The frizzen has a "waterproof" lug on the bottom of the pan cover. Ostensibly, this is supposed to seal the pan. In the photo below, where does the priming powder go? The lug takes up most of the space and is going to pack the powder down.
It also may be preventing the frizzen from fully closing on the pan. Look at the gap around the pan.
That lug has to go, and in its place the frizzen will be better fit to the pan and a notch will be filed into the bottom of the lid at the vent hole. That prevents packing powder down near the vent and loose powder burns faster. In addition, note in the photo above that the bolster on the lock plate is not ground parallel to the plate. It is toed in on the bottom. That has to be carefully filed flat and parallel with the plate.
The flintcock is not seated properly on the tumbler. It appears that no fitting was done and it was just carelessly pushed on to the tumbler. It does not butt against the shoulder on the tumbler post.
The internal parts are all rough and no polishing or precise fitting seems to have been done. When diassembling an L&R lock, make sure to note the orientation of the fly detent and don't lose it. I always have a small supply of replacements on hand just in case.
Finally, the lock plate is not ground flat inside. The grinding is careless and not even. That will be corrected.
The first job is to pop the frizzen, bridle, tumbler, sear, mainspring, and frizzen spring into my heat treating oven and heated to bright red, then cooled slowly. That is to anneal them, which makes reworking and polishing much quicker. You don't have to do that and unless you are adept at heat treating, I suggest you avoid annealing any hardened and tempered parts. You can accomplish many of the tasks with grinding and polishing stones and diamond files but it will go more slowly. I am going a demonstrate an extensive work over but you certainly don't need to do it all to have a pretty good lock. Just do what you are comfortable with. More to come.
dave
