Hi,
I am building an Edward Marshall rifle for a friend and client. It will be as close a copy as I can make without the original on my bench. I have virtually all the published resources and as much online data as I can find. I also have my notes after viewing the original gun at the Mercer Museum. Anyway, the first challenge is the lock. No commercially made locks will do as produced. Chamber's early Germanic lock and Chris Laubach's Germanic lock are too large and have much more arc to the bottom edge of the lock plate than the original. They also do not have pan bridles. They are too large and it makes a difference. One feature of the Edward Marshall rifle is that the lock is small relative to the size of the stock. It reminds me more of late flint English rifles when lock sizes were reduced than other American long rifles.
Davis's Jaeger and Chamber's early Germanic are commonly used in Edward Marshall kits but they are too large and curved. I looked at a bunch of locks including Silers and Dale Johnsons but none worked. I finally settled on Zorne's Albrecht lock sold by MBS. It was closest to the dimensions of the original but had issues like no pan bridle. I figured that I could fix that so I ordered one. I wasn't disappointed because I had very low expectations and those were born out. The lock plate was close and could be modified with welding and I could weld on a pan bridle. What angered me the most was the stupid way the lock bolster was ground for no apparent reason.
The rear lock bolt on the Marshall rifle is threaded into a blind hole in the bolster, but that part of the bolster is ground away on the Zorne lock. Anyway, I knew I was in for a complete lock reworking and really just wanted a plate, frizzen, frizzen spring, and flint cock with which I could work. The first task was to add a pan bridle. I cut a piece of mild steel to fit and welded it in place. I then shaped it, drilled the pivot screw hole and installed the frizzen I had to fill the hole in the frizzen, which I did by threading the hole, inserting a screw, counter sinking both sides, peening the screw in place and then welding over the peened ends. Works like a charm. I had to make a pivot screw that was inserted from the inside. After installing the frizzen, I shaped the bridle as close to the Marshall rifle as I could. It came out really well.
Next I had to fill the lock bolster with weld where the rear lock bolt will be threaded. Then I added weld to the tail of the plate to widen it and shape it like the original lock. Finally, I reshaped the nose of the plate and filed steps in the edges. After cleaning everything up, I will cut the border on the lock plate and flint cock, and eventually engrave the lock as the original. I think it will come out nicely.
In doing this work, I do not have any milling machines, metal lathes, TIG welders. I just have ambition, knowledge, simple tools, and skill.
dave
