Richard, if you're referring to the so-called L & R Ashmore lock, I can offer some suggestions. When the lock first came out, it was pretty decent right out of the box/bag. It had a powerful cast mainspring, a short hammer throw, was fast and gave excellent ignition. But it has deteriorated quality wise over the years, and is a good candidate for some tuning to get it up to speed. This is an opportunity for a gunmaker to learn some satisfying skills on how to improve a flintlock''s action and performance.
As received, the first thing you'll notice apart from the total lack of attention to finishing on the lock, especially the guts, is that the action feels sluggish and 'tight'. Here's what I found on the last one I used in a build.
The threaded end of the 6 x 40 sear screw is cut too far up the shank. Consequently, when it is tight, it crushes the end of the bridle against the sear, squeezing it between the bridle and the plate, thus interfering with its travel. It cannot snap in and out of the tumbler notches cleanly. There are two things going on here, and I'll get to the second one shortly. The fix is to chuck the screw by its threads in your drill press, and with a safe sided 6" mill bastard file, remove some steel from the inside of the head, effectively lengthening the shank. That will give the screw enough clearance to eliminate the binding problem.
The second part of the problem is the sear spring. There are two things wrong with the sear spring. First, the lower working arm of the spring lies too flat against the sear, limiting the sear's upward travel, and secondly, their assemblers grind off the tip of the sear spring making it too short. The result of this belt grinder work, is that the sear spring bears against the sear some 3/16" behind the boss of the sear. Consequently,, the mechanical advantage of the sear is lost, and trigger pull dramatically increased in order to get the sear to drop out of the full cock notch. Two things dramatically improve this situation, and one of them is not to throw the lock in the garbage! First, file the back of the sear's boss to remove the radius cast into the sear. I hope my photograph will explain what I mean here. Polish the back of the sear where the spring will press.
Second, the factory fitting of the sear has shortened the working arm of the spring...it should press on the sear as close to the sear's screw hole as possible. To rectify that, heat the spring red, and straighten it out flat, with gently taps of a smooth hammer on the tail of your machinist's vise. While it is flat, file the spring's thickness down to a taper to the tip, and again, polish out your file work. You can diminish the spring's thickness here to about half the factory thickness. Again, my photos should describe this better. Now, heat it red again, and bend the spring further up toward the eye, and gently hammer it down to decrease the bend. Spread the limbs to give the spring tension. Polish it, and then harden and temper it. This spring is thin, so eye balling the heat colours in a propane flame is adequate. Check out my photos for the before and after.
The lock plate of this lock has a very subtle bevel along it's edge. Your two choices are to file the plate flat which would best suit a Hawken rifle, or file decent bevels and a tail decoration, as the lock as cast isn't particularly attractive. I chose the later in this example, and added a little engraving.
Now, the frizzen spring...as received, this spring has been poorly heat treated. It is too hard. These springs as received will break, one after another. So polish the spring, and draw the temper to an even bright blue and let it cool naturally. You shouldn't need a replacement after this. I have sent all of this info together with a file of photos to L & R but I received no reply.
Here's my collection of photos to accompany this missive...
