top jaw screw

[elk killer]

beings locks are the subject,
i always wondered,,when and what types of flintlocks,,
used a hole drilled in the screw over a screw driver slot..??
of course many have both
is this a military used method?

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

Mine do....that way I can't bugger up the screwdriver slot!!

[Artificer]

A hole or a ring was very common on the top of Miquelet top jaw screws. 

You find some holes in top jaw screws on French military flintlock pistols of the mid to late 18th century, but not regularly on muskets.  Same thing for British 18th century muskets as they usually had a Turnscrew slot.  U.S. Muskets of the Flint period had turnscrew slots. 

I don't know why a hole in a top jaw screw wasn't used earlier at least on military arms.  It could have been seen as an unnecessary expense because it was more difficult to make. 
Gus

[billd]

And always I thought I invented the hole in the top jaw screw trick when I laid the top of my thumb knuckle wide open while changing a flint in the field with numb fingers and a screw driver in January about 15 years ago........      

Bill

[JTR]

Seems to me that most original Kentucky's just have a screwdriver slot, and no hole.
The holes are more of a military thing.
John

[Pvt. Lon Grifle]

An old US GI 1911 wrench can often be secretly kept in the bottom of your pouch to fit just such a hole.  Lon

[Artificer]

I pulled out Dr. Bailey's British Ordnance Small Arms, 1718 to 1783.  It seems the hole in the top jaw screw started showing regularly on miitay pistols of about 1750 onward and on musket locks from some use in the pattern 1756 and 1763 muskets and then became rather standard on the pattern 1777 onward, including some of the British Military Rifles from that pieriod onward. So I stand corrected on British Military guns.

This queston picqued my curiousity, so I had to do a little more digging.   Since I used to collect early gun tools, I remembered the "Y" shaped Brown Bess musket combination tools and that they went back to the 18th century.  The end of the Y shaped musket tool was formed like a tapered round punch.  Some people erroneously have stated that was to clear the touch hole, but those punches were too big for that.  Then some suggested it was for driving the barrel pins out to clean the barrel.  I never bought that because you don't want troops dismounting barrels and losing the pins.   However, they worked nicely to tighten top jaw screws with holes in them.  Now as more research has been done, we find most of the dug examples they made copies from were so rusted that the threads on the rounded tapered punch leg were worn away and after checking originals, they found most of them had threads for a worm.  Most reproductions are not made that way.  Here's a link that shows a dug original.

http://paaba.net/Projects/ZMusket.htm

I'm very glad to have researched this more as I found out something I didn't know about the 18th centuy Y shaped musket tools.  I already reshaped and rehardened/annealed the two screwdriver tips on my repro tool to correctly fit my Brown Bess.  Now I'll go back and thread the tapered punch end so I can use the outer edge to tighten down top jaw screws and hold the worm in place further down towards the center.  It will make the tool even more useful. 
Gus

[The other DWS]

Gus, do those "bess" tools have enough mass to reedge a gunflint?  Were they hardened enough to strike sparks for fire starting and pipe lighting?

[Artificer]

They are big enough and heavy enough to reedge a gunflint, but the shape is not real handy to do so.  Still in a pinch...........

I only had one tool I thought was English, the other two most likely had been made in India for use with the India Pattern Brown Bess.  The Indian ones were much more crudely made and it seemed like they had a thin case hardening only over the edges of the screwdriver tips.  The English one was better made and seemed to have a deeper case hardening.  I never thought to try to strike a spark from it, though, Duh.  When I find my repro, I'll see if it will strike a spark.

Gus