View Single Post
Old 18th June 2017, 04:00 PM   #11
rickystl
Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: St. Louis, MO area.
Posts: 1,621
Default

Hi Philip.

Thanks for your reply. Yes, it's an interesting and curious subject, without much historical information outside of Europe. It is a known fact that the flint from the mines in the Eastern countries was simply sub-standard to the English black or French amber. This is probably why the English would ship barrels of pre-knapped flints to the Eastern market for use of their troops stationed there.
And probably could not (at least officially) be sold or traded to the locals. Also, if my memory serves me, the optimum beveled flint as we know it was not in general use till about the second quarter of the 18th Century (?). Previous to that, some collectors/shooters call it a flint "pawl". Just a more crudely knapped flint without the optimum beveled shape. Sort of like a chip of flint and steel used for starting a fire. This combination, I believe is the primary reason for the extra strong mainsprings in the Eastern lock copies.
Maybe a lesser knowledge of optimum spring hardness and hardening of primary wear points could also be a contributing factor (?).
I can say, from a shooter's perspective, that the Algerian lock as above does eat up beveled flints very quicky! And the trigger pull is very stiff.
Another good example which I believe adds further evidence to the poor flint quality in the Eastern region are the English TRADE locks that were traded all over the East and North America around the turn of the 19th Century. These were basically an ENGLISH MADE copy of the locks used on the British 3rd Model Brown Bess musket. What I have noticed is the same locks sent to the Eastern markets have this stronger mainspring versus the same locks sent to North America. (Not to be confused with the LOCALLY made copies of this lock, that are of far lesser quality of found on some of the Afghan Jazails). There are lock makers here in the States that have over time noticed the same thing as respects the mainsprings. But generally, I believe the quality of flint available in the Region accounts for these heavy mainsprings.

Rick
rickystl is offline   Reply With Quote