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Originally Posted by rickystl
A couple of interesting side notes from this Thread.
Flints: There are not only less flint mines in these areas, but the flint is of lesser quality than the English Black or French Amber flints. This may be one of the reasons why the flintlocks - in any form - either locally made or imported to the Region seem to have stronger mainsprings than their European counterparts.
Matchlock Mechanisms: I had an interesting conversation with a re-enactor a few years ago. He said that while their group shoot both the lever/bar (earlier) and snapping (later) style matchlocks, most of the guys prefer the earlier lever style. He says that while the earlier style adds 2-3 seconds to ignition time, they have better control of the match and aiming the barrel. Interesting.
That may be more recent evidence why the Ottoman/Arab/Indian style of matchlock mechanism persisted for so long.
Rick.
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Rick,
I'm a bit confused by these re-enactors findings re. speed of ignition.
A normal matchlock with a scear -bar can be very fast indeed, certainly the speed of a flintlock.
Re the snapping matchlock;
Many if not most, of these are in fact earlier than the scear-type.
If you go to European forum here, you can see untold amounts of matchlocks, in threads started by Matchlock, (sadly with us no more) and others.
Snapping matchlocks were used for target shooting into the late 17th century, but these were for specific matches, and shot Very well indeed!
Often these took a live coal, rather than matchcord for ignition.
Best,
Richard.