How to Engrave a Percussion Lock

Pic #1...These are the parts of a percussion lock which are rough castings & must be polished before engraving. I hand polish them.

Pic #2...The lock is completely put together & the hammer is in the firing position, not half cocked or cocked, & the reason for that is to scribe around the front of the hammer, back of the hammer & the screw that holds the hammer on the mechanism.

Pic #3...Here is the importance of putting the percussion lock back together again after the polishing & scribing around the hammer and the hammer screw.
You'll see that the scrolls are visible and not under the hammer in either direction. I have seen this mistake many times where half of the scrolls are underneath the hammer..they should flow from underneath on both sides & also come out from under the screw.

The above information is also for the Flint Lock.

JJ;
Very nice job on the lock. How many times in my lifetime have I said," That is interesting, makes perfect sense, I would never have thought of that!"? This is another one of those times. Thanks for posting this tip.
Cheers
Don

Unique job JJ. It has a vikingesque look to it! It looks like that dragon is going to blow some fire on that percussion cap!

Wow,Nineteen notifications thanks. J.J.

Nice job engraving it and thanks for sharing your knowledge.

another thing I've done JJ, is work out a design like you have done, move the cock/hammer back to full cock, then continue the design so that it works in both positions but neither position looks like something is left out or covered up.
Nicely done.
Layne

It occurs to me that some of you might like to try doing a lock or cap box as practice pieces.
In a few minutes, I will be posting some lock and cap box kits in the Buy and Sell forum.

I thought members of this forum were to post things for sale on the buy & sell page? J.J.