Is this part of flintlock

[Juanmoretime]

I found this this weekend and I'm still cleaning it. Whats your opinion? This came from a camp site that is around 1800 give or take 10 years. Thanks for your help! If this is what I hope it is, got any idea what it might have come off of. Thanks for looking and any help you might can offer.

Steve

 

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[Bigcypresshunter]

Sure looks like it.

 

[RPG]

Looks like a lock plate to me too. How are you cleaning it. I would be very careful.
Randy

 

[Cynangyl]

NICE!! I do believe you are right my friend! That is toooooo cool!

 

[Juanmoretime]

I brushed it off with a brass brush and have been cleaning it with electrolysis. So far so good. I check it every couple hours and the crud is coming off okay so far. Any more suggestions?

 

[ivan salis]

I say yes. -- take it slow and easy on the clean up

 

[RPG]

I say yes. -- take it slow and easy on the clean up

Yep...You don't want it to go away.

 

[Juanmoretime]

Okay, ya'll have me nervous so I took it out and stopped the electrolysis. I'll post a couple of new pictures. Can anyone tell me who would know enough about flinlocks to make any kind of ID of what this came off of? Thanks for any help!!

Steve

 

[RPG]

Looks a lot like a brown bess but I don't know enough about them to say for sure. Some one will give you an ID soon.
Randy

 

[l.cutler]

No, not a brown bess. Nice find, flint locks don't show up very often!

 

[BuckleBoy]

The piece looks sturdy enough that you could continue the electrolysis, in order to get down to the good metal.

If you're worried about it, take a dremel tool with a steel brush on it (not brass) and run the dremel tool to brush the remaining rust off of the piece.

I actually use a drill bit made of some sort of composite polishing material to get down in the screw holes and bust rust out of tough areas sometimes--but I get ballsy with it.

Dremel is all you need. And they aren't expensive.

That way you can take it at your pace.


That is a GREAT find!



-Buckles

 

[romeo-1]

That's coming along fine...I agree with Bucks...throw er' back in the juice.

 

[Juanmoretime]

Okay guys, I'll throw the juice back on tomorrow morning so I can check it real often. Buckleboy, I have a Dremel setup so I'll see what more I can do with it. I agree that it doesn't look anythiing like a Brown Bess but I don't know where to look to find out what it might be. I hope someone can give me some advice on how to pin it down. Thanks everybody!! I'll post more pics tomorrow after more cleaning!

 

[l.cutler]

Unless you uncover a name there isn't much chance of identifying it. Many were made by individual gunmakers as needed , or bought from English or American lockmakers.

 

[dcinffxva]

Absolutely part of a flintlock. The pan and frizzen are still intact, and the hammer is gone.

Some pics with a ruler, or measurements will help a little, because it could be either a musket, shotgun or pistol lock, but I'm pretty sure it is musket sized.

Here are a couple for comparison

US Model 1795

Brown Bess-Early Third Model

Charleville 1763-1771 vintage

US Model 1803

 

[Juanmoretime]

Thanks for the pictures. I just put it back in its bath for a couple of hours to remove more scaling and I will post a couple of more pictures with a ruler to provide scale. Thanks for the help!
Steve

 

[scratcher]

I don't think you have to worry at all with electrolysis on this plate. I have done three recently and they were all more of a rustball than yours appears to be. Leave it overnight and the rust should just fall off if you have a good connection with 2 amps. The side opposite the hammer will probably require some scraping. I've found an old ice pick to work really well. Nice find!

 

[Juanmoretime]

Thanks for everybodys comments and advice. I've pulled it of of the bath and its had all the electrolysis I can stand to give it. I lost a couple of edges and that was that. I took a Dremel tool with a stainless steel brush and finished as much as I could get to. It is brittle at this point and I'm done with it. I took some pictures with tape to give an idea of scale. I still wish I knew how to identify something about this.

 

[BuckleBoy]

I hope you are going to bake that relic in the oven to get the water out of it quickly, and then coat it with a Very thin coat of crisco so that it doesn't continue to rust away. 

Nice work on it so far! 



-Buckles

 

[dcinffxva]

Looks like a nice cleaning job. Also, because of the size, it looks to be a pistol lock. Here is one more pic with size comparison.