Early 17th Century Scandinavian Gun Lock

[Philip]

Hey Rick,
This is quite remarkable. Am hitting the books right now but to address your question on how this thing was actuated when on the gun, please post a top view, looking straight down, of the sear spring / bar in relation to the lockplate. A bottom view from a similar direct vertical angle might be useful, too. Thanks!

[rickystl]

Hi Philip

Thanks for your reply. See below......

First thought was that the top of the trigger (above a pivot) or an intermediate piece would wedge between the lock plate and the sear bar forcing it inward but it looks like the wedge might hit the portion of the sear going into the lock plate before it could move far enough to disengage it.

Maybe some strange horizontal moving ball style trigger ? Duno. LOL The last photo here shows the lock in the cocked position. You can see the sear catch protruding through the lock plate - like a snaphaunce.

Rick

[Philip]

What do you think of this...

Imagine a trigger similar to that used on all the later, mature flintlock designs, an L-shaped thing pivoting at the corner, with the horizontal arm moving up as the trigger itself is pulled backwards.

On the horizontal arm, there is an offset vertical wedge-like extension that fits in the V-shaped space between the inside of the lockplate and the end of the sear spring / bar unit. The offset is to bridge the space between the central axis of the stock, where the trigger hangs, and the interior of the lock recess, it's only a fraction of an inch.

As it moves upward, the wedge goes up with it and spreads the sear from the lockplate enough to withdraw the sear nose enough to release the tail of the cock.

[Fernando K]

Hello

With all due respect, it seems to me that it is a copy, or better yet, a forgery with some advances. The same pristine state certifies this, and the profuse decoration, The closing of the jaws is conical, and thus tends to expel the stone, rather than retain it. It would be necessary to use some detection methods, such as the passage of the screws, millimeters or witworth.
Regarding the guarantor, it ends in a wedge, and if a curved surface is put under it, it comes out

Sorry for the translator. Affectionately

[Philip]

Originally Posted by Fernando K

Hello

The closing of the jaws is conical, and thus tends to expel the stone, rather than retain it. It would be necessary to use some detection methods, such as the passage of the screws, millimeters or witworth.
Regarding the guarantor, it ends in a wedge, and if a curved surface is put under it, it comes out

I don't think that this observation is sufficient to condemn Rick's lock as a piece of historicism. Looking a several published examples in Lenk, op cit, and in H L Blackmore's Guns and Rifles of the World, you will see that the jaw faces do orient themselves at an angle as opposed to parallel (as one sees on miquelets, true flintlocks, and related mechanisms). The shape of the cock and jaw pretty much determines this. Images of those guns with period flints still in place indicate that the stone was shaped somewhat differently from the blade-like form of common gunflints of a later period. Of course thick leather or perhaps lead wrapping would be necessary to ensure a tight grip, as is necessary on other flintlocks as well.

I also note from other examples that the jaw faces do have very deep transverse grooves, rather like those on the jaws of modern channel-lock pliers or plumbers' pipe wrenches, rather than the little raised teeth that we're used to seeing on other flintlocks whose jaws are capable of closing with parallel force.

[Philip]

Rick,
What are your comments on the head of the jaw screw? Needs a spanner wrench, just like on the dog of a wheellock.

For comparison, I see slotted drum-shaped screw heads on the Scandinavian locks published in the books I cited in other posts. And the classic Baltic lock has a ring shaped head, reminiscent of a miquelet.

The high-dome slotted screw heads on the other components look like an early style to me, maybe someone who knows Germanic guns better than I do might have some input.

[rickystl]

Hi Philip

Thank you so much for your comprehensive replies. You too Fernando K.

Trigger: It could be as you mention above, especially if this lock is later than originally suspected. But I'm starting to think along the lines of Fernando K.
What if a single, vertical trigger was used, with a shape at the rear of the trigger that resembles a smallish pin that is half flat/half round and tapers to a cone like shape ? And aligns with the far rear tail piece of the spring bar. As the trigger is pulled back, the semi cone shaped piece moves upward gradually enlarging against the spring bar and eventually moving it inward.
In any case, it seems the little tail opening at the end of the spring bar is key to opening. Otherwise there would be no need for the little tail. See pic below...

Rick

[Philip]

What you have is a Norwegian or Swedish snap lock of exceptional workmanship and apparently late manufacture. Looks like it was intended for a sporting gun made for someone who could afford quality, and of somewhat conservative taste.

These snapping locks started out as snaphaunces sometime in mid- to second half of the 16th cent., with large external springs that powered the cock and retained the frizzen all-in-one. By the 17th cent., they evolved into flintlocks with a combined pan-cover and frizzen, the latter pivoting atop the pan-cover to provide a safety feature since the sear had no half-cock. In Norway and Sweden, the external mainspring remained the norm until quite late, whereas in the so-called Baltic lock, the spring and sear connection was entirely internal and the cock given a more graceful curved profile. Baltic locks were made in various areas in the region surrounding the Baltic Sea, including Russia.

The Swedish arms historian Rudolf Cederström points out 3 different designs of top jaw attachment which can be used as identifiers of geographic origin. The most common is the Swedish system, in which the underside of the rear of the top jaw is dovetailed into the corresponding area of the lower jaw (the cock body). Norwegian locks have a top jaw with a vertical tenon at the rear that slides in a mortise in the bottom jaw (same concept as on the miquelet locks of southern Europe). Baltic locks have a top jaw whose rear end is flared out and channeled into a U shape that rests over a corresponding curved part of the lower jaw.

Torsten Lenk, in his The Flintlock: its Origin and Development (English version ed. John F. Hayward, 1965) states that the Swedish style appeared on snaphaunce locks in the 16th cent., the Norwegian style in the 17th, with the Baltic style quite late in that century.

What you have is an anomaly. Note that its top jaw attachment is unlike any of the 3 above, it hinges on a horizontal pin. Also, it has a very sophisticated spring stop for the frizzen that positively locks it into place for firing. The innovative design and sophisticated manufacture suggest a time period very late in the 17th cent., possibly into the very early 18th. By then, of course, the mature version of the "French" flintlock had made solid inroads throughout northern and central Europe and was even produced in north Italy as well. By the 1670s or so, "early adopters" among well-to-do sportsmen would have been very familiar with the flintlock "alla moderna", so that's why I am suggesting that your lock was probably destined for a gun ordered by someone who was very fond of the old ways. After all, consider the enduring popularity of wheellocks in some niches of the German and Swiss markets, until the mid-18th cent.