A Neapolitan miquelet pistol

[Fernando K]

Hello

Question for Conrrado. The little hole that can be seen behind the bowl is for a "faithful", missing in this case and what is the method to fix the flange to the plate.
Thank you

Affectionately

[corrado26]

I do not understand what you mean with a "Faithful". I added photos which show the hole in which I stuck a screwdriver to show that the hole is going through. I do not know for which purpose this has been made and can see no sense in it, sorry.

[Fernando K]

Hello, Corrado

The "faithful" was a method used by the Spanish to fix cylindrical pieces, instead of proceeding to thread them, particularly with the frizen screw, so that it would not move, turn or come out. LAVIN mentions them in his work

Thanks for the photo and for replying.

Affectionately

[Fernando K]

HELLO

I attach a photograph. The Ottoman keys continued to use this method. Here you can see that the piece that acts as a screw has been removed from the frizzen and the faithful one, slightly conical, has also been removed so that it sits and does not move.

affectionately

[Philip]

Oh, what is described in the thread as a "faithful" is what is known in Spanish as a fiel which is a pin drilled transversely through a screw and its threaded hold to keep it from backing out or loosening with use. James D Lavin in his A History of Spanish Firearms pp 164-65 explains this quite well, it was a common feature of early locks (before the mid-17th cent) probably because screw-threading techniques were in that era not as precise as later on. By the 1640s, only the frizzen and cock pivot screws still used them. According to sources cited by Dr Lavin, the frizzen pivot screw was the last application for the fiel and this feature generally disappeared by the 18th century.

I have handled numerous examples of miquelet locks in my collection and restoration practice and find all this to be the case.

[Philip]

Originally Posted by corrado26

I added photos which show the hole in which I stuck a screwdriver to show that the hole is going through. I do not know for which purpose this has been made and can see no sense in it, sorry.

This hole looks like it held a crosspin that retains the tenon that projects from the rear portion of the priming pan cover plate / bridle. This tenon fits into a corresponding hole or mortise in the lockplate, and the perpendicular crosspin helps anchor it. As Fernando correctly points out, this tenon cannot be a threaded bolt because there is no way that the plate/bridle can be rotated into place under the pan.

Whether this pin, for this particular application, can be regarded as a fiel in light of the rather precise definition of same in old texts is a subject for another post. However, at this point we can be clear that the mounting of the priming pan bridle / cover plate is a separate issue from the frizzen pivot (mounted just ahead of the pan).

[Philip]

Several posts previously I quoted author James Lavin on the use of the fiel which Espinar's 1644 treatise Arte de ballestería y montería
precisely describes this component as "similar to headless nails" and the screw which accepts them is "drilled through its very threads". The text clearly states the use of threaded screws which form the pivot points of both cock and frizzen. So we can argue whether or not the above-discussed crosspin holding a tenon in its mortis is a fiel according to this definition, it may be more significant to a mechanical engineer than to most arms collectors and historians.

Fernando has pointed out an example of an Ottoman lock in which the frizzen pivot is also unthreaded and locked in place by a crosspin.

This has inspired me to look through the miquelets in my collection to see how the frizzen pivots and the means of securing the pivot in place. It turns out that on all these (European, not Oriental manufacture) locks, the frizzen pivots on a screw. All of them employ threaded screws on which the frizzen rotates.
1. Very early patilla lock of somewhat primitive design, Brescia, first half 17th cent.: It has a long bridge-like bridle connecting pan and cock pivot (as on Ottoman/Balkan locks of later date), neither pivot screws are held by fieles.
2. Early Ripoll pistol ca. 1645, ex-Lavin, publ in his book, figs 115A and 117A, the frizzen screw is held by a fiel.
3. Patilla lock made by an Austrian or German smith (for a remounted war-trophy Ottoman damascus barrel, late 17th cent.) no fiel retaining either cock or frizzen screw.
4. Neapolitan lock by Scarpati of the Fab Reale di N, same remarks as 3
5. Shotgun by court gunsmith de Zegarra, 1770s, same remarks as 3
6. ditto, by Fernando Murúa of Eibar, ca 1790-1810, same remarks as 3
7. Eibar lock on pistol by José Aguirre, beginning 19th cent., same remarks as 3

What would be interesting if our friend Rick Russell (rickystl) would chime in with a comparable survey of this feature on the considerable numbers of Ottoman, Balkan, and North African locks in his collection. Also as an avid shooter of refurbished old guns of these cultures, he might also have remarks about the functional necessity of these retaining pins, if they appear in significant number on locks thought to post-date ca 1700, when Lavin states that their use pretty much ceased in Spain.