Moukhalla

[RDGAC]

Well, perhaps like an idiot, I went and finally acquired one of these oddities in September last. Been meaning to post it on the forum since then but, well, you know how it goes...

Overall length 63in, barrel length 48in almost exactly; the bore's somewhere around .65 (or roughly 20-bore), but is actually ovoid at the muzzle(!) so it's a bit tricky to say for sure.

Snaphance lock semi-functional; when purchased, the corrosion had essentially jammed it solid, but oil and wire wool has removed enough of that to get the lock moving again. The sear nose has deformed sufficiently to prevent engagement with the cock, and doesn't actually match up with the tail of the cock (more on that anon), and the pushrod for the pan lid is sufficiently loose to wobble a fair bit when the lock works. One of the lock screws is ridiculously overlong but otherwise OK. Whole thing sits very loosely in the stock; could be a replacement?

Barrel's as crude as anything I've ever seen, being not particularly straight externally and, as mentioned, ovoid in section at the muzzle (ramrod wear?). Very long, narrow bored and surprisingly light. Smoothbored, octagonal over first 5 inches (or so) from breech, transitioning to round external section thereafter, with notch rear sight and brass bead foresight that's worn down to a stub but just about visible.

Stock and fittings are the real meat of this thing. Never seen as much bone or silver in such a short area. Most of the decorations are still in place; the biggest absence is a piece of bone which should be sited almost exactly on the centreline of the stock, roughly where the user's thumb would rest while shooting - probably explains its absence. Camel-bone inlay sections forming hindmost part of buttstock are extensively cracked (desiccation or heat expansion/contraction?) and yellower than a hundred-a-day smoker's two remaining teeth, but at least remain in position. Small areas of orange coral present on stock wrist. Extensive silver plating, covering underside of stock adjacent to lock, and used to produce sideplate to hold lock screws. Twenty-eight (count 'em!) barrel bands, of which one brass; first band appears to be heavily patinated silver strip of approx. 3in length, nailed to stock through leading corner. Iron ramrod with simply carved tip, unfortunately jammed in there like a limpet and resisting all efforts at removal. In fact, the entire gun's stuck together extremely tightly; I suspect someone has, in its long life, kept it clean with heavy use of furniture polish.

Pics! Apologies for their being small and rather poor; my good phone camera is dead and buried, sadly, and this is all I have to hand.

[blue lander]

My moukala has a similar seer problem to yours. It's worn down and bent and doesn't seem to fit the cock.

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=21120

[RDGAC]

It's a weird design. I'll try and get a decent picture, but a quick description my be useful too.

From what I can tell, the North African snaphaunces are copies of originals traded with Morocco (indeed, sometimes with the specific aim of buying the Sultan's favour) during the 16th and 17th centuries by the English and Dutch. They copy these designs in most details, right down to the button-shaped "fence" or guard on the outside of the pan. So far, so good, except that the mechanisms aren't alike. On the European prototypes, the sear, pivoting horizontally and with its nose passing through the lockplate, engages the tail of the cock to hold it at the cocked position; indeed, that is the express function of the tail. On the North African derivatives, however - or at least, on mine, yours, and any others I've seen in photos or museums - the sear does not engage the tail. In my lock, it engages with a large slot, either cut into the cock after casting or, more likely, included in the original casting. The entire system reminds me slightly of wheel-lock mechanisms, with the sear pressing against a rounded detent to allow it to release easily when the trigger is pressed. On these snaphaunces, the net result is that the sear nose and the cast slot wear down to the point where they're both nicely rounded, at which point the whole mechanism ceases to function. When fettling this musket, I plan to see if I can rebuild the nose slightly so that the sear can actually hold the cock back.

[rickystl]

Hi RDGAC.
Congrats on your new purchase. And thanks for the photos and descriptions. I enjoyed reading your text. Maybe I can add to the conversation here.
Your gun indeed appears to be a Moroccan Altit long gun from the Little Atlas Mountains Region. Could be anywhere from the 1st to 3rd Quarter of the 19th Century. (where as Blue Lander's gun appears to be an Afedali from the Sous Valley Region with a replacement lock from another gun).
The lock on your gun was made on the English pattern, which seem the most common on Altit guns. The lock on Blue Lander's gun is the Dutch pattern, and is common on Afedali guns, but I've seen both patterns used on Afedali styles.
About these Snaphaunce locks: Having spent a few years working and having these locks repaired, the weak part is the sear to hammer slot engagement. The sears and tumblers on all these locks I've examined were simply not hardened. The sear would wear down short. The locks must have been in a constant state of maintenence and repair. The only way to repair this in most cases is to add metal to the end of the sear and file to fit, then flame harden the finished sear. Or make a new sear. While I'm at it, I'll have the tumbler hardened also. This makes the lock work much better.

Yes, the English style lock on your's does look like it may have been a latter replacement. The lock plate screws on these guns often extend out past the lockplate, but the screws on your's does seem to the extreme. By the way, are there only two lock plate screws on your gun? Can't quite tell from the photos. There should be three.

I'll post some photos of these locks below.

Rick.

[rickystl]

Here is an original Moroccan snaphaunce lock done in the English pattern. It is in un-used condition with a replaced top screw I had made that was missing.
Rick

[rickystl]

Here is an Original Moroccan snaphaunce lock done in the Dutch pattern. It has been used but is complete and working.
Rick.

[rickystl]

And here is an exact duplicate of an original English snaphaunce lock, copied from a rare surviving original English made long gun from the early to mid 1600's. There are suddle differences in the European made locks and the Moroccan copies. Note the swinging safety arm. The lockplate is wider to more easily accomodate the stock in converting an English matchlock to a snaphaunce. Where the narrower plate on the Morrocan locks would accomodate their narrow stocked guns.

Hopefully, the Moderator will allow the use of this replica in this case for comparative purposes? Thank you.

Rick.

[blue lander]

Thanks everyone, I'm learning a lot from this thread. I'm still a little confused how the sear is supposed to engage the cock. I don't understand what "force" is supposed to push the sear out into the cock when you pull it back.

Here's a closeup of the sear from mine. It appears to be bent?

[rickystl]

Hi Blue Lander.

It's a bit hard to describe - in writing - how the sear action functions in these snaphaunce locks, but I'll give it a try LOL : The sear arm is in constant tension against the inside of the hammer. This is accomplished with the small V-Spring located between the sear and the inside of the lockplate. See photos below. So when the hammer is pulled back to the cock position, the sear pops out of the hole in the lockplate just slightly to engage the angled slot on the inside of the hammer. At the same time, the trigger bar will move slightly rearward. Once the trigger bar is pulled backward, it will cause the sear bar to return to it's original position and release the hammer. Hope this helps.

I can't really tell by your photo, but it appears your sear spring might be missing (?).

Most of these locks you encounter will have the sear worn down. You will also find tumblers worn fron the stress of the mainspring. This is because the sears and tumblers were never tempered/hardened. I can picture these guns being fired only two-three dozen times and already need a sear adjustment.
Hope this helps. Rick

[blue lander]

That's a very clear explanation, thank you. You're right, mine is missing the sear spring. It has the trigger spring, though. Hopefully it'll be an easy piece to replace.

[rickystl]

Well, the sear spring is designed the same as the trigger spring, just arched in the opposite direction. The trick is finding someone who both understands these locks, and can forge springs. Good luck. Let me know if you need some more help.
Rick.

[BANDOOK]

HI RICK ,I HAVE BEEN FOLOWING ALL YOUR POSTS AND RESTORATION TECHNIQUES,ALL I MUST SAY IS THAT YOU HAVE LOTS AND LOTS OF PATIENCE,AND GO DEEP INTO DETAIL UNTILL YOU GET THINGS PERFECT,VERY GOOD,HOPE I HAD THOSE TRAITS
REGARDS RAJESH

[blue lander]

Here's a closeup of where the cock and sear meet. I don't see what I'd call a slot, it's more of a sloping ledge (I circled it in red).

Anyways, I took a binder clip and and put the "legs" between the sear so it'd act as a makeshift sear spring. I pulled the cock back and I felt the lock engage for a split second before the clip few out across the room. I have a feeling even with a proper sear spring, the surfaces of both the cock and sear are too worn down to engage.

[blue lander]

I made a makeshift sear spring out of the binder clip. That metal's actually pretty tough and springs well.

Now when I pull the cock all the way back the sear does pop out as far as the mechanism allows it to. But because the sear is bent, it can't catch the trigger latch. If it were straight it'd catch no problem.

On the other end the sear's too worn down to hold the cock in place. I don't see how it could be repaired, so I'm going to look into replacing it. I know a site that sells parts to build your own English style Snaphaunce, I'm going to contact them to see if the dimensions of the sear they sell could be made to work with my mechanism.

[blue lander]

I wrapped a ziptie around the sear, pulled the cock back as far as it'd go, and pulled on that ziptie to put more pressure on the sear. I was able to get the sear to engage the trigger mechanism but just barely. But once the sear engaged the trigger, the cock did stay cocked. So I either need a much stronger sear spring, a new unbent sear, or to file a bit of the sear off so it engages the trigger easier.

[rickystl]

Hi Blue Lander.

Well, you do in fact see how the lock is supposed to work. Great. And yes, "ledge" may be a better word to use here. It appears the sear is both worn and bent. The gun was probably used all the way up until the sear/spring reached it's current condition. Aside from making or acquiring a new sear, the only way to repair it would be to heat the sear and bend the tail straight, and add a small amount of metal via small arc welding rod to the engagement end, and filing to fit. Although, as you mentioned, the ledge on the inside of the hammer may be so worn, that nothing will engage it. In that case, metal will also have to be added to that point on the hammer and filed to mate with the sear. Tough job. But it can be done since the lock and parts are forgings versus castings.
But it would probably be easier to just make new parts using the old ones as a pattern. A sharper cut could be made on the hammer ledge, and a new sear with a slightly longer engagement arm to make up for the worn hammer.
Again, during the period, these locks must have been in a constant state of repair/replacement. I don't believe they had a good knowledge of heat t eating of primary stress/wear points. That's probably also one of the reasons the mainsprings were made extra thick and strong. To make up for the lack of heat treating knowledge.
Rick.

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by rickystl

And here is an exact duplicate of an original English snaphaunce lock, copied from a rare surviving original English made long gun from the early to mid 1600's. There are suddle differences in the European made locks and the Moroccan copies. Note the swinging safety arm. The lockplate is wider to more easily accomodate the stock in converting an English matchlock to a snaphaunce. Where the narrower plate on the Morrocan locks would accomodate their narrow stocked guns.

Hopefully, the Moderator will allow the use of this replica in this case for comparative purposes? Thank you.

Rick.

Rick, what is the story behind this replica snaphaunce lock, who made it, fantastic work.

[blue lander]

This doesn't fill me with confidence about the strength of the metal used in this lock, but I was able to bend the sear tail enough to almost straighten it out. I need to bend it a bit more, but it's enough to make the lock engage.

[rickystl]

Originally Posted by estcrh

Rick, what is the story behind this replica snaphaunce lock, who made it, fantastic work.

Hi Estcrh.
The replica was made by The Rifle Shoppe, in Jones, OK. Except for the springs and screws, the lock parts are exact castings made from an original lock. Eventually, I'll have a gun made utilizing this lock. They offer a number of early locks for guns.

Rick

[RDGAC]

Hi folks,

First, thanks for the compliments; she's a nice old thing, albeit far and away the oddest single gun in my little set so far.

Second, re: locks: I can well believe that these things aren't heat treated; however, I'd be interested to see what the workmanship of the highest-quality North African locks was like. I know that one of my jezails has a native-made lock, and it too appears to be largely devoid of any heat treatment (or if there was any, it wasn't done very well), but my other two both have British locks in them, which unfortunately doesn't make for a good basis of comparison.

Below are some more detailed piccies of my lock. There's still a fair bit of rust on, as you can see, but the worse is gone and the lock can move, albeit a little slowly. The pan shows evidence of quite significant erosion, but whether this is by localised corrosion or the deleterious effects of powder burning nearby I don't know.

Oh, and rickstl: Mine appears to have been made with holes for three screws but attached to a gun with only two holes drilled in the stock. There's no evidence that I've spotted that there ever was a third, central, hole.