Tell me more! Brazing - fixing the Old Smokey

ConfederateCanuck

First Sergeant
Joined
Nov 1, 2018
Location
Canad-istan
Has anyone ever had to replace a front sight, rear sight, or bayonet lug on a musket? I am wondering if it was difficult to remove the existing sight/lug and braze on a replacement. Does brazing damage the patina or otherwise compromise the metal (i.e. the barrel remains in a shootable condition)?

From time to time, I see an otherwise decent musket come up for sale, but its missing a sight, and always wondered whether it was something that was easily fixed (assuming you had the replacement part...finding that is a different matter, I know).

On P1853 Enfield's, was the brazing brass-based, silver, or something else?
 
I am not at all an expert on this topic, but I have read that one of the problems with brazing on a musket is that you have a thick barrel that is something of a heat sink, meaning that the thick metal soaks up the heat, and the area you want to get hot to accept the solder stays too cool.
My point is to be sure that advice you are given fits the situation where you have a heavy piece of metal (the barrel) as the base of any joining - I suspect that many methods deal with two pieces of smaller / lighter metal
 
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