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Joined: Apr 2021
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Sidelock
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Anyone know how the brass and steel are joined when constructing a front sight like one of these?

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/marble-sheard-winchester-1873-73-135550379

Any insights into how the brass is joined to the steel would be appreciated. I think these are very elegant, and I can't figure out how the connection is made. At first I thought they were soldered together, but the bluing extends right up to and flush with the brass. I wouldn't think that is possible with solder.


My bolt rifle has a front sight in the style of 1903 Springfield, in other words a tall ramp that holds a simple blade. I'd like to build a blade with a brass or gold bead like this one:

http://www.finegunmaking.com/page32/page46/page46.html

That has put me on the quest to learn how these front sights are constructed. Any input is appreciated!

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Plenty of ways to skin a a cat. I have made a bunch of bench made sights with several different types of faces, gold, ivory and silver solder. If you want a brass face then I would using a small drop of brazing rod. I usually rough mill the steel portion of the sight, then solder or braze on a blob of material, then continue shaping until complete. A nice job of brazing will stay put forever. If you silver solder or braze the face on you can blue it without a worry, I usually finish the front sight inserts in nitre salts. I use G-flex epoxy and drill a small hole to set the ivory inserts in. Good luck!

Last edited by SKB; 08/19/22 08:29 PM.

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Thank you, SKB, very helpful! Could you braze gold in a similar way? I spoke with two local jewelers about attaching a small amount of gold. Both shied away from the project. One said he could weld the gold on with a micro (jewelers) welder, but he said the welds would be too brittle and fragile. Another master jeweler, who also has a welder and has created and repaired lots of jewelry in her career, said she had never done a job like this before and feared I would not be happy with the final outcome. I don't know metallurgy and techniques enough to know if gold could be attached the same?

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Gold is tricky and is best put in place with some sort of an under cut. On sight leaves it is easy, the engraver cuts a tapered slot and locks the gold in place mechanically. The same approach could be used for a patridge type front sight. Beads are tough to pull off with gold and I would use a different approach myself.


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Thank you so much for the advice!

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Gold soft solders very easily with standard Lead/Tin solder and flux.
The newer Tin/Silver soft solder will work as well.
Doesn't matter if its 24k or lesser karat gold like 14, 18 etc.
For this you don't need a specialty 'gold solder' as the solder joint is near invisible as a butt type joint with the steel sight.

It's just like soldering brass.
Clean the surfaces, make for a good fit.
Tin one or both surfaces. Flux both. Assemble and heat to flow the solder.
Don't burn the flux,,don't over heat,,all the same rules.
On small stuff like a sight, an elect soldering gun works very nicely.

If you have a wider face sight blade you can place a gold dot into that surface.
Either with real gold or common brass. Silver works too. Even copper works nice.

Make the bead of a diameter that reaches to the sides and the top edge of the blade.
The center of that circle needs a small hole drilled into the face of the blade.

The bead material then needs to be turned to produce a short peg on it to fit into that hole.
The bead then soft soldered into/onto the blade.
Excess is cut off w/a jewelers saw and the bead is left standing high of the steel sight blade.

The Bead can be left standing proud with sharp edges, or be rounded slightly.
Sometimes the bead is taken right down flush to the blade surface. Some even are lightly countersunk.
All sorts of ways to make them

If you can inlay gold, silver, copper or brass, the above style bead can be inlayed instead of soldered into place.
It takes some skill but is a common method. Open a cavity on the face of the blade, then undercut it with the same punch. Just don't go outside the diameter of the bead to be overlayed or
the undercutting work will show.

Many of the domed bead sight styles are made that way,,or were. The final 'setting' of the bead is done with a cupped punch, highly polished
of the correct size and depth you want for the finished bead.
You make those setting punches if you do ths work, or at least that's how it used to be.
Upon setting the bead, it shapes it, sets it down to the blade all around w/the edges perfectly tight.The high polish finish of the punch leaves the bead w/the same polished luster.
(Engrave your initial, a star, a circle, etc inside the punch and it'll be on the face of the bead...)

The small pin head bead sight like the one in the pic in the link I usually use a piece of brass or copper rod of close dia. Clean the seat in the blade to accept it and soft solder it in place. Leave the rod long so it's easy to work with.
Sometimes an older sight will have a hole in the face of the round portion for you from an old bead insert. You can make use of that for extra hold. Carefully file a small peg on the rod so it inserts itself into that cavity.
Clean everything out well and soft solder in place.

When cooled off, cut the excess rod length off. Then carefully file the bead lengthwise to proper dia with the sight as a guide..

Done with care, soft soldered attachments even this small are very rugged and will give good service.

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Kutter,
Your detailed description here is incredibly helpful. Based on what you and SKB have shared, I’ve got a much better idea of how to proceed. Some fun experiments ahead!

Thank you

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Here is one I built last year for a client's Woodward double rifle. The original sight had been poorly replaced in the past and he wanted a correct one. I silver soldered the face in place as I described above.


[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]


[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]


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SKB, are those front sights on double rifles of a universal size? My Rodda 12 bore rifle has a front sight like that, and the bead is much too small for these cataract eyes of mine. I could use a bead at least twice the size.

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That would be too easy, they come in a multitude of dove tail sizes and shapes as well as many different bead sizes and diameters.


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