doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DIY Gunsmithing @ doublegunshop.com Replacement express sight blades?

Where can I purchase replacement blades for express sights? I have antique double and single guns with broken or missing blades. If I can get blanks, I can fit them myself and adjust the height.

I have never seen them offered. I think that you will need to have them custom made.

orent,
I suggest you contact New England Custom Guns. If they don't have individual Leafs (blades) from ERA available, you might find it almost as cheap and quicker to buy a three (or two if you only need two) folding leaf express sight from them and modify the leafs to fit your bases.
Mike

I always found it far easier to just start from scratch when reproducing small parts that were originally handmade. Most of the sights, sling swivels and such were turned out by children in sweat shops back then. Just the way is was. No two are quite the same.
The sights available from NECG only bear a passing resemblance to antique sights, and are made quite differently. You'll spend more time trying to modify something that still won't look right when you're done, than just making all of it correctly in the first place.

Orent,
Mike Rowe is the "authority" on this, listen to him. I was only thinking about getting the small hole in the bottom for the hinge pin.
Mike

Thank you, Mike
And my thanks to the others who responded.

I’ve thought about getting mild steel plate the correct thickness to cut the profile but trying to form the barrel (tube) across the bottom seems like it would be a daunting task. I’ve also thought of cutting slightly oversized blanks, soldering a piece of tiny steel tubing (I believe it’s available for motorized model builders)) across the bottom, then shaping the replacement to the correct shape and size. I would need to hide the solder joint, maybe some brush-on bluing would do that.

Thanks again,

OrenT.

orent,
The part of the blade you were concerned about is the very part I mentioned I was concerned about. The ERA sights (NECG deals with them) I have worked with seemed to be large enough to re-shape to about anything you need, but as I said, Mike Rowe is the authority.
Mike

A number of years ago, I decided to try adding a piece of flourescent orange fiber optic material from an archery sight to the front sight on a Thompson Center flintlock rifle, because the original was often hard to see in dark woods in early morning or late evening on overcast winter days.

I picked up a spare front sight at a gun show for the project. The bead section was about .100" in diameter. I filed away about 3/8" of the long bead in the middle, for ambient light to illuminate the fiber optic material. Then I had to drill a tiny hole centered in the bead sections remaining. As I recall, I used a #54 drill bit, which is .055" diameter, for the fiber optic to slip through.

I used a Unimat SL lathe/mill/drill to drill the hole, and carefully aligned the sight in the Unimat vise vertically. It was surprisingly easy to drill this small diameter hole through roughly 1/2" total of investment cast steel. I used high rpm, light pressure, and Brownell's Do-Drill cutting lube. I then blackened any shiny metal with Oxpho Blue, and inserted the fiber optic material. I secured it in place by quickly heating and melting both ends with a small flame from a butane pencil torch.

It worked great, and was easier than I thought it would be to drill that tiny hole, perfectly centered lengthwise through the front sight. So I think it would be just as easy to drill a hinge pin hole through a piece of mild steel, and then cut and file away everything that doesn't look like a rear sight blade. In any event, I'd begin by drilling the hole, and then shape the blade. With a very steady hand and good eyes, it might even be possible to drill the hole using a Dremel rotary tool, if you had the right collet to hold the bit. But my little Unimat made it relatively easy.

That's basically it, Keith.
Drill a hole, and cut away everything that isn't the sight blade.
If you think strategically, and make it on the end of a bar, cutting the almost finished part off as a last operation, it goes much easier.
That way, you have a big "handle" to either hold it in a bench or mill vise.