Interesting Colt front sight possibility

[Lunie]

So I had an idea, no doubt a derivative of the mercury dime used as a '51 front sight, as seen in this thread. http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=615872

It came down to meeting some criteria.
A coin.
Something period: Approximately mid-19th century.
Something bright, like brass.

A fairly common and simple experiment often performed in public school chemistry labs turns ordinary copper-colored pennies into "silver" and "gold". The short of it is that a thin coat of zinc is deposited on the surface of the penny (making it "silver"), and then the penny is heated until diffusion takes place between the newly applied zinc coating and the outermost part of the copper penny (or the copper cladding, in the case of post-1983 pennies), alloying the zinc and copper to make a yellow brass (turning it to "gold").

Being interested in the Civil War, I think that an ~1860's era "Indian head" penny, thusly given a brass-colored hue, would make a dandy front sight.

Thoughts?

 

[StrawHat]

I have gone the coin front sight route previously. A penny is copper and copper is soft so as you unholster and reholster your revolver it will wear away. It doesn't take very long before it is perceptible. Silver coins are not much better and gold coins are best kept intact. German silver, brass and steel all come in sheets and can be made into very nice sights, totally appropriate for the era. A muzzleloading front sight can also be inlet to the barrel for an era appropriate sight.

The coin looks cool, but if you intend to use it, it will wear down.

 

[madcratebuilder]

Old silver dimes are generally 90% silver and easy to work with. Problem is that one time .10 cents now is 10 dollars.

 

[Lunie]

The nice thing about pennies is that, even when they are 5000% of face value, they are still only $0.50.

 

[rcmodel]

Something period:

Well, I doubt there was very much electroplating going on during the civil war.
I also doubt anyone chopped a gold coin in half to make a pistol sight.

But beyond that?
It would be dang hard to solder on a plated "brass hued" penny to the barrel without the heat from soldering ruining the color you worked so hard to get.

I have owned a couple of 100 year old Colt SAA barrels that had period correct silver dimes or nickles soldered on as replacement front sights.

That is what I would do.

rc

 

[Lunie]

Well, I doubt there was very much electroplating going on during the civil war.
I also doubt anyone chopped a gold coin in half to make a pistol sight.

But beyond that?
It would be dang hard to solder on a plated "brass hued" penny to the barrel without the heat from soldering ruining the color you worked so hard to get.

I have owned a couple of 100 year old Colt SAA barrels that had period correct silver dimes or nickles soldered on as replacement front sights.

That is what I would do.

rc

Not having held one or done enough research, apparently...

The pennies I was thinking to use are an alloy of ~88%Cu and 12% nickel, giving them a much more "white" color than, say, a later 95% Copper 5% Zinc & Tin penny. (They were actually nicknamed "nickels", back before the $0.05 piece we know today by that moniker.) It may be shiny enough with just a good cleaning.

And the process is not so high tech. Literally, it is zinc dissolved in a solution of lye and water. When you toss a penny in, the zinc metal precipitates on the penny's surface. Then heat till it alloys.

Honestly, it sounds much more difficult to manufacture lye from scratch, and humans were doing that long before the 1860's.

Lastly, using coins other than the lowly penny sound like great options, but my gal has threatened to bludgeon me to death for destroying historical pieces. At least they made enough pennies for them to be more common.

 

[Noz]

You will find, as I did, that most of the coins of the western world are too thin for the groove that the front sight rides in. Find someone that has aluminum or brass bar stock.

 

[col.lemat]

front sight

What would look really cool would be a small, say the size of a quarter, anti aircraft sight. I think I'll get started makeing one for my gun right now!

 

[PRM]

I had an original S&W Model #3 in 44 Russian for about 20 years. I used the gun quite a bit over the time I owned it (black powder cartridges were a hoot). I had a nickel cut down when I first bought the gun and installed as a front sight. It gave me a taller sight than the original and the gun shot dead-on. Never had any problem with sight wear.

Its the one gun I regret selling. I gave $1300 for it when I bought it (98-99%). Sold it for $3600, thought I was doing good. Had a chance to get it back a couple of years ago for $5000:banghead:

 

[Pulp]

I made one for my '60 out of an Oklahoma quarter. I cut just enough so the Oklahoma shows, then rounded the bottom to fit the sight groove, and epoxied it in place. Obviously, it is not very period correct, since Oklahoma wasn't around in the 1860's, but it works, and doesn't look too bad.

 

[Jim K]

A nickel will work very well to replace the front sight on most old time guns, and blend in with nickel plating.

But not original '51 Navy Colts. Those sights were neither threaded or soldered, they were simply press fitted, using an arbor press with the sight shape in reverse on the ram. A piece of brass wire was set in the hole in the barrel and the ram brought down, forcing the metal into the hole and shaping it at the same time. Later cupronickel sights were done the same way but were harder and were partially shaped before being inset.

Jim

 

[Jim Watson]

I have seen old S&Ws with sights made out of dimes, but not a Colt.
It is quite popular to make a front sight blade for a Sharps rifle out of a copper penny set into a dovetail base. It is not blackened, the point is to get the distinctive copper shine for a hunting sight. Said to be visible in many conditions of light and background, better than brass, gold, silver, or nickel. I don't know myself, I am a target shooter and I want my rifle sights to be black, black, black.