How do you get the silver blade out of a Pedersoli .375" dovetail front sight and secure a properly cut and shaped copper penny in its place?
Same as with a Shiloh Sharps front sight that fits the same dovetail?

Sumbuddy got a picture of a homemade copper penny front sight on a .375 dovetail for a Sharps 1874?

RIP, PM Sharpsguy. He has spread the gospel of this sight far and wide.

I did even better, talked to him by telephone.

Awesome. Be sure to show us what you come up with.

The sight blade is press fit into the slotted dovetail, Italian style, then a regular tiny-round-tipped punch, or a punch with a rectangular tip,
is used to "stab-crimp" the blade tight in the slot on top of the dovetail block.

So the front sight dovetail block must be held in a vise and the old blade coaxed out with a hammer or whatever it takes.

Maybe a new, custom made dovetail block slotted to recieve the penny would be better?

The Pedersoli sight above had small rectangular bites where the punch was tapped on each side.
I have seen others where tiny circular indents were used to set the blade tight.

The finer points of shaping the penny are closely guarded.

Looks good, Rip!

Just a reminder - if you want to use a penney for a front sight make sure it was minted before 1982. Pennies minted after '82 are mainly made of zinc with only a thin copper cladding.

I think an 1874 Indian head penny might look good if you don't mind sinking $13 into an old penny. Just make sure you leave the date visible.

There you go thinking again. Seems like every time you think, you show how little you really know.

An Indian Head penny does not work for two reasons. One is that it's too thin to fit in the slot in the sight base and stay put, and the other is that it is the wrong alloy and color to give a sight picture that is as good as a blade made from proper Lincoln penny.

Dullgirl

I can make an Indian head penny fit anything I want. If you are not capable you are that is your problem. I can assure you that your knowledge of the physics of color is pretty limited and that you should restrain from shooting off your big mouth. Please tell me the exact values of the color you think is correct for best use as a front sight.
That's right you never answer questions. You just show your ass and snipe at people.
BTW have you ever figured out that big word binary?

BTW
The CIE XYZ color space was deliberately designed so that the Y parameter was a measure of the brightness or luminance of a color. The chromaticity of a color was then specified by the two derived parameters x and y, two of the three normalized values which are functions of all three tristimulus values X, Y, and Z:

x = \frac{X}{X+Y+Z}
y = \frac{Y}{X+Y+Z}
z = \frac{Z}{X+Y+Z} = 1 - x - y

If you know the values of your special color and the position of the sun in the sky and the degree of overcast it takes to produce your magic color spit them out or keep your big mouth shut.

quote:

Originally posted by sharpsguy:
There you go thinking again. Seems like every time you think, you show how little you really know.

An Indian Head penny does not work for two reasons. One is that it's too thin to fit in the slot in the sight base and stay put, and the other is that it is the wrong alloy and color to give a sight picture that is as good as a blade made from proper Lincoln penny.

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quote:

Originally posted by Jerry Liles:
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Ditto.

Here is the start of the learning curve, practiced on a 5-dollar flintlock sight from Dixie Gunworks:



I do not have the skills and tools of a custom knife maker, but I can shape and polish the penny differently next time.

You are off to a good start. All you need to do is shape it to the profile and height you want. I use a belt sander, and it takes less than 60 seconds from this point. Start with a 50 grit belt, and finish with a 220 grit. BIG hint! Use pliers to hold the sight base--you won't believe how quick it gets HOT, and how hot it gets. Use a small chainsaw or Swiss file to clean up the radius on the side of the base, add a touch of cold blue, and you're done.

sharpsguy,

Thanks for the pointers.
I used a grinding wheel and vise grips with folded paper to grip the penny, grinding the base of the sight.
Paper burned, left a black dot on Abe's eye and you can see the marring of the penny from the vise grips.

Just smooth-jawed pliers and a belt sander next time, and a better shape of top and bottom of the sight.