Martini Henry Mark 4 screws?

[Desertbuck]

I've got a martini Henry Mark 4 made in 1887. It's proven to be a good shooter I've had to do some stock repair and take the rust off Exedra. I've basically ruined its collectability because I cleaned it up and fixed it so I'm not worried about fixing it up some more and maybe even pretty it makeup. My question to you gentlemen today that may know. Are the threads on the Mark 4 standard enough that I could fashion some new screws for the front sling swivel and maybe a couple of other small screws from something I find in a hardware store. Obviously I don't think I'll find anything for internals just for stock and dress components namely the sling swivels.
Or are they some Oddball thread that is not made today?

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Not that you will find in an ordinary American hardware store. If they are a standard thread it would be the Whitworth thread, of which you will find measurements here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Standard_Whitworth

You will find some screws on eBay, probably www.ebay.co.uk (http://www.ebay.co.uk) more than the US site, and certainly the taps and dies. If the rifle is really not in collectible condition, you could tap the holes to a marginally larger US or metric size.

[Fishoot]

I have found the screws to be unique, unless you live in the UK. The absolute best source is: http://www.customscrewsandmore.com/

You will pay for them, but they are exquisite!

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Here is another, marginally cheaper with the state of the pound at the moment, but not cheap. His website is very well worth poking around in. Sure as shooting if you don't, you will pass up on a gun you could have bought cheap and fixed with one of his excellent line of lost wax castings. An American friend did that with a hammer for, of all things, a Callisher and Terry capping breechloader.

https://www.peterdyson.co.uk/acatalog/MARTINI_HENRY_Parts.html

[Desertbuck]

Thank you for all the good information gentlemen the information about the Whitworth system is fascinating. :-) But Holy guacamole!!! For the prices of new screws I think I will just repair the screw heads. The screws are not rusted out or anything horrible. Just buggered up screw heads.

[leebuilder]

One of screws take a while to make, hence the price. I charge 15.00 cdn to make a "normal" wierd screw. I still loose a bit. I screw cut mine on a lathe. No way could i afford dies and taps for one ofs.
be safe

[BigEyeBob]

They could be Whitworth or British Standard Fine thread .More likely Whitworth.
Most of the UNC threads are the same pitch as Whitworth apart from 1/2 inch thread ,Whitworth is 13 Tpi and the UNC is 12 tpi ,the thread angle is 55deg for Whitworth and 60 deg for UNC .In a pinch it matters little about the angle ,unless it is a critical screw that takes a heavy load.
A small button die would cost very little ,I buy stuff from Victory Machine in US on occasion ,they have lots of threading tools at good prices .I bought taps and dies for the Mauser trigger guard screws and thet were not overly expensive ,it's the postage that added the extra cost .
Incidently the Mauser 98 has imperial trigger guard /action screws , 1/4 x 22 tpi ,strange that a metric system country uses an imperial thread.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I've found 1/8 and 7/32 Whitworth screws in Belgian firearms, just because Britain was probably first in producing inexpensive off-the-peg taps and dies. The Belgians generally used the 1x14 Whitworth thread on their Martini barrels.

The BSF thread system, simply a finer Whitworth form thread, wouldn't be deliberately used on a large Martini, as it wasn't introduced until about 1908. Still, think of a diameter and a number... Coincidence isn't impossible. It was sometimes used as being less weakening for tubular components, or where it was desirable to have threads strip under tension rather than break across the middle. The BSW thread, like UNC and the coarse metric threads, is designed to about equalise the danger of those two forms of failure, just like the most economical use of weight in a shotgun is to have barrels and action about equally strong. The BSF is also less likely to loosen under vibration.

BSF was promoted by a most unusual man, who underlines the length of human life. He began a vague association with the military in 1856, made important contributions to the development of the tank on Churchill's Land Ships Committee, was told nobody would ever have the sort of war where those things would be useful again, and died in 1940. I doubt if the blitzkrieg in the West would have surprised him as much as it did some. His name is on the motors of a couple of workshop machines I bought new recently.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._E._B._Crompton

[BigEyeBob]

I recall the Crompton electric motors ,in fact my late 1950's vintage Super 7 Myford lathe has a Crompton electric motor .

[skeettx]

https://www.marstar.ca/dynamic/category.jsp?catid=78979

http://www.ima-usa.com/nation/british-militaria/british-antique-guns/martini-henry/martini-henry-parts.html

and they have more, call them or email them

[samari46]

Google Evans Obsolete Screws. They should be able to make what you want if all other leads don't pan out. Frank