Blown Smoke

Does the flint on a flintlockneed a razor edge to function properly?

I cleaned the flint and frizzen with analcohol patch the night before
shooting the rifle. When I got to the range it shot twice, and then it
wouldn't ignite the prime. Luckily the flint was a double edge flint, so
I turned it around and shot the rest of the day. The edge still looked
pretty good compared to the other end of the flint.Do I needto knapp
theside that wouldn't shoot?

When mounting the flint in the cock, should the flint be against the
frizzen at half cock, or backed off the frizzen a bit? When I got the
the rifle it had a gap about the thickness of a paper match stem
between the flint & frizzen at half cockis the reason I ask.

Thanks.

cayugad

You don't want the flint to lay against the frizzen. The paper match thickness is a good rule of thumb. And yes the sharper the flint, the more spark it will produce. When I was shooting my flinter the other day it was doing fine until the flint got dull. Then the troubles started. I have no skills in knapping a flint. Perhaps Roundball will see this post and give some detailed instructions on flint knapping to us all.

cayugad

http://members.aol.com/illinewek/faqs/tuning.htm this is a good site to learn more about the flintlock and all the parts.

nchawkeye

There are several ways to knap a flint...You can do it with a small brass hammer....just put your finger under the leading edge and lightly tap...this will roughen up the leading edge...You can also hook the flint under the frizzen and remove small flakes from the leading edge...You can flip the flint over and continue to shoot and it will be knapped each time you drop the cock...

The best way I have found is to keep a small finishing nail (with point filed flat) in your patch box...with the small brass hammer, hold this nail at a 90 degree angle to the flint and tap straight down...moving the nail along the edge as you go...this takes off a small amount and helps the flint last longer.

I use this last method the most...always during informal shooting...When I am deer hunting I always start with a fresh, new flint....I check one time and don't use again until I have a shot.

lemoyne

I use a tine of deer horn with a hole matching a 1/16 dia. short [an inch or more] bit of 1016 welding rod epoxied in the hole to pressure flake. Lee

sproulman

i flip mine over if they start to not spark. then, if to short ,i take it off and put another in and take them home and sharpen with my dremel tool.as for distance, others are better at that.for years i always kept my flint a knickel away from frizzen.now, i put it about 1/16 away from what i read on here.with the short hammer that was on the t/c hawkins, we used to get great use of flint with it a knickel away.but, tc redid the hammers and made them longer.so, now i put it about 1/16 away.

Blown Smoke

It's been storming here the past few days.
So looks likeI'll have plenty time topractice
your methods of knapping. Don't know why,
but it never occurred to me to turn the flint
over rather than around that day.
Oh well, guess you learn as you go.

Thanks guys,
You've all been a Big help.