Gluing leather to flint

M. De Land · Aug 1, 2023

I picked up another helpful tip from Fred Stutzenberger in his articles in MB magazine. He epoxies his leather to his flints in his bench vice keeping the top and bottom parallel to each other until dry. He uses them until to short then heats the flint with his soldering iron until the epoxy lets go, turns the leather around and uses up the other side.
This makes the flint purchase in the cock jaws much more solid thus a more efficient spark producer.
I think the idea has merit and am going to give it a try.
Now if he would just make a pressure flake tool and learn how to use it instead of those notch tools he uses !

Rifleman1776 · Aug 1, 2023

That's the way the original mountain men did it too.

Seriously, why bother? I think he is solving a non-existent problem.

Comfortably_Numb · Aug 1, 2023

Rifleman1776 said:
That's the way the original mountain men did it too. Seriously, why bother? I think he is solving a non-existent problem.

I have never had a problem with leather and flints either. Got to have something to write an article about, I guess.

Cruzatte · Aug 1, 2023

Sorry, Fred. I never saw the need.

deerstalkert · Aug 1, 2023

i spray my leathers while cleaning the lock. they shrink to fit and adhere to the flint and jaws.
i remember losing a flint once years ago.

ZUG · Aug 1, 2023

It is a waste of time and energy.

#BPBReloadingFFL · Aug 1, 2023

Call super glue leather to Flint for new customers who are unfamiliar with the procedures.

PathfinderNC · Aug 1, 2023

Well what will they think up next?

smo · Aug 1, 2023

PathfinderNC said:
Well what will they think up next?

Try glueing the other side of the leather too the cock…
That should solve any problems, other than changing the flint.

But she’d be rock solid till it broke loose!

I think I’ll go glue some patches too my balls….

rafterob · Aug 1, 2023

Had read this a number of years back also. Like others, I have yet to see the need to glue my leather to the flint.

M. De Land · Aug 1, 2023

M. De Land said:
I picked up another helpful tip from Fred Stutzenberger in his articles in MB magazine. He epoxies his leather to his flints in his bench vice keeping the top and bottom parallel to each other until dry. He uses them until to short then heats the flint with his soldering iron until the epoxy lets go, turns the leather around and uses up the other side.
This makes the flint purchase in the cock jaws much more solid thus a more efficient spark producer.
I think the idea has merit and am going to give it a try.
Now if he would just make a pressure flake tool and learn how to use it instead of those notch tools he uses !

Fred explained that our flints will actually shift in the leather when they strike the frizzen but we can't see it happen as the pliability of the leather returns it to where it was set up.
He also advocates agitating/roughing up or cutting ribs in both faces of the cock jaws to better grip flint leather or lead.
According to the article men were queried back when flint ignition was King about how to insure reliable sparking and the consensus by men who lived by there flint guns was that most spark generation failure was not the flint edge or frizzen but rather improperly securing the flint from flexing in the leather, cloth or lead sheeting.
I'm going to test his suggestions as both make sense to me.

ArmorerRoy · Aug 1, 2023

I do like the “outside the box” thinking. I read a similar trick from Mark Baker where you make the leather overhang the back of the hammer like this:

I have incorporated this on my new smooth bore and I like it. The idea is if you lose the flint you don't also lose the pad. While I don’t use glue I did give the leather a good coat of Snow Seal and it seems to make the leather stick to the flint very well and because it’s also waterproof it does not expand and contract as much as maybe dry untreated leather would.

Here is my other lock with a traditional pad that I haven’t upgraded yet:

The bottom lock pad is also not waterproofed and as you can see the the leather does not stick to the flint.

Neither of these guns have lock issues or lose flints so any tinkering I have been doing was not necessary more just experimenting which I like to do.

chorizo · Aug 1, 2023

smo said:
I think I’ll go glue some patches too my balls….

Man, ripping those off to change them has got to hurt!

smo · Aug 1, 2023

From Fred’s article…

M. De Land said:
Fred explained that our flints will actually shift in the leather when they strike the frizzen but we can't see it happen as the pliability of the leather returns it to where it was set up.
He also advocates agitating/roughing up or cutting ribs in both faces of the cock jaws to better grip flint leather or lead.
According to the article men were queried back when flint ignition was King about how to insure reliable sparking and the consensus by men who lived by there flint guns was that most spark generation failure was not the flint edge or frizzen but rather improperly securing the flint from flexing in the leather, cloth or lead sheeting.
I'm going to test his suggestions as both make sense to me.

From Fred’s article…

IanH · Aug 1, 2023

Fred's problem wasn't his flint and leather.

I can see it being useful to pre-package the flint and leather for a quicker change in the field, competition or whatever, less fiddly in the cold, but otherwise seems pointless.

FishDFly · Aug 1, 2023

Comes in very handy in Limited Time Fire matches when seconds count and you have to change a flint.

Dusty_Traveler · Aug 1, 2023

IanH said:
I can see it being useful to pre-package the flint and leather for a quicker change in the field, competition or whatever, less fiddly in the cold, but otherwise seems pointless.

I was just thinking one of these would be a great addition to the hunting pouch. MUCH less fiddly in the field.

TDM · Aug 1, 2023

The one take away from the article that has good merit is to keep a serrated texture on the clamping surfaces of the cock jaw. No glue for me.

oldwood · Aug 1, 2023

If a flint hammer doesn't hold a flint tightly , cause is usually a poorly cut screwdriver slot. Too narrow , or too shallow or both. Use thin leather , tighten the screw very tight.

Omahkapi'si · Aug 1, 2023

A little glue on the upper eyelid will fix that flinch too.

Gluing leather to flint

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