Most Track flints I've bought have more humps than a flock of camels.
Just get a bench grinder green wheel from Grainger for sharpening carbide tools and grind the hump off. Keep a bowl of water handy for dipping them so they stay cool and don't get hot enough to crack on you. I do it with bare fingers so I have to keep dipping them as they get hot. Wear a dust mask!I tried twice before to post this but never saw it get through. Problem may have been on my end, don't know. Anyway: has anyone bought flints from Track lately? I ordered a dozen Black English flints for my Colonial. Each one has a very high hump, so high that the jaws screw had to be backed out to where there was only a little thread remaining to use. I'm in a wheel chair this week and can't get to my stuff, so I have no photo. Didn't call Track 'cause I don't suppose they are actually defective and will function as well as thin flints. They are taller than any store-bought flints I've ever seen. As my son would say, "'Sup wid 'at?"
This is why I always pick my flints out in person at Log Cabin Sport Shop or at an event.I tried twice before to post this but never saw it get through. Problem may have been on my end, don't know. Anyway: has anyone bought flints from Track lately? I ordered a dozen Black English flints for my Colonial. Each one has a very high hump, so high that the jaws screw had to be backed out to where there was only a little thread remaining to use. I'm in a wheel chair this week and can't get to my stuff, so I have no photo. Didn't call Track 'cause I don't suppose they are actually defective and will function as well as thin flints. They are taller than any store-bought flints I've ever seen. As my son would say, "'Sup wid 'at?"
Something like this is what I use and works great to get a good flat surfaceI have run into this many times myself. Flints from all over and even many original ones from the 18th and 19th century. What kind of diamond file would one use?? rotary?
Great post, thanks.One thing I wanted to mention here, I have often dug revolutionary. Plants out of the sand down in the Savannah Georgia area. Many of the blonde flints that originated in Germany or Austria and found their way here tend to be entirely pyramidal. They have no flat on the top at all. This is partially because many of the Austrian and early French muskets, had a very straight frizzen. It sticks up at almost a 90Ā° angle. If you clamp one of these weird pyramid shaped flints into the hammer, it will strike at the correct angle to slide down that vertical frizzen and not just break into pieces. I have always assumed, that many of the blonde ones were cut that way. Some of the later ones that are nibbled around the back like most French flints, and are probably French Marine issue are perfectly flat on top. So it's an all together different thing.
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