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Friends, thanks for the helpful ideas. There are multiple problems, including the frizzen, which can be fixed. For this time, Crud ring seems most likely to me, I'll check that out. Oil - no, ran patch before shooting, prick thru hole before each shot to make sure it's clear. Flint too short -...

Shooting my Harper's Ferry the other day. Ignition has gotten worse and worse. I think the frizzen is wearing out, and it doesn't kick open reliably, even with a long flint. So after shooting a bit, nothing but misfires and a couple flash-in-pans. I wanted to unload, even tried igniting powder...

If you have never knapped before and want to make gunflints, a few bits of advice: You won't be making long blades and breaking them into segments as the films show and as the 19th C gunflint industries did. Takes practice. But it is easy to learn to take off smaller flakes and shape them with...

And for goodness sake, pick them up after shooting. I hate shooting at the trashdumps that some moron shooters leave behind, and seeing garbage dumps in the woods. But cans off the road - free targets, and recyclable or redeemable after.

Actually, hickory nuts are easier to process than black walnuts - the prehistoric way. Shells come off, clean nuts well, put in a mortar, smash up well - shells and all. Boil hard, the shells sink, nut bits and oil can be skimmed off and used for cooking. You won't be putting whole nuts in the...

If you need a knapping hammer, get a classy one - any smiths out there who'd like to recreate this? Supposed to be Afghan. Flintlock combo tool. But for practical purposes, take the flint out of the hammer for safety and convenience, and pressure flake a new edge on it with a nail or carefully...

How about this stuff? Smells and feels like the main ingredient is beeswax. I don't put glockh in my remaining hair, but I understand that in the old days, the wily backwoodsman slicked up his hair for the Saturday night barn dance, then slept a good night on his pillow in the heat, and in the...

Pristine Euroarms Zouave I bought this some years ago, fired a couple times, decided I prefer flintlocks. So it is as clean as can be, unmarked wood, barrel blue bright and shiny. Handsome gun! A little powder discoloration around nipple but case colors on lock still bright. Lockplate has...

All the physics and chem calculations would be interesting, but a more practical way to solve your immediate problem is a series of simple tests with paper or other markers at changing distances.

Don't be put off by the videos of experts like Lord - making gunflints 'correctly' takes a long time to learn. It was a cottage industry, and the segmented blade technique the 19th century knappers used was necessary for efficiency. BUT anyone can learn to take off flakes that can be shaped by...

"I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnish'd rows of steel ..." Battle Hymn of the Republic And that's what it took to end slavery

I completely understand that people like different looks on their guns, including not having lots of modern markings, or not looking bright new. I also agree that most defarbing is not intended to be deceptive, and that real expert examination will often reveal age of a gun, including many...

Defarbing often means removing the honest history of the gun - who made it, when - and adding a fake history to it. And yet some of the defarbers complain about all the fakes and how hard it is to tell them when they pop up on GB and the like.

The OP brings up legitimate questions about recognizing and dating knife styles. And as some answers show, it can be done by dated examples, historical documents etc. Because styles change and recognizably belong to their times. I would bet that TFoley's sword is imitating Late British Bronze...

Yes, Make me a reasonable offer. I do need to tell you that I am away from home now (and the gun) until early August.

Pristine Euroarms Zouave I bought this some years ago, fired a couple times, decided I prefer flintlocks. So it is as clean as can be, unmarked wood, barrel blue bright and shiny. Handsome gun! A little powder discoloration around nipple but case colors on lock still bright. Lockplate has...

And I once was analyzing a guy's old arrowhead collection from Iowa - no info on where he picked up or dug stuff so scientifically useless, but there were a couple hard black lumps sorta like charcoal briquets. Couldn't figure them out, but touched to tongue, they tasted like powder, ground a...

Just for fun and because we all like to feel superior, a couple pics + descrips I found on an auction site. It is a bit irritating though when a professional auction house doesn't know enough, or hire enough good help, or care enough, to correctly identify what they're selling, or even make a...

Along with the Arabia steamboat (very fine museum in KC), there is an equally good one on the W edge of Iowa, the steamer Bertrand, 1865. Anyone doing reenactments or research on artifacts of the Civil War period should see these. As near as I can tell from quick searches, Betrand carried...

Archaeological evidence: I have seen a male gorilla skull from the early 20th C with a healed wound in the face - with a square chunk of iron, maybe .38 or so, sticking out. I imagine some native hunter with an old muzzleloader turned a large but peaceful herbivore into a really surly brute. I...