Best Flint For Harper's Ferry 58 Cal

[Zoar]

'Wonder what the best SOURCE for flint that others have found for a Pedersoli 58 Caliber Harper's Ferry pistol.

The spark from high quality agate seems best, but flints from Dixie or Sportsmans and other online sources seem to be misleading as far as sizes go. When I got the Harper's they said use small flint I want to say 1/2 inch but the half inchers I bought were WAY too small. I think I am using a 3/4 inch square agate now and it is the best so far but while it barely reaches the frizzen I cannot clamp it very well even using leather, lead or cloth in the jaws: Essentially, it seems too long for the jaws but not long enough to reach the frizzen as well as it should, if that makes any sense. I will have to cut a notch in the back of heh agate so it will fit better in the jaws, methinks. Does this sound typical for this flintlock?

 

[irataylor]

I have a pedersoli kentucy flintlock. I use 5/8 x 5/8. (I use the same size on my pedersoli alamo rifle). I got them from Track of the Wolf,
Tom Fuller fints. TOW lists 5/8 x 3/4 for pedesoli, but I found these too long.

 

[bwhoffman]

track has done me well on tom fuller flints.

 

[Zoar]

I find the 5/8 by 5/8 too small to reach the frizzen well on the Pedersoli Harper's. I will buy some Track O Wolf flints. I really like their offerings.

 

[Zoar]

Still having issues with getting the Harper's Ferry to ignite the pan powder. I tried expensive agate flints. I even tried 4f and it seems not to have helped.

I wonder if a tiny amount of bore lube left on my flint/frizzen could cause all this mischief. It took 3 sometimes 5 drops of the hammer before the pan ignited last night. It was not fun. Yet when I finally had enough I cleaned the gun thoroughly with black powder solvent, including the flint/frizzen, then dropped the hammer a few times and the spark was noticeably GREATER than it was when I was trying to shoot RB's and powder.

Could a little lube/oil be the culprit?

 

[Doc Arroyo]

I had a couple of these, and they were not reliable sparkers with the cock to frizzen geometry. I took a hack saw to the cock and cut through the front of the throat, bent the nose down to fill the kerf, and then silver soldered. Then a 5/8"x5/8" flint seemed to work well.

 

[brushrunabout]

Good reason to learn to flintknapp. I have been able to just use some cert. You can adjust to the length you like etc. Lots of sparks from my tradiions trapper.

Pretty fast to learn and another back to nature cheap skill. Still learning the flint lock.

 

[wulf]

I had to do the same thing to my Harpers of which
I have three..The locks are "bashers". Make this
change and solve your problems...

 

[Zoar]

You know guys, you make alot of sense.

I have re-looked at this and it really seems the geometry of the hammer to the frizzen is the culprit and not a micro-nano-spec of bore butter.
No matter how I put the flint in and how I wrap it, the flint mashes the frizzen.

Lordy, I have to bend the hammer to make it work as it should? Great. :shocked2:

 

[widget350]

I recently got one, but have yet to get a flint in it. Hopefully I won't have the same issue, but we'll see. At least I know the fix...

 

[wulf]

YOU WILL........

 

[Zoar]

I was thinking some more on this....

Can I just buy a different jaw (hammer) for this pistol instead of cutting and soldering the jaw?

I have to believe we are not the only ones to have mashing issues with the setup that Pedersoli sends out on their Harper's Ferry and someone has found a jaw out there that would fit on this lock but result in a better angle for the flint to spark downward and not mash against the frizzen, thus a simple change out of jaws would require no cutting and soldering. (By the way, I did email Pedersoli about this issue and I have not heard back from them.)

 

[Jordzargo]

oh man, im having this issue in 2023... lordy