Bulk buy on flints

[TerryK]

I had an article book marked, and an adjacent advertisement listed bulk pricing on flints. Regrettably I deleted the book mark. I would like to get a bunch and never worry about buying them for a while. Any good places to get a deal on high quality flints?

 

[Tyrone]

Stonewall Creek Outfitters

Stonewall Creek Outfitters flints

 

[Spikebuck]

Stonewall Creek Outfitters

Best flints I bought. Bags of 50. Not only that, but the owner is very honest about his product. I called once to order and he told me to hold off as he had a batch he had gotten in, but they were not of the quality he thought they should be, so he asked if I could hold off for a while. Which I did. Now I ask you...how many business owners would do that? :thumbsup:

 

[PA16th]

I also bought a bag of 50 from Stonewall Creek. Very good quality and fair price for 50.

Don :thumbsup:

 

[Don Steele]

I suppose it depends upon what you consider "A Deal" to be.
Down here, I shoot with a number of older gentleman who think a buck a piece is highway robbery for flints.
'Course...their also still shooting powder they paid $8.00 a pound for, and spend most of their range time telling anyone who will listen how great things "USED TO BE". :yakyak: :yakyak:
Fast forward to the 21st century...
I'm going to give up my double secret source for flints...
Troy Roupe at Stonewall Creek. :metoo: :bow:
Yup...I'm another huge fan. I don't buy his bulk bag, but rather let him know what I'm looking for in a "good flint" for my rifle and he sends me a couple dozen at a time ( as funds allow...) that are AWESOME. :hatsoff:

 

[wattlebuster]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: on Troy at Stonewallcreekoutfitters

 

[Mike Payne]

Troy is a good man and great to deal with. Have ordered parts
and flints from him over the years always got a fair deal and great service! I am planning a rifle for my youngest son and will be buying most of the parts from Troy. 85.00 bucks for 50 flints an't bad that's 1.70 a piece!

Mike

 

[TerryK]

They have standard flints and french blonde flints at the same price. Which one is better, and why?

 

[wattlebuster]

Either is fine but my locks seem to prefer the english. The french are shore nuff pretty but they seem to be more brittle an break more often or at least that has been my experience with them :idunno:

 

[Artificer]

I have only had VERY limited experience with French Flints and that only in my Brown Bess Lock. My limited experience with the French Flints agrees with your experience and I prefer English Flints for their longer life as well.

However and this information is probably only good for those wanting to be more HC/PC (such as for living history, etc.), the French Amber Flints are much more HC/PC for those using civilian guns before and during the AWI. Please allow me to explain.

T.C. Hamilton in his book "Colonial Frontier Guns" and Dr. De Witt Bailey in his works on 18th century British Military Guns and some German made rifles, both point out that the SHAPE of gun flints used by the British Flint Knappers did not begin to resemble what we now know as "English" Flints until about 1775 at the earliest. Up until then it was a exceptionally well guarded "Trade Secret" of French Flint Knappers.

I am referring to a flint that has a sharp edge in front, a less angled/sharp back edge and the more or less flat top. Prior to 1775 at the earliest, British Flint Knappers did not know how to make that shape of flints and were still knapping "Gunspall" or Wedge Shaped Flints. It was a HUGELY important break through when British Flint Knappers first offered that then "new" shape to British Ordnance in late 1775, that French Flint Knappers had been making for many decades. British Ordnance had long known of the superior shape of the French Flints and actually purchased HUGE quantities of such shaped flints from France in between wars with France and through the Germans or Dutch when they could during War time.

Now, the Superior Shaped French Flints came into America to the English Colonies very early in the 18th century and were highly prized by American Colonists vs the early English "Gunspall" or Wedge Shaped Flints. These flints seem to have come in mostly by Dutch Traders, whether the French Flints were smuggled into the Colonies or the extra Tariff Tax was paid on them to come through normal channels.

The reason I mention this is some folks may enjoy adding an special added HC/PC bit of authenticity to either their Pre-AWI civilian arms or even their AWI Militia or Military impressions to be either shown or used in front of the public, by using the French Amber flints.

Gus

 

[good ole boy]

Thanks for creating this thread Terry.I too will be a customer. :metoo:

 

[Grumpa]

I've told this before, but a friend was with the Royal American Regiment at Fort Pitt Museum back in the '60s. Everyone was buying English flints for their Brown Bess muskets. He "liberated" an original period French amber flint from a display case, and used it for several years of re-enactments, while his fellows were repeatedly replacing their English flints. Anecdotal, yes, but maybe the quality of French amber flint, or the quality of their knapping, was much better back then.

Richard/Grumpa

 

[Artificer]

I am certainly not a geologist, but I have heard that flint varies from nodule to nodule on how long it lasts for use as a gun flint. Could be your friend got one that was made of an exceptionally good piece of flint rock?

Gus

 

[Coot]

Apparently the quality of flint varies with the source. The French method of producing gunflints (as we know them today) was superior to the older method used by the English which produced gun spalls and was more wasteful of the flint nodule, producing fewer "flints" from a given size nodule of flint - which nodules were more readily found in England than in France. The other thought which occurs to me is that the clunkier spall (typical of English flints till c1775) is likely harder to resharpen than the French style & therefor may not be good for as many firings without regard to any difference in the quality of the flint material itself. T.M. Hamilton devotes four chapters in his book "Colonial Frontiers Guns" to gun flints, guns spalls, their history and methods of manufacture.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

FWIW www.neolithics.com hand knaps black English flint, Texas flint and white chert, see http://www.neolithics.com/english-gun-flints/

I have used their black English flint and chert in my flowers and rifles and they work every bit as good as any other flint out there and at only $125 for a bag of 100, they indeed are the BEST VALUE in bulk purchases.

Neolithics also grinds the tops of the flints, if/as needed, so you are guaranteed not to receive any 'humpies' ...

 

[M. De Land]

I think the difference is if they are made of flakes or spalls from a core. The spalls always produce a hump back as the ridge is used to set up the platform from which they are knapped.
I make mine out of flakes which are usually much flatter, void of a hump.
The black flints I used to buy from TOW with the humps are ground off on a green carbide wheel before use.
The chert flints I make now are just as good as any of the black English flints I have bought and last longer.

 

[excess650]

I bought some of those Texas flints, and they sparked well for a while, but I still prefer English and French.

 

[Zonie]

Texas flints?

Heard they good at sparkin' but they don't sit no hearts on fire. :grin:

Kinda, "All hat but no cattle."

:rotf:


Just kidding you Texans but it was fun while it lasted.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

I too have had excellent luck w/ the white chert ones, where I bought my first ones from Rich Pierce, who used to sell them here on these forums.

Once they stop sparking, it's like flipping a switch, man ... they just stop throwing any sparks! But I find them the easiest of any 'flints' to resharpen as new and use again.