Burnt flint normal?

[Hisownself]

My smoothbore has an 0.065" touch hole and Davis lock. Using English flints the other day I got 45 shots without an issue, and then it wouldn't spark. I noticed the left edge of the flint melted into a glob that prevented the sharp edge from striking the frizzen so I knapped it off and it was fine.

Is it normal that the flint gets fried from the touch hole, or I have it set wrong?

 

[Alden]

The flint melted. Melted? Melted!?

 

[Zonie]

I found several different melting points dealing with silica of which flint is one type.

Somewhere around 1500°C±200°C seems to be about right.

That temperature is equal to 2732°F and it would take a sustained soaking at that temperature to actually get flint to melt.
I don't think the few thousandths of a second that the flame from the flash hole would be hitting the flint would do that.

After a lot of shots, the flash might erode the flint but I don't think it would actually melt it.

That said, I think the problem with the flint is it just dulled up, as flints usually do after a few shots.

Re-knapping it was a good call.

 

[pa woods roamer]

I would be very happy to get 45 shots without having to knap the Flint !!Never seen a Flint melt though.

 

[Flint311]

I've had flint knap itself sharp all the way across, but not one edge (I believe nearest touch hole). It looked like it was a blob on that side, while the rest was sharp. It finally became the part that hit the frizzen first and wouldn't spark. It was completely rounded and getting hit with the burned powder, it may have looked melted.

Only way to check would be to measure the length, then shoot away. (45 shots is great!)

 

[Hisownself]

Maybe it's just "erosion" but there was a "blob" on the tip preventing the rest of the edge from hitting the frizzen. Here are two pictures of the flint after knapping the "blob" off and shooting a few more times. The white scale is very hard and bubbly....Maybe the blob wasn't melted flint but a hardened residue from the powder burn.

 

[Alden]

Yes, residue cakes onto a flint, hence why we brush and wipe them. Personally, I tend to spit-clean them (carefully, they're very sharp as well as unforgiving, and the frizzen and pan) periodically with a rag especially when shooting a lot. Said rags hang a corner out of my cartridge boxes when they're about me and I'm about the business of wearing one.

No, you certainly didn't melt (a) flint.

 

[Skychief]

The flint melted. Melted? Melted!?

Oh Alden, you are a Wordsmith! :haha: :haha: :haha:

 

[Rifleman1776]

the left edge of the flint melted into a glob

Melted? :shocked2:

To fix, you need to soak in flint solvent and reshape.

OK, just so I don't start a rant about flint solvent. I edit and add: :wink: :blah:

 

[Hisownself]

So where did the corner of the flint go? It didn't sheer off because the edge is rounded and smooth (until I knapped it) and even still it further rounded and smoothef after more shooting.

The melting point of flint is 1750C and the combustion temperature of BP is 2350C. So why is this impossible?

 

[Dewey]

Iron, out of the ground, melts at around 1510 degrees C (2750°F). Steel often melts at around 1370 degrees C (2500°F).

Is your pan melting, too ???

(It's the time factor - the heat doesn't last long enough.)

 

[nwtradegun]

the problem is a gas jet coming out of the vent. I had the same problem with a pappy horn smoothbore. the vent hole had been enlarged somewhere down the line. a vent liner with a smaller hole solved the problem.

 

[Rifleman1776]

So where did the corner of the flint go? It didn't sheer off because the edge is rounded and smooth (until I knapped it) and even still it further rounded and smoothef after more shooting.

The melting point of flint is 1750C and the combustion temperature of BP is 2350C. So why is this impossible?

You must be right. Too bad you are the first person in history to experience flint melt.

 

[hanshi]

It's just erosion from the vent; that's all. It dulls that edge closest to the hole. Often my flints self knapp and if the edge nearest the hole dulls; I just knapp it.

 

[Alden]

The melting point of flint is 1750C and the combustion temperature of BP is 2350C. So why is this impossible?

Ignore Rifleman, they stopped selling flint solvent many years ago and he doesn't see your point. But I do.

Your figures do shed much light on this and provide everyone else with an insight I have taken advantage of for years...

A propane torch burns at between 1,970 and 2,200C. Knowing this as well as the melting point of flint that you cite I save dulled flints that appear to be past their useful life, including too small to knap, and I weld them together with my Bernz-O-Matic, then continue to use them.

I also save the slivers of soap that are too small and soft to use on my manly body anymore and stick them together -- over time they form bath-size bars again and the cycle starts over.

Traditional muzzleloading Americans: waste not want not.

 

[Zonie]

Alden
Pictures! We need pictures!

Some good pictures of you actually welding two pieces of flint together are desperately needed so we can all learn about this method of recycling used flints.

I'm sure we can all put this to good use but words alone are not enough to guide us in this marvelous new (to me) technique.

 

[Alden]

Zonie, I certainly will as soon as I learn how to take a photo in my shop...

:wink:

 

[azmntman]

ANXIOUSLY awaiting. (but I believe he will wait for the patent to this method before allowing a visual) :idunno:

 

[Rifleman1776]

Zonie, I certainly will as soon as I learn how to take a photo in my shop...

:wink:

If you can weld flint, you can take a pic.
hotoSmile:

 

[Rifleman1776]

Ignore Rifleman, they stopped selling flint solvent many years ago and he doesn't see your point

Ignore me? :shocked2: Why not, everyone else does.
BTW, I have shot flint for more decades than I care to admit. Have never seen an effect like that. But, I'll have to look into some of the claims. When the rain stops today, I'll take a propane torch to some and again with the MAPP. Then I'll take to a welder friend and let hime zap with acetylene torch. I do believe the effect on the flint will be nada. But, have been wrong before, it was June, 1965, might happen again. :haha: