Carbide or Ceramic

[Walks with fire]

Anyone ever try a carbide or ceramic cutting tool tip like machinists use in their flintlock? The ones I have seen are not shaped right but I bet it would work if you could find the right sized tool tip.

 

[Norskie]

Might wear out my frizzen! You try it first.

 

[rebel727]

Carbide would definitely be hard on a frizzen. Have no idea about ceramic. Flint has worked well for a couple hundred years. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

:grin: Ceramic works wonderusly well, use a green wheel to shape and sharpen it. bob

 

[musketman]

:grin: Ceramic works wonderusly well, use a green wheel to shape and sharpen it. bob

So I can use my wife's ceramic blue willow plates to make myself a lifetime of flints???

Cool, 'cept my lifetime would be over about :30 seconds after Mrs. Musketman found out what I did... :haha:

 

[patch knife]

Ceramic can also be knapped like flint , I've made a few points (arrowheads) from junked ceramic insulators . If you do knapp ceramic , I recommend leather gloves and eye protection . That stuff is really sharp . :thumbsup:

 

[hack]

WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO ????????
:youcrazy:

 

[flashpanner]

It is a FLINT lock silly, not a carbide or ceramic lock!! :rotf:

 

[rebel727]

It is a FLINT lock silly, not a carbide or ceramic lock!! :rotf:

Even I could tell that's not "pc". :rotf:

 

[CoyoteJoe]

It is a FLINT lock silly, not a carbide or ceramic lock!! :rotf:

Even I could tell that's not "pc". :rotf:

I don't live in a tipi or log cabin, don't travel by horse and don't bathe in a cold creek. If I could find a flint substitute that would throw a shower of sparks and last for years, or even one season, I'd use it and be glad. Kinda funny to think of folks chatting on computers about being PC, don't that stand for "personal computer"? :rotf:

 

[TANSTAAFL]

You know the drill, "if they had it back then, thery would have used it." :hmm:

 

[John Taylor]

very interesting. I use carbide toll bits all the time and sharpen them with a diamond wheel. Will have to try one in a lock and see what happens.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I'd be more concerned that the ceramic or carbide would far outlast the frizzen. It takes 15 seconds to swap out a $1 flint. Takes several hours to fit and temper a $25 frizzen. If you have to do that every 100 or 200 shots it's certainly no advantage.

 

[musketman]

I'd be more concerned that the ceramic or carbide would far outlast the frizzen.

So what if it was a ceramic flint and a depleted uranium freezen? (I know, bad combo) just trying to provoke thought... :grin:

 

[Toomuch_36]

I'd be more concerned that the ceramic or carbide would far outlast the frizzen. It takes 15 seconds to swap out a $1 flint. Takes several hours to fit and temper a $25 frizzen. If you have to do that every 100 or 200 shots it's certainly no advantage.

I think even 100 shots would be streaching it a bit. If you are into cost savings, stick with the flint. You will soon be able to buy a whole new rifle with the money you have saved.

Toomuch
............
Shoot Flint

 

[CoyoteJoe]

I'd be more concerned that the ceramic or carbide would far outlast the frizzen. It takes 15 seconds to swap out a $1 flint. Takes several hours to fit and temper a $25 frizzen. If you have to do that every 100 or 200 shots it's certainly no advantage.

Every time you strike a spark you are scraping off a bit of the frizzen. No way around that, it is the tiny bits of frizzen steel which we see as sparks. Anything that will make a spark will wear away the frizzen.I see no reason to think that a flint substitute which stays sharp for a longer period of time is going to harm the frizzen more than does any rock which sparks.

 

[Walks with fire]

CoyoteJoe,
You also seem a little "sharper" than most.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I see no reason to think that a flint substitute which stays sharp for a longer period of time is going to harm the frizzen more than does any rock which sparks.

Flint has a frangible quality that puts some "give" in the lock geometry. Carbide seems mighty unyielding to be slapping into a frizzen.

We won't know if it will work until you give it a try. But then, if you're looking for modern substitutes; brass cases and fulminate primers have already been invented . . . etc., etc. :winking:

 

[CoyoteJoe]

I rather doubt that carbide would spark anyhow, ceramic could perhaps be made to, maybe. :grin:

 

[Walks with fire]

It's just a thought and an alternative if flint should become hard to get and/or expensive. A machinist assured me ceramic does work quite well but he was not an avid flintlocker. :nono: