If the flint is not placed in a proper position to strike against. the hammer, it will be an additional cause, also, of the piece missing fire. Great attention should be paid that the cock and hammer are set in a proper position for the flint to strike the hammer so as to conduct the fire into the pan, and the flint be placed so as to have that effect. If it strikes the hammer too high, it will disperse the fire about, and, consequently, little of it will go into the pan; and that which does will be so chilled by the air, from having so far to fall before it goes into the priming, that it fires the powder very slow, and makes the piece appear to hang fire: and if it strikes the hammer too low, it will not go over, and of course the fire cannot go into the pan. To ascertain when the flint is fixed in a proper position, let it be struck over, and you will easily perceive how the fire is dispersed about: if it strikes the hammer so high that the fire is dispersed, then lay double the lead or leather that the flint is fixed in under the flint against the cock, which will lower the fore part of the flint, and cause it to strike the hammer lower: if it strikes too low, double the lead or leather, as before mentioned, under the flint at the fore end of the under jaw of the cock, which will raise it to a proper position to fire. As the jaws of the cocks are not all in the same position, and the flints are not all of the same thickness, nor of the same shape, a piece of paper, or any other soft substance, carefully placed under the flint at either end, as may be required, according to the foregoing directions, will fix it sufficiently firm. This remedy will be found useful in the flinting of all locks, as well as muskets, &c. as much depends on the flint being put in properly for the lock to fire true and well. The irregularity in the size of flints, however, causes great inconvenience, particularly for muskets; and complaints have been frequently made, with great justice, as to the detriment under which the service lies from the want of a regular standard. To obviate this evil I have adopted a gauge, by which flints may be cut to one uniform size; and the plan has been so highly approved by the Honorable Board of Ordnance and the East India Company, that they have gauges made for their use. The same gauge may be adapted to rifle guns, fusees, carbines, and pistols, and indeed to every description of fire arms; and must prove particularly advantageous where the jaws of the cocks are made right to receive them: for, if the cock, the hammer-face, and hammer toe, do not stand at right angles to resist the flint, they form a great denial to the firing of all locks; and the hammer and mainspring should be of equal temper to resist the flint of all guns.
That pieces frequently miss fire, when the flint is good, and the lock and hammer quite perfect, is undeniable-and very few are aware of the real cause; for it is not always the fault of the flint, or lock, but because the hammer-faces, from frequent firing, become soft, by the flint cutting through the case-hardening. The steel on the hammer-face being welded in, it frequently becomes heated or burnt, in some more than in others; so that the power of the steel is destroyed, and, consequently, the fire drawn from it is of a pale red; whereas fire drawn from good steel, or when the hammer-face is of a proper temperature, is of a blood red: and this shews that it is of the right temperature, inasmuch as there is more heat in the latter than in the former.
This is an important fact. many people, who fancy that their gun hangs fire, are thus deceived, as this frequently arises from the hammer-face being destroyed from the circumstances just mentioned; and when they think that their gun hangs fire, it arises only from the want of heat drawn from the hammer; which, being burnt, the flint makes little or no impression, particularly when the flint gets thick*. The same observations apply to all fire locks. I have heard it remarked by officers in the English army that the French muskets fired in the field of Waterloo, during heavy rain, when the English muskets would not.
* When the hammer-faces are so much burnt, case-hardening makes them so hard, that when struck with the flint it will not cut sufficient to draw fire as it ought to do. I have had many fowling-piece locks where the hammer-face has been so hard that no fire could be drawn from them; but on reducing their temper, they have invariably fired, though not so strong as previously to their being burnt.
