Fear no humpy flint

[pat i.]

I use a diamond wheel in a Dremel.

 

[jager43478]

So you have a collection of flint rejects like these?
View attachment 40141View attachment 40142
Only a few of many. And not the worst of them.
Want them to look, and function, more like these,
View attachment 40146
?

I've seen many posts in the parts about grinding or filing the humps on poorly constructed/kidnapped flints with a hump or peak on top. I tried this with an Edgecraft diamond file I had bought years ago for sharpening broadheads. It has a magnetic handle that allows different plates of various grit diamond abrasive. The problem was how to hold the flint, especially if there was a lot of material to remove. And, over time I've accumulated many flints I've put aside do to what I felt to be unacceptable geometry.

Enter, the tongue depressor,
View attachment 40140

Two cheap plastic clamps, a tongue depressor, a scrap board, and a diamond file or other grinding device that will cut/abrade flint, and it doesn't take long to fix these.

This flint, deemed unacceptable, has poor angles for the jaws to hold as well as a lack of surface area for gripping,
View attachment 40147View attachment 40148
Clamped in place,
View attachment 40149
100 file strokes later,
View attachment 40152View attachment 40150View attachment 40151

100 file stokes doesn't take long. I probably gave it another 175 after the pics were taken. And another few seconds to round those rascally corners that like to find fingers and such.

The question now is how do I turn all that flint dust into a nice polishing compound? Waste not, want not.

Buy yourself a silicone carbide (green wheel) grinding wheel. Cuts the flints like butter.

 

[Brokennock]

I'm pretty impressed with how well that diamond file fits flints, especially once they are clamped in place.

 

[Grimord]

I'm pretty impressed with how well that diamond file fits flints, especially once they are clamped in place.

I keep a diamond file in my shooting bag should i need to touch up a flint in the field. I find the file works better, puts a better edge on the flint, and the flints last longer because you are not chipping off pieces of the flint.

 

[toot]

EC121, I wasn't trying to be a smart A$$, I was serious and you responded accordingly to it. thank you for explaining it to me. I am off to get a package of them, as I am one who has a lot of them with a hump on them that I use as a strike a lite, what a waste of $. I GOOGLED it, so simple when you know what to do!

 

[Brokennock]

Hardly worth all that effort to de-hump them.
When I order the Fuller flints from ToTW, I specify: "Flat flints only, No Humps". Usually they're really good at sorting. On the rare occasions when they slipped up, I just contacted Customer Service about it & they sent out replacements (only happened twice in about 6 years).

I did this last order. Worst batch I've ever gotten from them. Now it doesn't seen worth the trouble to specify. I'll just file them off and not worry about asking for something I'm not going to get then being bugged about it.

 

[Brokennock]

You can acquire the Fuller black English flints with or without the hump. They are purposely made with the hump to provide a greater range of contact with the frizzen. I use them with good success, and no issues with the larger Queen Anne style locks on my early colonial rifles.
View attachment 40173

How does the hump in top, where it gets clamped into the cock jaws, "provide greater range of contact."? I'm having trouble visualizing how this works.

 

[EC121]

A couple of months ago I bought 300 flints from Stonewall Creek. They are knapped in Germany from French and English rock. I'll worry about the few humped ones when I get through with the rest.

 

[michael mcghee]

i got a lot flints like that.. thanks for the tip about fixing them

 

[toot]

remember that that there is always a STRIKE A LITE! but how many of them does one need?

 

[Intosomthin]

I'm pretty impressed with how well that diamond file fits flints, especially once they are clamped in place.

Very helpful idea Broke, I too have a bunch of nobby flints, as well as some I destroyed with my knapping hammer. Think ill give this a shot!

 

[Intosomthin]

Dear mr brokennock, got some diamond files, and yup works like a dream, thanks

 

[Nazgul58]

Ditto on the diamonds. I took some worn flints and put a nice straight edge on them with a diamond sharpening plate I have. Worked well.

Don

 

[Brokennock]

Dear mr brokennock, got some diamond files, and yup works like a dream, thanks

You are most welcome. Not originally my idea to use the diamond file. The tongue depressor clamp was just my idea to hold them for more efficient filing.