Ferocerium why not

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In Pennsylvania i believe you must have Ignition from a naturally occurring rock for hunting. If flint was in the cock jaws you might be ok.
 
I've heard of frizens being faced with ferocerium ( which is generally frowned upon) but in that case the ferocerium is being scraped by the sharp edge of the flint. If reversed and a piece of fero rod was struck upon the frizen...absolutely nothing would happen. No sparks, no how. To make sparks the fero rod is scraped with a sharp edge. Even flint.


I have made flint from grinding wheels.use small tile saw. Cut 3/4×3/4×1/4 inch. You have 8 sides to use.
 
Maybe we could find some chemical that blew up when struck. Then we could stick this in little copper cups. And the cock could just stile it and set off the gun.
Even better we could put the cup in the bottom of a case made out of brass, with powder and ball already there
Are you INSANE!!!
THAT would NEVER work.
Oh......uh....hang on a sec........
 
Maybe we could find some chemical that blew up when struck. Then we could stick this in little copper cups. And the cock could just stile it and set off the gun.
Even better we could put the cup in the bottom of a case made out of brass, with powder and ball already there, like a military cartridge, and load it at the breech in.
I recall some boys that got depleted uranium shoe on their frizzen. You could spark off hunks of limestone in the drive way.
Isn’t some of the draw of ml in general and any rock in the lock or match locks working within the limitations of a primitive system?
Yes! but it is an interesting question.
 
Crow, I really think it best to use some type of chert in the jaws of the cock and a hardened steel face on the frizzen. It’s worked fairly well for quite a few years now.

Back in the 90's I was helping clean up after a Wedding reception, there were a couple of cases of empty champagne bottles left outside so I had a gander at them.

I'm something of a "what if" fella and get to thinking about this or that possible innovation and I remember being impressed with the thickness of those bottles. Anyway I asked if I could take the empty bottles and no-one objected so I took them home and they sat in one of my farm sheds for a few weeks until I had the time to work with them. I laid a Tarp down to retain the shards and set up a Stump block, put on some protective Goggles, my Farriers Chaps and leather gloves. Using a square face hammer and smaller Flint knapping tools I carefully cracked and broke one of the champagne bottles then began knapping away as best I could. Now I cant claim that there were uniform "Flint" like products but I did get plenty of bits a pieces that could be locked in a cock Jaw of a Flint lock and used effectively to spark on a Frizzen. The large Siler lock (well tuned) didnt chew them up too quickly and the thick champagne glass "Flints" did knap reasonably well while locked in the Cock jaws, so in my mind they were a reasonable albeit imperfect alternative.
 
Ya know, threads like this make me miss the old days of simple muzzleloading. Rather than spend hours discussing it, we could just order some depleted uranium sheeting out of Muzzle Blasts and either rivit it or solder it to the frizzen. It never wore out.

Plus it glowed in the dark...handy for a candle shoot. Eventually, so did the shooter. ;)
 
The only issue is that it won't spark when it hits the frizen. You need a relatively sharp edge to get a ferro rod to spark. it would be best to replace the frizen with the ferro rod and keep the flint in the hammer.
 
I Know An 'Easier Way'!!!
Ditch those Flintlocks and percussions and use Centerfir....er, Unmentionable Abomination!
Then it would be so easy we don't even need a 'Muzzleloader Forum' to discuss how to keep Flintlock and Percussion history alive any more! No more talk of Mountain Men or Buckskiners or even History!
How much more 'easier' can it get?

Okay, I am done being astonished now....going to go back to cleaning my old ancient tech flintlock with a stick and cloth patch like some kind of caveman or something. DARN, THIS IS HARD WORK!!
:doh:
 
I had it backwards. Yes the ferocerium would need to be impeded in the frizzen. I'm always behind times. It just seems like the flints wouldn't be as difficult for some of us to get good ignition from. Thanks for the replies

So the United States Army musket demonstration team has been using fero faced frizzens for many decades now. It's a good idea, and it works.

LD
 
Mod's,,,,, how is this continuing topic in keeping with a "traditional muzzleloader" forum? How is a ferocium hammer/frizzen any different from sabots or the other things that we don't discuss here?
 
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