Flint discovery

[hanshi]

Not to be whipping a dead horse but I thought it might be in some way helpful to post this. There's been interest in which flints are best, recently, and here's what I experienced.

Years back I bought two small, sawn agate flints. I tried one in a production flinter and results were dismal but so was the performance of ANY flint in that gun. Later I tried one in a rifle with a small Siler lock. I'd had a bit of trouble with this lock in the past and the agate flints performed just so-so. I sent the lock off and it was tuned and the frizzen replaced. No more trouble though I'd stowed away the agate flints and forgot about them..

Well, yesterday I was at the range with a friend and had to replace the worn out black flint. On a lark I put in the once used agate. 35+ shots with no stutter or noticeable flint wear. My former opinion had been predicated on two bad locks but when the Siler got a new frizzen, well, Katy bar the door!

I know Rifleman really likes the sawn flints and now I must say they do seem to be quite fine. I plan to keep shooting the one in my rifle until failure. That will give me a true picture.

 

[BrownBear]

That proves to me once again that a truth usually resides somewhere between the two extremes. I know that's not popular in the political season, but then again I'm not making money broadcasting political ads and I'm not a politician desperate to be noticed.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Can I come out of the cave now? :shocked2:

 

[hanshi]

I don't see why not :rotf: .

I never gave the nay or yea to sawn flints since the aborted tests years ago proved nothing to me. I figured if they work for at least one shooter they must simply WORK. I looked and dug up the two I had and finally tried them. All it took was a working lock. I just had the two small flints so couldn't try them in other locks. :thumbsup:

 

[Greenjoytj]

My Lyman GPR came with a sawed/cut agate flint I can't see them supplying something that flat out won't work and get get a bad product reputation. Also TC supplies cut agate flint too, I have a bunch of the TC cut agate flints they work and last.

 

[Dphar]

My Lyman GPR came with a sawed/cut agate flint I can't see them supplying something that flat out won't work and get get a bad product reputation. Also TC supplies cut agate flint too, I have a bunch of the TC cut agate flints they work and last.

Agate sparks well. Never used sawn ones. I have used some pieces I have picked up off the ground just to see if they worked, they did.

Dan

 

[hanshi]

I'm not familiar with what the T/C cut flints are made from. I bought some T/C sawn flints a few years ago and they didn't work for me. They chipped and broke a lot. These were black, solid black flints; I've never seen anything like them before. The agate flints that work for my lock are a milky white color and very hard.

 

[Cowboy2]

I've been playing around with the American saw cut flints from Track of the Wolf in my GPR over the last few weeks. Bevel up, nothing special. But with the bevel down, fantastic. I've got a bunch of English flints on hand, but if these sawn ones all last as long and spark as well as what I've tried so far, well, consider me converted.

 

[Larry Pletcher]

The catch here is that most any mineral can be cut to a shape that fits in flintlock jaws. I hesitate to call them "flint" just because they can be mounted in a lock.

Who knows what some of these are cut from. The type of mineral is everything.

The chert, flint, agate, quartz family all should spark beautifully - they are number 7 on the hardness scale. Stainless steel in 5.5 on the same scale. In geology class we would use the back of our watches to judge hardness. If the mineral scratched our watch backs it was harder than 5.5. You could quickly tell calcite from quartz that way.
Regards,
Pletch

 

[Rifleman1776]

The chert, flint, agate, quartz family all should spark beautifully - they are number 7 on the hardness scale.

Agree. However, I did see one hardness chart that put quartz up around a 9. I might have to Google around to find it again. I would like to try quartz but finding size adequate to cut, or knap, into flints is difficult.
BTW, I hope those watches you were scratching were not the Rolex's your daddy gave you for graduation. :shocked2:

 

[CoyoteJoe]

There is more to it than just hardness. Quartz is plenty hard but won't knap well at all and if sawn to a sharp edge it will crumble off with the first strike.

 

[Rifleman1776]

There is more to it than just hardness. Quartz is plenty hard but won't knap well at all and if sawn to a sharp edge it will crumble off with the first strike.

Uh-Oh! Arkansas has a lot of quartz. Famous for it. Thought I was on the way to a gunflint fame and fortune. Make this Frank's Free Enterprise Flop #478.
Actually, I kinda knew that. :wink:

 

[TANSTAAFL]

I have found the Brazilian agate best for making rocklock sparkers. Go to rock shows and ask the agate guys if they have any thin sawed scrap. I get it very cheap, then cut to size and edge on my diamond wet saw.

 

[Larry Pletcher]

The chert, flint, agate, quartz family all should spark beautifully - they are number 7 on the hardness scale.

Agree. However, I did see one hardness chart that put quartz up around a 9. I might have to Google around to find it again. I would like to try quartz but finding size adequate to cut, or knap, into flints is difficult.
BTW, I hope those watches you were scratching were not the Rolex's your daddy gave you for graduation. :shocked2:

I've never seen a discussion of Moh's hardness scale that listed quartz at any level but 7.

The watch I was scratching was a Timex. I've never seen a Rolex; neither had my dad. :grin:

Regards,
Pletch

 

[Larry Pletcher]

The chert, flint, agate, quartz family all should spark beautifully - they are number 7 on the hardness scale.

Agree. However, I did see one hardness chart that put quartz up around a 9. I might have to Google around to find it again. I would like to try quartz but finding size adequate to cut, or knap, into flints is difficult.
BTW, I hope those watches you were scratching were not the Rolex's your daddy gave you for graduation. :shocked2:

I've never seen a discussion of Moh's hardness scale that listed quartz at any level but 7.

The watch I was scratching was a Timex. I've never seen a Rolex; neither had my dad. :grin:

Regards,
Pletch

 

[tiger955]

I got a new lock from TC a couple years ago and it came with a sawn white flint in it. I tried it a couple times in my dimly lit living room and it sparked but not too impressive. I replace it with one of my rich Pierce flints and big difference. :idunno:
I did try adjusting it several ways also.

 

[don hepler]

I tryed some of the white agate flints from TC and notice they didn't spark as well as English flints, however they seemed to spark good after several fireings, and for some strange reason,I seemed to have gained more confidence in the cut flints. I wasn't successful at knapping anyway and with the cut flints, I use a diamond file to resharpen. I also have better luck getting the flint set up faster and easier, due to the consistent shape.