Flint issues

[sproulman]

Replacing that spring would probably be my last resort effort. It really doesn't take much spring tension to keep it bouncing back at the flint. I lost my frizzen spring in the tall grass the one time I removed it for an extreme cleaning that it really didn't need. Got a new one from L&R and when I talked to them before sending in the lock (they installed it free for just the price of the replacement spring) we spoke about frizzen spring tension for a bit. It really takes very little tension to keep it from rebounding back on the flint.

My guess (again) would be that you have the flint hitting the frizzen at too abrupt an angle. That will smash the edge and you will get only a few shots out of it before it stops sparking and you start knapping at it.

Of course if you hit it at too high of an angle it will knock junks off the bottom of the flint. You want to set that flint up so it strikes at a 55° to 60° angle. Much less than 55° starts smashing flint edges. Get at much above 60° and it starts knocking chunks off the bottom of the flint. Check out the picture below to see what I'm talking about:

Also, don't expect the flint to hit the top of the frizzen when you have it set to strike at that angle. Anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 the way down from the top is fine.

Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:
Dan

Could you show how protractor is placed on the frizzen?to check angle ..little confused on how you place it if i put the 90 degree on curved frizzen it show like 80 or so..

 

[azmntman]

:metoo:

 

[M. De Land]

Great picture and well worth a thousand words. One can see if it came it a 30 degrees from the horizontal it would be flint breaking machine!

 

[Zonie]

The flint in my drawing is basically 30 degrees from the horizontal when the flint is about to strike the frizzen.



The angle of the flint on my flintlocks closely duplicates the angle shown in my drawing and they do not eat or bust flints. They work great.

My flintlock rifles use either Chambers or L&R locks and this is how they are set up.

 

[M. De Land]

I think that is because your flit is not actually hitting the frizzen face at 32degrees as the frizzen face center line is not at 90 degrees.
The actual strike angle to the frizzen face( which is a curve and angled back) at battery is probably closer to 50 than 30 degrees.

 

[sproulman]

deceased member here showed me how to put a protractor on the frizzen but I just forgot how you do it..Maybe someone can show us again how you do it?

 

[azmntman]

Please :thumbsup:

 

[waksupi]

You can bend hammer, as long as you end up with the flint still pointing to the center of the pan when it is fired.
Some locks, just plain eat rocks. On all of my rifles and smoothbores, I fully expect 100+ shots per flint. On smaller locks, like my pistol, I only get maybe half of that.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

Do those 100 shoots included stopping to knap the flint?

 

[M. De Land]

I saw a serrated frizzen once on a Spanish flinter that apparently self napped the flints I would guess.I bet it was a flint buster until it got some grooves going in the edge.

 

[Anozarkwoodsman]

Ended up being a weak frizzen spring, which was causing bounce back, new spring installed and shoots great now. Thanks for the advice fellas.

 

[Dphar]

What is happening to the flints are they breaking off? Just not sparking? There are many causes. Weak frizzen and/or mainspring can be an issue. Frizzen cast from the wrong alloy.
Frizzen rebound striking the flint can break them off short in one shot or over a period of shots. If they stop sparking and the frizzen is "smooth" it may be too hard. If this is suspected or even not, buy TWO oven thermometers. Raise the oven temp to 375 on the new thermometers NOT the stove dial/readout and put the frizzen in for 1/2 hour or 45 minutes hung from a wire at about the level of the thermometers. Shut oven off after the time and let cool for a few minutes or over night whatever, then pull it out. See if it sparks better. To make sparks the frizzen must be hard enough to spark but soft enough to let the flint pull the bits of metal from the face to form the sparks.

Dan