Flint Kapping

[BrownBear]

You just bright the hammer down and hold the frizzen down on top of the flint and then cock the hammer while applying gentle pressure on the frizzen as the flint rides under it. As the bottom edge of the frizzen rides over the edge of the flint, a perfect shower of flint particles fly off the bottom of the edge and there it is a perfectly sharp flint and the edge follows the shape of the frizzen. Has worked for me, I don’t even carry the knapping hammer with me at all now.

That's the way I learned to do it about 20 years before I ever owned a flintlock, call it 1965 or so. The guy I shot with learned it from his grandpap, who learned it from his grandpap, and so on.

I'm a decent enough knapper that I can make my own flints when I find a decent core, so I have no problems using knapping hammers, knives, deer horn, nails or whatever to clean up an edge. But why bother when it's so much easier and gives so much better results to use the frizzen?

In my tiny little world, knapping hammers are on the work bench for making flints, and the frizzen is for cleaning up used flints.

 

[M. De Land]

I don't know much about flint locks. Does the flint edge need to me irregular or evenly sharp to work? I have found that I can grind them on a green wheel to shape and leave a smooth square, sharp edge but have no idea if this would be defeating the purpose of having some irregularity to encourage sparking.MD

 

[roundball]

I don't know much about flint locks. Does the flint edge need to me irregular or evenly sharp to work? I have found that I can grind them on a green wheel to shape and leave a smooth square, sharp edge but have no idea if this would be defeating the purpose of having some irregularity to encourage sparking.MD

I've never found that it matters...they all pretty much start out with an even straight edge but normal use/wear and knapping never maintains that kind of an edge for me

 

[Comrade Coffin]

Good evening gentlemen, several years ago a friend of mine was generous enough to pass me a bag of flints that were rescued from a Royal Navy wreck from the Napoleonic era. They are Brown Bess flints, hard and black and last very well. unfortunately I need to knap them down to fit into both of the jaws on my flinlocks. I can quite happily whittle them down to the right size by knapping away the edges, but if I run out of a 'flat' on the top (or the flint never had a flat top - which many do not) I cannot get the knack of producing one.

Any ideas folks?

 

[Stumpkiller]

Sell them and buy the proper size? :idunno:

 

[Comrade Coffin]

Sell them and buy the proper size? :idunno:

Where's the fun in that? :haha: