Flint Problem

[Parzifal]

Funny story here, At Blackcreek this summer, I had some issues with my flint.

The night before when I was cleaning my musket, I changed the flint and tossed the old hard chunk of faithfull leather and replaced it with a smooth piece of new stuff from my scrap bin.

Big mistake.

After about 7 shots the bloody flint fell out"never ever happened before", lost my field screw driver and my file partner was whining and moaning.. :rotf:

I ended up hand tightening it... it was then all floppy in there not giving me good spark,

I think I squeezed out 3 more shots out of 6-7 attempts after that

In retrospect it was funny but at the time...ummm not so much.

I have learned my lesson, I again choose a nice hard rough piece of leather wet it a bit and fit it in the jaws tighten and good to go.

Havent had any problems since.

Oh and I will never forget my screw driver again!!

Cheers

 

Dont mean to hijack, but if you'll allow one more anecdote, as regards our flints:
William Clark, of Lewis&Clark fame, once mentioned that, while shooting at an elk (with his John Small rifle in .36) his lock 'snapped 7 times' which he specifically mentioned as being a unique circumstance. Later he ascertained that his flint had been loose.
So, i guess it can happen to anyone :shocked2:
:v

 

[roundball]

Dont mean to hijack, but if you'll allow one more anecdote, as regards our flints:
William Clark, of Lewis&Clark fame, once mentioned that, while shooting at an elk (with his John Small rifle in .36) his lock 'snapped 7 times' which he specifically mentioned as being a unique circumstance. Later he ascertained that his flint had been loose.
So, i guess it can happen to anyone :shocked2:
:v

Awwww, those guys were just backwoods neophytes...and they didn't have the benefit of the MLF information repositiory :grin:

 

[Mike Brooks]

If you insist on using leather, try to stay away from the commercially tanned leather. Use a thin a piece of leather as you can find. You can buy Chamois cloth, which is leather from that sheep, in the auto parts stores, if you don't have other thin leather. Soak the leather strip you cut to shape, and then put it between two boards and use the jaws of a vise, or C-clamps to squeeze it as thin as possible. When it dries, then wrap the flint.

You do have to check the tightness of the cock screw from time to time with leather, and tighten it down again and again.

If you use lead instead, you only have to tighten it after the first 5 strikes, and it will hold until the flint becomes too short to throw sparks into your pan, and you have to move the flint forward.

Every time you re-set the flint( in both leather and lead) you have to recheck the cockscrew again after about 5 strikes, and frequently thereafter with leather. The thicker the leather, the harder it is to get it to hold tight.

I recommend you obtain a Hawken Shop Flint-tool. it has a small screwdrive blade on its side, and is just the right size tool to tie to your bag so that you can tighten that cockscrew when you need to. :thumbsup:

I've been using thick elk, buffalo or cow leather for 28 years. Cut the leather the correct size, put the flint in the proper place and crank the screw down. I have never had to re tighten after five shots or 50 shots for that matter. My flint rarely if ever falls out. Neither have I had to constantly move my flint forward for proper lock function.

 

Dont mean to hijack, but if you'll allow one more anecdote, as regards our flints:
William Clark, of Lewis&Clark fame, once mentioned that, while shooting at an elk (with his John Small rifle in .36) his lock 'snapped 7 times' which he specifically mentioned as being a unique circumstance. Later he ascertained that his flint had been loose.
So, i guess it can happen to anyone :shocked2:
:v

Awwww, those guys were just backwoods neophytes...and they didn't have the benefit of the MLF information repositiory :grin:

True RB. i think the one laptop they had with them gave out before Fort Mandan :grin:

 

[roundball]

"...If you insist on using leather..."

:rotf: :rotf: :rotf:
He sure does have an attitude, huh...
:rotf: :rotf: :rotf:

 

[paulvallandigham]

Yeah, Mike, we all know that you are God's chosen one. What else would we expect of you, Mr. Perfect???

 

[paulvallandigham]

Talk about attitude, Roundball- is this not the kettle calling the pot, " black "??

Like Mike, nothing ever goes wrong for you, and you just don't seem to have the simple problems that plague us mere mortals. The only wisdom on these forums comes from you two guys, right???? And, God Forbid if someone might hold a different opinion from the almighty Roundball, right!!! Why, I think I hear thunder outside right now!

 

[Mike Brooks]

Yeah, Mike, we all know that you are God's chosen one. What else would we expect of you, Mr. Perfect???

Well, I think that response was totally uncalled for. Just exactly what did I post to deserve that? Just because I have a different experience and prefer something other than you insist on I'm called "Mr. Perfect"?
So, I guess we're all expected to wait until Mr.V posts on a subject then there after we aren't allowed to do anything but agree......What a world.... :shake:

 

[paulvallandigham]

Will all the people who don't know how much you dislike me, please raise their hands?

If you limited your remarks to relating your experience, I would have no disagreements with you, Mike. You take every opportunity to disagree with anything I say, just for the sake of arguing, Mike. We both know that. What set you off this week? The comment from someone who was upset( kidding) that he counted 4 times when I agreed with you?

 

[roundball]

Yeah, Mike, we all know that you are God's chosen one. What else would we expect of you, Mr. Perfect???

Well, I think that response was totally uncalled for. Just exactly what did I post to deserve that? Just because I have a different experience and prefer something other than you insist on I'm called "Mr. Perfect"?
So, I guess we're all expected to wait until Mr.V posts on a subject then there after we aren't allowed to do anything but agree......What a world.... :shake:

Armchair theories are always obvious in the face of actual hands on experience...

 

[Mike Brooks]

If you limited your remarks to relating your experience, I would have no disagreements with you, Mike.

:shocked2: Just where did I do anything but relate my experience? here's what I posted:

I've been using thick elk, buffalo or cow leather for 28 years. Cut the leather the correct size, put the flint in the proper place and crank the screw down. I have never had to re tighten after five shots or 50 shots for that matter. My flint rarely if ever falls out. Neither have I had to constantly move my flint forward for proper lock function.

Not much controversial there....just my first hand experience.

You take every opportunity to disagree with anything I say, just for the sake of arguing, Mike.

For the most part I don't pay too much attention to your posts until you start warping history to fit your idea of how it was, and only then do I do it with the proper documentation. And, only then as a service to those who really want to know the correct information. Otherwise, your posts are so lengthy I just don't have time to read them.

The comment from someone who was upset( kidding) that he counted 4 times when I agreed with you?

Sorry I missed that one. :haha: I would have gotten a real kick out of reading that! :rotf:

 

[2172]

I sure had to wade through a lot of info, and a couple of postings I wish I hadn't seen, to be sure no one had brought forth this idea. I use a cutting wheel on a dremel tool to cut some deeper scorings across both the upper and lower jaws of the cock. I've had success using both lead and leather as my holding material doing this. The idea of wetting the leather is new to me, and I like it..Hank

 

[Mike Brooks]

Good Golly, here we go again! This seems to go back to the good old lead VS leather debate. :surrender: Paul likes lead and that's great. I've shot with leather for 28 years and that works great for me. Either works, but if you're going to use leather, I recommend using something thick, as it's always worked for me.
Now, I think I'll just try and fade out of the rest that may take place........ :snore:

 

[roundball]

Yeah, leather is the real deal...you'd never see a settler taking a precious amount of remaining lead that he might have left and pound it into essentially what would be a disposable flint wrap...not when he had a constant supply of various hides around him as part of his daily life activities

 

[Chilidog]

Gonna have to go along with the thick leather crowd. That's what I have been using forever and never have a problem with loose flints.