flint substitute

[Rifleman1776]

I have used a piece of quartz with a steel to get good sparks. Maybe it takes more force to create sparks with quartz which you can get with your hands, but not a lock. (?) Not sure though.

The quartz I tried was some I had bought to make jewelry. I sold the jewelry. I only tried smaller pieces in the lock with no success. The larger points were too expensive to experiment on a steel striker with. It runs 7 thru 9 on the Mohs hardness scale. Flint is 7. Methinks what I got from the Arkansas mines ran to the higher end.

 

[M. De Land]

How does iron pyrite work? I see lot's of it here in Alaska. Haven't tried to knap it but should be able to grind some I would think. MD

 

[Rifleman1776]

How does iron pyrite work? I see lot's of it here in Alaska. Haven't tried to knap it but should be able to grind some I would think. MD

Not a clue. It was just something that came to mind when I was writing that.

 

[Billnpatti]

Iron pyrite will make sparks when struck on steel but it is not as good as flint. Iron pyraite is what was used on the old wheellocks to make sparks to ignite the main charge in the rifle. I have no idea how well it knaps. I have never done anything with it but since it was replaced with flint as the stone of choice when the flintlock came along, I'd guess it is not as hard and probably does not knapp well. Just a guess. Since you have access to some, you might experiment with it to see how well it knapps. Flint fractures in a conical manner. There is a name for this particular conical fracture but the name escapes my aging mind at the moment. Actually, there are some good knapping videos on You Tube. Just go there and look under "Flint Knapping". They don't do anything with iron pyrites but you will learn about knapping flint and then apply what you learn to some experiments with the pyrites.

 

[Tinker2]

How does iron pyrite work? I see lot's of it here in Alaska. Haven't tried to knap it but should be able to grind some I would think. MD

I have use it in one of my flint locks, It works ok if you can get good iron pyrites

This is what I have learned.
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/231922/post/693581/hl//fromsearch/1/



William Alexander

 

[Deadeye]

There's tons of flint/chert/agate here, everytime I go for a hike I bring home a pocketful of small pieces or a large chunk. It's easy to find pieces that are the size to fit in a flinter without much, if any, knapping. I'm sure this is one of the places that cappers weren't very popular.
Deadeye

 

[kodiakmarine]

Flint was the choice of most of the rendezvous era mountain men. I'm sure the availability of flint and acceptable substitutes was the reason. Aome mountain men were known to use percussion, but they were well in the minority. The number of flint trade rifles taken to rendezvous by the fur companies attests to this.

The number of trading posts in the Rockies grew steadily in the 1830s. By 1840, the year of the last rendezvous, trading posts were plentiful enough for a man to purchase caps when he ran low, without too much difficulty. After 1840 percussion became the favorite, although some men still preferred flint, just as some do today.