Flintlock ignition question

[Grenadier1758]

I've always referred to that style of **** as double throated.

 

[Howard Pippin]

An old way of fixing a worn or gouged frizzen face is to braze or soft solder on a piece of hardened steel.
My background is 1/2 century + working as a metallurgist, with a lot of interest in how guns used to be, and are today, made.
I would suggest as best bet, here in the USA, an old hand saw, or cheap circular saw blade. These things are hard enough to give a spark when little curly chips are cut off by a flint striking the steel. In my view, unless you are experienced at home heat treating, soft solder is the best bet, as it will not draw the temper of your wood saw blade.

In the old days many frizzens had a steel striking face copper brazed on to a wrought iron frizzen. If you can do the braze and properly harden the whole thing after, this is just fine. But for most of us the brazing and hardening required is a recipe for needing a whole new frizzen.
Photo is an original flint rifle from Capt. John Dillin, showing a brazed frizzen face,

I did case harden one frizzen twice, after smoothing it up with a small grindstone that would fit the curve, and I thought I might have taken enough metal off that I could silver solder or braze a piece of good hacksaw blade on. Before I attempt to go that route either, I wanted check the angle pretty close and see that It doesn't get too thick but hacksaw blades are quite thin. Even though I tried to drive the case hardening deep, is still I'm sure pretty shallow.

 

[M. De Land]

I did case harden one frizzen twice, after smoothing it up with a small grindstone that would fit the curve, and I thought I might have taken enough metal off that I could silver solder or braze a piece of good hacksaw blade on. Before I attempt to go that route either, I wanted check the angle pretty close and see that It doesn't get too thick but hacksaw blades are quite thin. Even though I tried to drive the case hardening deep, is still I'm sure pretty shallow.

It takes more even heat for a longer time in an airless environment to drive carbon in really deep than can be practically done with a torch. I don't think you'll need to remove metal from your frizzen face to shoe it other than to clean up some deep gouging. I would be suprised if the slight difference in frizzen thickness from a laminate of hack saw blade or better yet carbon steel flat sping of the same thickness will make any difference if the curve arch stays the same.
The flint may need to be made a bit shorter initially.
If the full length flint has plenty of room to clear the swing at the bottom of the frizzen without jamming when it is fully swung open it should work fine.

 

[FlinterNick]

Never heard of sanding a frizzen surface. Been building and using flinters for 45+ yrs. , and generally , if it is suspect you have a bad or "soft" frizzen , perhaps the part might be replaced or re hardened................... oldwood

You would only dress / sand the frizzen spring if are rehardening the frizzen.

I case harden my frizzens occasionally and sand down the markings on the face after normalizing the steel, I remove with 180 and then fine polish at 220 to 400.

Reharden in a covered crucible with activated charcoal and ash and then dip compound, cook in the compound and then quench in nitrate diluted water.

On some rifles I have to do this more often than others, usually the frizzens that are made with lower graded carbon steels need it more often. Especially if was never hardened through and through and only mildly hardened.

And again, I only due this for new frizzens or ones that are giving me trouble.

If my lock still isn’t sparking and would check the springs, and bearing surfaces and anything else that would be preventing the lock from working correctly.

 

[Sun City]

Doesn't make a hoot as to how it looks....as look as it ignites the powder!!

 

[hanshi]

Yes, if the frizzen works then there's nothing wrong with it regardless how it looks. I've had flints that would give only a few shots and one that gave only 5, But there have been flints that went around 100 shots, a very few did even without knapping. Average for me is 60 - 70 shots or around there. A frizzen takes a lot of abuse from a flint, don't worry if it eventually looks it.

 

[FlinterNick]

Yes, if the frizzen works then there's nothing wrong with it regardless how it looks. I've had flints that would give only a few shots and one that gave only 5, But there have been flints that went around 100 shots, a very few did even without knapping. Average for me is 60 - 70 shots or around there. A frizzen takes a lot of abuse from a flint, don't worry if it eventually looks it.

Typically a well through and through hardened frizzen will last perpetually and a properly hardened frizzen will show shaving marks instead of deep gashes. Deep Gashes with no sparking with a well knapped flint is an indication that the frizzen has lost its surface hardness.

Hardening a frizzen through and through is not the easiest thing at home, typically a shop oven works best or mini forge.

Knowing the type of steel helps too, 1095 steel tends to be very fussy with heat treating, while 5150 and 6150 both tend to heat treat much easier.