Those wet tile saws can they adjust to angles ?
Flints
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According to their description it will bevel cut
Those look fine for flingknapping into points, but not an easy thing to do for gun flints. Gun flints are knocked off a core from the top, which is why you end up with two sharp sides. Depending on how tall your core is, you can then break the piece into 2 or sometimes even 3 pieces. Not saying you can't make gun flints out of those, but they are not ideal for it and you would spend a lot of time knapping them into the correct shape.
bldtrailer
Pilgrim
what they call a "flake" is the Blade that gun flints are made from
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GLOBAL WARMING!! It’s now too hot for the planet to properly form rocks!
I make my own from chert, functional but not very attractive. Sometimes I get a few shots, sometimes many!
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I did call Track of the Wolf regarding the current shortage. Was hoping it's due to so many new flintlock shooters but alas, they said it happens annually. There is still only one man in England making them (Tom Fuller's former apprentice) and the summer shooting season consumes nearly his entire output. The gentleman I spoke with explained that's the reason for Track's one dozen at a time purchase limit.
Today I talked to a historic arms broker, who is local to me and who is very into flintlocks, and he thought that the English and French flints were actually softer than Missouri chert, and that our typical river chert would make more sparks, but tear up a frizzen more than the chalk stream rocks.
TDM
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Not that I didn’t believe the storyline, but I had to check for myself and flints are indeed as scarce as hen’s teeth at this time. I’m fairly well stocked but had planned to order some more, guess I’ll have to wait.
If the one you buy doesn't just make you a jig from a piece of wood kind of like a wedge
TDM
Cannon
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The Harbor Freight tile saw I have does not adjust, but I’ve never found that to be a problem. I have a diamond blade on it and it makes fairly fast work of shaping flints and removing humpbacks. The blade is safe if you make light skin contact, I hold the flints in my hand. But I do wear safety glasses. Don’t know what they sell for now but mine was cheap, used it to slice agates too.
Daryl Crawford
50 Cal.
I've been trying to keep that info in mind since you showed me how to make flints at Kempton. You make it look easy Sir! Glad your here because I think many of us who are messing around, learning to make a mess and an occasional flint will benefit from your experience.View attachment 245446View attachment 245448View attachment 245447All flint is Chert but not all chert is flint, the high grade is called flint (but flint is found overseas in chalk, we in the USA have limestone thus chert.) the better cherts are smooth and knappable . when you first start out you will be lucky to get 5-10% return View attachment 245449cut proof gloves and safety glasses and a safe place to knap will help. keep kids and dogs away cut feetView attachment 245450start with flakes and if still interested then try making blades from blade cores(truly the hardest part is making a good blade core without step fractures)
warning it is addicting
steps to find a good gun flint rock
1 can the rock scratch glass (hardness 5, chert is 7-flint )
2 strike it with a smooth side of a file does it spark yes ?
3 can it knap into useable shapes? cleavable can you make it into a gun flint
4 test in a gun lock while wearing safety glasses to make sure it isn't to brittle (some will shatter) repeat several times
Maybe someone on here that works their own can answer this. When I found this the first chunk looked promising but once I cracked it open I found it to be unworkable. Does it need heat treated or is it a low quality sample full of inclusions and not worth further time?
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I would still bop flakes off till it was shards. You never know. There may be three or four good ones in there, and as has been pointed out, the ones that are pretty may not actually work the best. Sometimes a gnarly one will last and throw good sparks.
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I will have a couple hundred flints with me at the Punta Gorda Gun show this weekend
Time to pick up another rock.
To be sure. His point was more along the lines of really hard chert being harder on a frizzen than flint. I would think this would be more a concern on original antiques than kits or a built rifle where changing out a frizzen or re-hardening is no big deal.
