Flints

[waxhaw]

This may sound like a stupid question, but 1) Does the flint seat bevel up or down? 2) Best flint to use.

 

[No Deer]

Bevel up or bevel down? Depends on which your gun likes, try it both ways and see which is more reliable. It should strike the frizzen in the upper 1/3 of the frizzen and drop the sparks right into the pan. On one of my guns if it is bevel up the jaw screw will hit the frizzen just about the same time the flint does, not a good thing. On another if the flint is bevel down it strikes the frizzen way near the top where the frizzen width has narrowed down, also not a good thing. So, like I said, it depends on your gun.

Best flint? Most like the Fuller Black English Flints available through Track of the Wolf, and other sources. Some like the French Amber Flints available through Horst and McCann. Again, try some and see what your gun likes best and lasts the longest for you.

 

[Horace]

Black English Flint seems to work best for me and bevel up or down, whichever gives you a good cutting angle on the frizzen. Avoid it hitting to close to perpendicular as this will not cut the frizzen properly and will ruin the flint quickly.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Whether your flintlock will require you to use the flint bevel up or bevel down depends on the lock Geometry, and whether the holes for the tumbler are drilled correctly. I just finished working on a lock where the tumbler is too far from the frizzen, and the only way to get this lock to work correctly is by mounting the flint bevel down. It works like a champ, but if we reverse it, it hardly works at all. Many of the commercial locks have the tumber mounted to close to the frizzen. The cock hits way to high on the face of the frizzen, at the wrong angle, and the sparks have to roll down the face of the frizzen and drop off into the pan to ignite the priming powder, rather than be thrown down into the pan. T/C recently corrected the design of their Flintlock to fix all that, and the new T/C lock works quite well, for example. I can not say that about the older T/C flintlocks. Several guns that are made in Europe also are not built correctly, and have all kinds of timing issues, simply because the geometry is incorrect. The makers seem to try to compensate for poor design by using stronger main and frizzen springs.

 

[Larry Pletcher]

I think the answers you have gotten are good ones. In the locks I timed I usually timed the lock both ways. In some locks the difference between bevel up and down was significant. In others the difference was so small it was of no consequence. In one case, a long time ago, the lock speed was almost the same but the lock was more consistent bevel up than down.

The moral I suppose is to shoot the lock enough to learn it well. You'll get a feel for what is best.

Regards,
Pletch

 

[roundball]

Black English Flint seems to work best for me and bevel up or down, whichever gives you a good cutting angle on the frizzen. Avoid it hitting to close to perpendicular as this will not cut the frizzen properly and will ruin the flint quickly.

I agree and that's really the bottom line...set a flint in place both up & down, to see which position gives the best slightly downward shaving angle at frizzen impact

 

[waxhaw]

Even though I have shot percussion and flint, after reading the things here, It seems I have so much more to learn. Another stupid question is where do I learn things like this besides trial and error, how do I know I have my flint set right in the jaws?

 

[Rebel]

If it sparks well and the priming powder goes off every time, you must be doing it right. :grin: Just set it so that it is about 1/8" from the frizzen at half cock, and hitting the frizzen square all the way across. Then you want it to be hitting at a downward slicing angle and not straight on. If all that is right you should get good sparks in the pan.

 

[mmahlock]

The best advise I can give is:

1) If you shoot with other flinters watch them and when they do something you've never seen before or or don't quite understand ask. Most will willingly share what they've learned of the art of shooting a flinter.

2) If your shooting by yourself ask here. Try to be as specific about your question as you can because there are a myriad of variations and nuances to shooting a flinter and just about everyone who does has his own magic and or knowledge regarding how and why it works.

3) Try to tap as many different sources as you can regarding each question you have because there are as many answers to every question you can ask as there are those who will answer.

:surrender: :hatsoff:

If all else fails experiment. There ain't much you could do to damage a flinter as long as you don't use way too much powder or short load a ball to blow it up. Mostly, if you do it really wrong it just won't fire and you'll have to pull the ball and start over.

 

[Runner]

I went into a dark room and tried it both ways. On my gun, bevel down fills the pan with bouncing dancing sparks. Bevel up throws sparks, but most miss the pan. I also tested a leather wrap versus a lead wrap the same way. Bevel down with a lead wrap works best in my gun. Even with a worn flint, my gun has never not gone off because of no spark!

 

[mmahlock]

Interesting experiment. Did you take any pictures?

 

[Runner]

No I did not take pictures, but I have seen such. Most folks go into a dark room and set their camera to 2 seconds or so. Click the shutter and pull the trigger.