Frizzen hitting flint...

[rancher]

my frizzen comes back and hits the top of my flint. what should i do?

 

[jdixon]

A typical fix here is to heat the neck of the hammer and bend it back just slightly to obtain the proper angle of attack reference the frizzen. What is the make of lock you are dealing with?

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

Rancher,
Sounds like your flint is a tad too long, or you need to turn it over. After turning it over, you need to make sure that the flint is all the way in the jaw so that it is almost touching the jaw screw. Make sure that the leather or lead you use for cushion has a hole in it to accomodate the flint going all the way back into the jaw. If the above don't solve your problem, you need to shorten the flint.
Flilntlocks Forever
Lar :thumbsup:

 

[Leonredbeard]

Rancher,
A man named Larry Pletcher videoed 33 locks at 5000 frames per second during the Spring National shot at Friendship, Indiana. I was there, I have the whole DVD. Most frizzens rebound almost all the way back to the flint resting in the down position in the jaws of the cock. An original Manton lock off Jim Chamber's double barreled Manton 12 gauge had a roller on the frizzen spring. The Frizzen went through three complete cycles of rebounding clear back to top of the flint. If it is not breaking your flint prematurely, do NOTHING about it. It apparantly hurts nothing.
volatpluvia

 

[Larry Pletcher]

The Manton mentioned by "volatpluvia"
can be seen at the following youtube address:[url] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osWYpChcH3I[/url]

Following the Manton is volatpluvia's wheellock.

Regards,
Pletch

 

[Wes/Tex]

Simplest solution is a stronger frizzen spring! :thumbsup:

 

[kayja]

nothing could be simpler or faster than shortening the flint.

 

The feather/frizzen spring should only be strong enough to keep the steel shut on the pan. It should not be so strong as to bust up the flints. The flints should be the correct size and be adjusted so that it hits the steel at approximately 2/3 - 3/4 ways up on the steel. Bevel up or bevel down is not an issue as long as the flint at rest is pointing at the pan and the majority of sparks are hitting in the pan. The strength of the mainspring and the strength of the featherspring should be tuned by a riflesmith that knows what the correct balance is by feel. A mainspring can be too strong and will cause as many problems as a featherspring that is too strong. It takes some years of tinkering and experience to get it right. You may as well start now if you want to learn how to tune a lock. That's how I learned, through trial and error and reading a lot about tuning locks. The series "Journal of Historical Arms Technology" is the place to start. There are 5 of them and well worth the money. They are out of print so look them up on a book finder of out of print books. There have also been many good articles written by gunsmiths over the years in Books of Buckskinning and other books on longrifle building that will be a great help to you. I recommend you find them and read them. Not everything comes fast like a McDonalds drive up window. Take your time and do it right and good luck.

 

[Vaino]

Does the frizzen end up atop the flint? This can be caused by 2 very different reasons. Is it rebounding off the frizzen spring or is it a failure to toggle over?......Fred

 

[LRB]

I have made a small "bump" on frizzen springs for the frizzen toe to cam over in this situation. This will usually solve the problem. Just soft solder a little piece of steel on the spring, and file it to a bump that allows the frizzen to work right. Soft solder heat will not affect the spring temper.

 

[Vaino]

Until the advent of the Chambers' assembled Siler flintlocks, it seemed many of the purchased Silers were mis-timed for a 25-30 degree "kickover" so to rectify a 40-45 degree toggle point which many of these locks had, I just use a Dremel w/ a small grinding wheel to place a "hump" at where the toe was located when the frizzen opening was at 25 degrees. The hump is no more than .015 high. Adding a "hump" by soft soldering a piece would also solve the problem. W/ a 25-30 degree "kickover" point, flint length is a lot less critical....Fred

 

[rancher]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. Yeah, the frizzen stays on top of the flint, but I don't think it's breaking. I'll have to cut the leather in half and put it back farther and see if that helps. Saturday is opening day for the early season. The problem just came about a couple days ago, but i guess it can work as is.

 

[rancher]

Oh yeah, and by the way it's a Lyman lock...

 

[Leonredbeard]

Larry,
I wish we had had a Lyman or TC flinter to video. The coil mainspring is so weak that I have watched the cock rebound off the frizzen on the way down in real time. It would have been a real eyebrow raiser in slow motion!
volatpluvia

 

[Larry Pletcher]

Larry,
I wish we had had a Lyman or TC flinter to video. The coil mainspring is so weak that I have watched the cock rebound off the frizzen on the way down in real time. It would have been a real eyebrow raiser in slow motion!
volatpluvia

Volatpluvia,
I expect that you are right. I have no footage of any coil spring locks and would like to video one if I ever have the camera again. A prominent gunmaker at Friendship wondered if GunMakers Hall would consider renting the camera for a few days.

Regards,
Pletch