Lyman Trade Rifle tweaking begins

[BillinOregon]

Shot my new .54 flinter yesterday an learned some things right away. First, I don't much care for sawn agate flints as compared to black English. Fortunately, the Dread Wechlo was assisting and provided me with a proper flint with the bevel freshly touched up. This improved ignition considerably. Today, I drilled out the touchhole to 5/64, and polished the pan. I expect this to help as well. I was just fooling around with a .015 patch and .530 round ball, and will try a bit thicker patch as well. Barrel seems very smooth, and showed little evidence of cutting patches. I only used 60 grains of Goex FFg as an easy work-out-the-kinks load and it was a dream to shoot.
I think this trade rifle is $227 well spent.
Thanks for your help, Arthur!

 

[cptleo1]

Ya gotta luv 'em

Good luck

 

[cayugad]

WOW.. that sawed agate that came with my Trade Rifle lasted a LONG time. I could not believe the number of shots and excellent ignition I got off the thing. It almost made me a believer in the sawed agate for that rifle. I have since went to a black english flint after the agate finally wore out.

I shoot 90 grains of Goex 2f and a patched .530 roundball out of mine with excellent accuracy... I really like my rifle. Now if Lyman would just get on the stick and send me the parts to fix the barrel rib & thimble. All the screws that hold the thing on fell out. The trouble is I was told the parts have to come from Italy. It has been over a month now.. still waiting. I am going to see if I can find them anywhere else.....

Other then that I really like the rifle..

 

[big bore 75]

With the cut agate flint the best ones come from germany,
I've used the arkansas flint and the others when there was a real shortage of flints some years back, and the german cut flints worked the best. the last cut flint I had just gave up the goast a month or two ago . It really gave my tulle sparks,but the english seems to work the best,I have since gone back to english flints,I don't know if anyone has noticed, this but when ordeing flints I order one size smaller flints they seem to last a heck of a lot longer.
bb75

 

[Runner]

I cut my own out of various materials. When I am hunting, I resharpen the edge on a diamond knife sharpening lap so that I always have a sharp edge. Treated that way, one good solid agate flint would most likely eat thru the frizzen on this traditions rifle without being close to worn out. I carry an extra in the box, but I have never had reason to use it. All agates are not equal when it comes to hardness and durability. The Missouri Chert material can be very hard and tough. It is hard to find pieces that are not banded or full of healed cracks and flaws. I just got started on learning how to knap my own flints for those times when that is appropriate. I cut gemstomes and have done an arrow head or two in the past. The Brazilian agate is very tough if you find solid material. The Thunder Egg material out of Washington/Oregon can be very very tough and durable. The clear material that covers fire agate is about as strong as this class of stone gets. Most of the so called German Agate is simply material imported, dyed, and cut in the Indar Obersteen area. I most likely butchered that spelling.

 

[BillinOregon]

Thunder eggs for flints? I had no idea. I have several thunder eggs out in the garage. They are Oregon's "state rocks."

 

[Blivetmaker]

The place Runner referred to is Idar-Oberstein. If you google it, you'll find plenty of info. There's quite a bit of material still in the hills but it doesn't generally
knapp very well. It isn't quite as brittle as flint or good chert and the nodes are often highly crystalized toward the center. Getting a good core to strike flakes from is also tough. Because it's durable and not brittle it works as gunflint when sawed. If you're working with a heavy mainspring/ frizzenspring combo give 'em a try. A "rock-
crusher" when using english flints might just surprise you with agate.

 

[Runner]

Most agate, chert, or flint is found in a banded or layered pattern. The layers are of different hardnesses and the lines between become cleavage planes, weakening them for any impact type usage. Most of the German agate falls into this group, being tightly banded. Most of the Brazil is the same but not as bad. The Thunder Eggs are a different story. There are often large solid areas where very strong material can be found. High quality Bloodstone does very well for this purpose also.