New Frizzen needed?

[Texian]

Newbie question here. I bought an old TC Hawken .45. The frizzen as I understand should be pretty hard to produce good sparks. This one seems to be soft. It has a lot of scars/scratching that is pretty deep from the flint digging into it. I would say they are pretty deep, about .015-.020 deep. Should I replace it or is this normal?

 

[Dave Marsh]

So, no spark?

 

[Texian]

So, no spark?

It will spark, but it seems to me it really wears down the flint. Made the flint really jagged edge after 1 srike

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

Newbie question here. I bought an old TC Hawken .45. The frizzen as I understand should be pretty hard to produce good sparks. This one seems to be soft. It has a lot of scars/scratching that is pretty deep from the flint digging into it. I would say they are pretty deep, about .015-.020 deep. Should I replace it or is this normal

Frizzens will vary with surface shown wear. If it sparks well, use it and don't look back. If it don't spark well replace or repair.
Larry

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

It will spark, but it seems to me it really wears down the flint. Made the flint really jagged edge after 1 srike

Flints vary, some are harder than others. To me a good sparking frizzen is the priority. JMTC
Larry

 

[Phil Coffins]

Looks normal, if it sparks then investigate ways to make your flints last. How they are mounted and the shape makes a difference.

 

[PathfinderNC]

Looks like your frizzen is fine.

 

[deerstalkert]

normal for a TC frizzen. those lateral troughs are what fractures your flint.
on half cock what is the distance between the flint and frizzen face. 1/16 of an inch is optimum in my experience with TC'S. the closer the flint is to the frizzen the higher on the face it strikes, causing the frizzen to start opening sooner.
Ox-yoke has replacement frizzens but i found they needed hardening, which is not too hard to do.
if you get stuck with that one not working, and can't find one let me know as i may have one in my whatzit drawer.

 

[French Colonial]

I have frizzens that make that one look new, adjust your flint angle and protrusion and you can change how and where it strikes the frizzen.

 

[Trot]

The earlier TC locks were harder on flints than the later ones. They changed the shape of the hammer and frizzen a bit to improve the geometry. You can do an image search and see which yours is. If it's the early, you may be able to get some newer parts to upgrade.

 

[SDSmlf]

It will spark, but it seems to me it really wears down the flint. Made the flint really jagged edge after 1 srike

Does the gun have an old or new style cock?

 

[Grenadier1758]

@Texian, before buying a new frizzen, you can try to adjust the angle the flint strikes the frizzen. The gouges you see are from the flint bashing the face of the frizzen. You want the flint to scrape the face of the frizzen. You can lift the back edge of the flint by placing a short strip of leather lacing or a short length of a bamboo skewer. That change of angle can change the lock from a basher to a scraper. Maybe a bit thicker strip of leather will be needed to improve the geometry of the flint to frizzen.