New Goodies in the Mail!

[Blitzkrieg]

Today was a bit of an exciting day! I got my Black English Flints that I ordered as well as the two polished steer horns which I will use to make my powder horn and priming horn. The horns are beautiful and the flints are sharp but nonetheless I have a dilemma. The flints are 3/4" by 7/8" instead of the 3/4" square I ordered. Most of them fit just barely in my trade rifle but I have to flip the frizzen foreward to lower it to half cock due to how close the flint is to the frizzen.

The flints are sitting as far back as they will go and are touching the cock jaw screw through the hole cut in the lead wrap. They only work bevel down as they strike the pan if I put them in bevel up. Any ideas? I'd like to make these flints work as they are very good quality and spark much better than the useless agate one I had.

 

[arquebus]

Would there be any problem returning them to exchange for the correct size? Alternately, you could always grind a little off the back ends of the flints with a Mizzy wheel, or similar.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Yeah, I bought them off ebay so returning them would be a pain. Ive got a dremmel and a bunch of diamond bits for it so I think im gonna try that.

 

[arquebus]

Sure, give the diamond bits a go. I bought some Mizzy wheels last year to grind the humps off flints & they cut through the flint in no time. I bought them from a jewelry supply business online.

 

[Leatherbark]

Grind a notch at the rear of the flint for the jaw screw to fit in and cut a notch in the flint leather or use a top and bottom piece of leather so you can move the flint farther to the rear. I had to do this with my Large Siler that needed 3/4 square and all I had was 3/4x 7/8ths....................Bob

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Thats what Im trying right now, the diamond bits seem to chew right through the flint no problem.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Works perfectly now, thanks a lot gents. These Black English Flints are great, the one I put in bevel up hit the pan when I released the cock and shattered the edge but after 5 minutes of "knapping" It works perfectly again. These longer flints seem to hit the frizzen farther up as well which is just fine with me, hitting at the bottom of the top third now.