Is the face of the pan polished smooth? We don't hear about soft frizzens in the lyman guns much, so I doubt that is the problem. I do worry about the flint wrap. If you can use Thin RAW hide, it will work better than does thicker tanned leather.
I am not a fan of the cut agate flints. They do not fracture along the natural fracture lines of a flint. As a flint is used, the edge works back until the edge becomes rounded. That is when you lift up the frizzen enough with the side of your left thumb, so that when you manually lower the cock down, the flint will strike the "heel" of the face of the frizzen. Hold the frizzen in that position, with your thumb back enough so that the flint is not going to cut flesh!, and then cock the hammer and pull the trigger. The flint will strike this lower portion of the frizzen at a very sharp angle, which will chip off a nice new, sharp edge on the old rounded edged flint. The spawl that is removed will work back on the underside of the flint, allowing the flint to keep a sharp edge longer.
Always check to see where the sparks are landing in the pan, when the lock is dry fired. Hold the gun out so that you are looking at the lock from the side and slightly above the pan. Turn out the lights in a room, and wait 10-15 minutes for your pupils to dilate, so you can see the sparks, their color, and their quantity better. You will also be able to see if the sparks land forward of center of the pan, in the center, or to the rear of the pan.
If the sparks are hitting to the rear of the pan, its time to move the flint forward in the jaws, if there is enough left to still be grabbed by the jaws of the cock. Use a twig the right size to keep the flint and flint wrap in the forward position.
I put the cock in the half cock notch, close the frizzen, and then set the flint so that the front edge is about 1/32-1/64" from the face of the frizzen. In that position, the sparks in my lock are thrown forward of center in the pan, allowing me 15-20 shots before the flint has to be moved again. I can get 80-120 shots out of a rifle flint barring any defects in the flint that shorten its working life.
This should be common sense, but it seems that common sense is not always that common! The whole purpose of striking the frizzen with that flint is to produce SPARKS, and throw them down into the pan where the priming powder waits to be ignited. If the sparks don't hit the powder, you don't get the powder burning. If the sparks dribble down the face of the frizzen, burning out before they finally fall towards the pan, you don't get the burning you need. If the flint doesn't cut steel, you don't get the sparks to ignite the powder. If the frizzen doesn't pop open soon enough to get out of the way of the sparks being thrown down into the pan, you aren't going to get fast ignition.
Everything you do regarding that cock and frizzen is for the purpose of not only making sparks but getting them into the powder in the flash pan as fast as possible. If you keep that guiding principle in mind as you work on your gun, oiling all pivot points, and contact surfaces, polishing contact surfaces to they move easy, etc. you will figure out what is wrong with the lock and be able to fix it. :thumbsup:
