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Pyrites

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I am constantly keeping an eye out to score usable pyrite for wheellocks, especially if it could be a reliable supply to share.
I work in a mine that has almost good enough but not quite pyrite cubes - can't get it liberated in a size that is big enough to use. The most promising I have are 1/2" cubes bought from a crystal specimen stall at markets.
Just got some MONSTER crystals - 2" plus - from another mine.

On hardness - 6.3 to 7 Mohs is WAY too simplistic to be meaningful. It just means one scratches the other and that can be used to help identify minerals in the field. Industrial users should be able to get more useful measurements but because they are not industrial products we cant do much with the info.

Flint is not just as hard as quartz, its far far TOUGHER and I think more controllable in fracture. Thats why we don't just use quartz in flintlocks, because the pieces won't last generally and are hard to knap too.
 
No, neither did yours, but it did encourage another member to post his thoughts about and EXPERIENCE with pyrite which is the purpose of this forum.

That IS the purpose of this forum --the free exchange of ideas from people with experience --without the smug asides from trollers.
 
It seems to me that if pyrite is going to be used in a flintlock as the source for the sparks, to be effective, the frizzen would need to be grooved like the wheel on a wheel-lock.

Just bashing a piece of pyrite against a smooth frizzen might break off a few small pieces of pyrite and cause some sparks but I don't think it would be very effective.

If the face of the flintlocks frizzen had a number of grooves or teeth formed on it like the frizzens on some Miquelet locks do it might work better with pyrite.
The frizzen grooves could be crosswise or along the long direction.
The Miquelet's I've seen have the grooves running in the "long" direction.

Does anyone know if the Miquelet locks have these grooved frizzens so they can be used with pyrite?
 
I have not tried a Miquelet lock with pyrite.
I believe the grooves are so it works with spalls or cruder flints.
Wheellock don’t need a grooved wheel but grooved wheels can use a lesser flint.


I have used pyrite in the French type flint lock and better pyrites works.
It sparks well but doesn’t last as long as flint.
Large locks, heavy springs will break pyrite faster.
My small to medium locks work best but I only use pyrites in one of them.
I only use it because I can, not because it better because it is not.

Some of this is just speculation on my part, some is my testing.
Take a flint and steel and try it with a good piece of pyrite.
All pyrite is not created equal.



William Alexander
 
This post has me curious about something...were there any other kinds of materials were used when flints weren't available to get a spark in a flintlock?

These would be emergency situations, purely anecdotal. It's probably unlikely, too, given that in North America the Natuves had spread flint throughout the continent by using trade networks where it didn't occur naturally. Euro-American settlers found a lot everywhere. For example, Joseph Doddroge states that in Western Pennsylvania in the 1770s people found arrowheads that they used in their guns.

Wondering if there was a preferred material in a pinch
 
Had a geologist on here once who went through the whole thing. Was probably 10-years ago?

Anyhow, just about any knappable rock can be use as a flint. All flints are actually various cherts even the English Black Flint which traditionally is the only "true" flint. Some of the various cherts are really hard and have to be heat treated to make them workable. Otherwise they just don't knap.

Grain structure has a HUGE amount of influence on whether or not it is workable. Basically it has to be a fine enough grain able to take a concoidal fracture to work and to give you the sharp edges you want.

Not all stone that can be worked with concoidal fractures are suitable for gun-flints. Obsidian is an prime example. It will take the fractures easily and can produce finer edges than a scalpel, but it it very brittle and pretty worthless as a gun flint. Funny thing about obsidian though is that the same lava that cools quickly to produce fine grained obsidian (an extrusive igneous rock) will produce coarse-grained granite (intrusive igneous rock) because it cools slowly allowing the crystalline structures to set up.

Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:
Dan
 
Yes, about the source magma. And it can also produce basalt, and / or scoria, or metamorphosed in to gneiss. Funny stuff that magma. No wonder Dr. Evil wanted to access it for his evil plans. He never did "straighten up and py rite".
 
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