Thinking Outside the Box

[Paul R]

Actually, waaay outside the box. And, I'm not wanting to be flamed for this, but entirely willing to have my thoughts shot down.
In the catalogue of a woodworking company I deal with, is listed a 'Swedish Fire Steel', a compound containing magnesium, among other things. It is formed into a small stick that when struck with a piece of steel, gives off a shower of sparks able to start a fire in small tinder.
My thought is if this material could be incorperated onto a frizzen of sorts and the flint replaced with a small piece of steel, the shower of sparks would be greater then generated by a normal flint lock. Definitly not PC/HC, but how about the possibility of being able to ignite subs on a dependable basis?
It will take a more fertile mind then mine to determine if it is even possible to do, much less, if it is feasable.
So, now that I've exposed myself to possible ridicule and/or flaming, does anyone have any valid thoughts?

Paul

 

[buford87]

Would it not be better to make a "flint" out of the magnesium material and have it strike your frizzen?..............watch yer top knot.............

 

[hounddog]

Moose, I have actually done what you are talking. My ist flintlock was given to me minus bb,lis an italian made 45. I rebarreled the gun easily seeing hoe I am a gunsmith (retired now). The problem with he gun was the frizzen quit sparking. I tried casenite,no luck I tried leather and bone in my woodstove(old method), no luck I tried retempering the frizzen no luck. In short I never got the frizzen to spark totally ruined it. In desperation, I took a military style magnesium firestarter, the kind where you whittle off mag particles and the scrape the built in striker (like a big pencil lead). this is the us military style I am talking about, I ended up taking the striker out of its channel. I then hacksawed a slot in the ruined frizzen, and took epoxy and installed it in frizzen. Dont look to bad, It is definately not pc correct and I have been told I could not use the gun in a shooting match. Otherwise the results are OUTSTANDING. it thyrows a ton of sparks every time, I use a regular flint, It is by far the most reliable flinter I own, I now have 10 flinters. So yes I am like you why doesnt someone make a frizzen like that. Throwing pc correctness out the window. When reliable ignition is the primary concern IT IS the way to go. Its really not hard to jury rig one like I did. BUT it would be nice if a better looking frizzen was made for the job. By the way the striker material is aluminum oxide. So there are 2 of us outside the box. Just because we are in the minority on the subject does not mean we are wrong. them other fellers aint open minded enough yours hounddog in arkansaw

 

[hounddog]

buford, have you read my post right after yours. If so I did some experimenting and instead of a flint I made a piece of tempered file and used in place of a flint.Results were very good, that is the accepted way for the aluminum oxide striker to be used metal to metal. Just imagine with a al ox frizzen you dont have to worry about flints. pc correct no practical yes. well there I go thinkin out side of that there box again hounddog in arkansaw

 

[MSW]

well, i don't really care about the HC/PC business (so long as it's a sidelock, and not one of those PoS inline zipguns, i'll try it) so i don't see the harm.

sounds kind cool, really.

just one guy's free opinion, and no doubt worth the price.

 

[Paul R]

Hounddog, Have you tried it on subs?
Paul

 

[tiger955]

I have one of those magnesium fire strikers around here somewhere, been a while since I've seen it, but as I recall it was fairly soft metal. Seems to me if the frizzen was made of it, it would wear down pretty fast if you do any amount of shooting. I would rather be changing flints than frizzens. Perhaps using a piece of that metal in place of the flint instead?

 

[Stumpkiller]

Ferrocerium gives a boatload of sparks but I don't think it has as many repeats in it's useful life, unlike hardened steel does. It wears down fast.

 

[MSW]

i wondered why this gadget didn't catch on ... it seemed like a to- good- to- be- true sort of thing.

pity about that.

 

[jsn]

Seems as tho if thin slots were cut in the striking surfacesuch as in miquelet locks then you could install the magnesium compounds in those and have regular carbon steel surfaces to impede the wear on the surface not to mention a longer life of the compound and have a pretty cool pattern in the striking surface.

 

[hounddog]

Moose, what in tarnation is a sub. You cant be talking about them there underwater boats the navy used. Mabey I am kinds dumb, but please clarify and explain yerself, in language a ol arkansaw hillbilly can understand. I aint really to dumb I can count past 20 without taking off my shoes, seein as I have 6 toes on my left foot I can go all the way to 21, how bouty them apples yours arkansaw hounddog

 

[hounddog]

Fellas, I feel there are several ways a good frizzen could be made, as for durability, so far mine shows very little wear at 500 shots plus, just guessing a feller might got 10,000 shot before replacing. Shucks it aint no big deal to make or replace. hounddog

 

[necchi]

Well, that's one way to get the post count up :haha:

 

[Zonie]

Well, it's one way to move up on a list but I won't mention what the list is. :rotf:

Deleting 5 identical posts was almost like Work!

 

[hounddog]

zonie, My most sincere apologies my good man. for some reason I couldnt get the post to take so I kept pushing keys untill something worked. dang malfunctioning coputers thanks for cleaning up the mess in appreciation hounddog

 

[hounddog]

Moose, I think I figured it out (subs). I am a died in the wool genunine black powder shooter, and do not use substutite propelants. As you probably know flinters usually dont handle b p subs well yours hounddog

 

[ebiggs1]

If you are going to all the trouble to make your ideal frizzen/flint contraption, why not just make the one that has worked for over 200 years work? A good frizzen and flint provide all the spark necessary for ignition. A good frizzen and flint will do so for many shots and even many years! Seems much more simple . There isn't a need to reinvent the system, sorta like the answer to a problem we don't have? :idunno:

 

[hounddog]

Ebiggs, I spent over 6 mo fooling with that frizzen, I tried to find a replacement frizzen with no luck at all. finally in desperationI improvized that fire striker and it does work extremely well. was a cheap fix. If I ever have a extra 135.00 I will probably get a siler gunsmiths lock (has rectingular lock plate and fit it to the gun. the original is a pecular shapped lock, that would put the gun back completely authentic, out of the 20 plus bp guns I own that is the only one with a non pc alteration. It is an unusual repair and definately not pc correct but it does workexceptionally well. yours hounddog

 

[zimmerstutzen]

About 40 years ago, I saw a guy selling a piece of brass about the size of a flint. It had a knurled wheel and flint like a cigarette lighter. It was placed in the **** and when it fell against the frizzen, it spun the wheel spraying sparks down ward into the pan. Illegal in PA for hunting deer.

 

[Paul R]

Hounddog, Sorry about the confusion. I had assumed (& we all know what that means) that all here would know that 'subs' would refer to all those synthetic powders that won't work with flint.
EBiggs & others, I, also, have come over to the dark side. After using up my 1, & only, lb. of 777, I now buy black 25 lb. at a time. My original question was all 'blue sky' thinking. The Firesteel is advertised as being able to ignite coarser tinder then I've seen done with flint, so my mind went, 'hmmmmm?'. I've never owned one, so I don't know. The question about subs was just an extension of the first question.

Even the old masters we try so hard to emulate sometimes thought 'outside the box'. If not, why do we have so many different styles to copy?

Written with no intention to offend any one.
Paul