glw
36 Cal.
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2005
- Messages
- 99
- Reaction score
- 65
This is an issue that has been with me for years ”“ mostly because the gun is not mine and we only attempt firing it about once a year what with work, kids, etc.
But a friend of mine owns a .50 flintlock ”“ I don’t recall the maker but I do know he assembled it from a kit. He says he has fired it in the past and he doesn’t tell lies so I believe him. But we took it out to shoot one day a couple of years ago and the thing would never fire. We’ve tried several things in the intervening years and not a thing. In fact he has always had to pull the ball when he got home. Here are the details and I’d love to hear your opinions on what we should do next. As near as I can remember, we were charging the pan with FFFFg Goex black powder and using some FFFg Pyrodex in the barrel.
The problem was clear right away that the thing was not producing a spark. But we borrowed a cigarette from a guy next to us (in violation of the no smoking rule at the range but we were using it to ignite. Call it a cigarette-lock rifle. Kinda like a matchlock.) to set off the charge in the pan and it still would not fire. So we actually have two problems.
Some time later, I had read about how a lack of spark was probably due to the frizzen having had the hard metal scraped away and so it needed to be hardened. To this end, I searched high and low for a product I had read about called “Casenite”. I finally found a bag and we followed the directions to the letter which were to heat it to cherry red with a torch, plunge the hot frizzen into the casenite, heat it back up to cherry red, and then quench in cool water.
This did not improve its sparking capability. BTW, I also bought some new flints ”“ both natural (British) flints and some man-made ones that had been sawn to shape. We tried everything in various combinations. I also attempted to knap the old one but there comes a time when you’re attempting too many things that you don’t really know how to do in the first place.
No sparks.
I read somewhere (later) that you should do this casenite treatment many times in a row before it will harden the frizzen properly so perhaps we just need to re-do it.
As to the lack of ignition, I have since wondered if the touchhole (or whatever the proper term is) was fouled and just needed to be cleaned out with a vent pick. He had never heard of such a thing which tells me that he has never cleaned it out.
So, I’d appreciate any and all opinions on either the lack of spark or the lack of ignition.
Because I'm a new guy, if this has already been covered many times before, I apologize.
But a friend of mine owns a .50 flintlock ”“ I don’t recall the maker but I do know he assembled it from a kit. He says he has fired it in the past and he doesn’t tell lies so I believe him. But we took it out to shoot one day a couple of years ago and the thing would never fire. We’ve tried several things in the intervening years and not a thing. In fact he has always had to pull the ball when he got home. Here are the details and I’d love to hear your opinions on what we should do next. As near as I can remember, we were charging the pan with FFFFg Goex black powder and using some FFFg Pyrodex in the barrel.
The problem was clear right away that the thing was not producing a spark. But we borrowed a cigarette from a guy next to us (in violation of the no smoking rule at the range but we were using it to ignite. Call it a cigarette-lock rifle. Kinda like a matchlock.) to set off the charge in the pan and it still would not fire. So we actually have two problems.
Some time later, I had read about how a lack of spark was probably due to the frizzen having had the hard metal scraped away and so it needed to be hardened. To this end, I searched high and low for a product I had read about called “Casenite”. I finally found a bag and we followed the directions to the letter which were to heat it to cherry red with a torch, plunge the hot frizzen into the casenite, heat it back up to cherry red, and then quench in cool water.
This did not improve its sparking capability. BTW, I also bought some new flints ”“ both natural (British) flints and some man-made ones that had been sawn to shape. We tried everything in various combinations. I also attempted to knap the old one but there comes a time when you’re attempting too many things that you don’t really know how to do in the first place.
No sparks.
I read somewhere (later) that you should do this casenite treatment many times in a row before it will harden the frizzen properly so perhaps we just need to re-do it.
As to the lack of ignition, I have since wondered if the touchhole (or whatever the proper term is) was fouled and just needed to be cleaned out with a vent pick. He had never heard of such a thing which tells me that he has never cleaned it out.
So, I’d appreciate any and all opinions on either the lack of spark or the lack of ignition.
Because I'm a new guy, if this has already been covered many times before, I apologize.
