titanium frizzen

[bill22222002]

Has anybody heard of a titanium frizzen? A friend of mine has one on hi Thompson Center Hawkins. He paid 10 dollars for it in the 1970s at a Pattens gun shop in Sharpsville Pa. It sparks better than any flintlock I have ever seen thanks

 

[rich pierce]

It's probably a uranium frizzen. Sonofagun is probably radioactive!

 

[Stumpkiller]

Depleted Uranium Frizzen (1970s, 1980s)

In the 1970s, thin sheets of depleted uranium (DU) were sold by someone in Florida as a facing material for the frizzens used in flintlock rifles. The advertisements claimed that the uranium was so effective that it would work well even if struck with "a dull flint or any kind of rock." These claims were not far from the truth - being pyrophoric, the uranium could generate consistent and intense showers of sparks.


While DU provided a reliable method to ignite black powder, the tiny uranium fragmnents that became airborne when the flintlock was discharged posed a potential inhalation hazard. Gun enthusiasts were warned about this problem and told not to face their frizzens with uranium in the August 1992 issue of Muzzle Blasts magazine.

[url] http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/consumer products/dufrizzen.htm[/url]

It's been done! Tell your friend to get his blood tested for leukemia and heavy metal poisoning if he shoots that very often. :shocked2: They were pulled off the market as they are a health hazard.

Titanium probably wouldn't work. Nor would carbide. It has to be softer than the flint (the metal is what throws off the sparks, not the flint).

 

[TANSTAAFL]

He has a depleted uranium frizzen half sole, they spark great, the PC sky is falling crowd got them banned.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Handling DU is one thing. Breathing in DU dust is another entirely. I'm no alarmist, but some metals I don't play around. Arsenic, Mercury, Uranium, Plutomium. Beyond radiation in the latter two, the metal itself is toxic (lead takes decades to kill you, mercury takes years, ingest plutonium and it will get you the next day).

Even Lead I am careful about ventilation and eating/drinking around during or after casting.

Nothing to do with PC or HC.

If you're wiping your frizzen with your thumb and it's soled with depleted uranium you're headed for trouble.

 

[Erzulis boat]

All I can say is this................


If you are at the line next to someone that has a DU frizzen................He is the MAN!

Pack your kit.....and go home in shame.

 

[bill22222002]

thanks for replys will contact friend and see what he says thanks again

 

[Stumpkiller]

All I can say is this................


If you are at the line next to someone that has a DU frizzen................He is the MAN!

Pack your kit.....and go home in shame.

All the same, I'll stick to lobbing it out of A-10s and Bradleys and keep it away from my face, thanks.

:hatsoff:

 

[Erzulis boat]

I would not go near one either- :winking:


I was TRYING to be funny.

 

[Stumpkiller]

:grin:

 

[SquirrelFlinter]

I worked with DU rounds in the navy. 20 mm sabot rounds for a gatlin gun (CIWS). We are tought to not even play with the DU penetrator if a round were to brake open. We were to throw it over board as quick as possible with gloves. The hazard is the dust if injested. Heard a few stories of stomach cancer in CIWS techs in the navy. They will make a lot of sparks when shooting at and hitting a towed drone. But mabey it had a lot to do with the 4500 rounds per minute. The Navy is going away from it and going to tungsten. If the Navy is getting away from it then there is a lot of bad about it.

I don't like DU and I am glad to say I got away from it. Now I shoot a 5" gun. Feel alot better not dealing with the stuff.

 

[Pittsburghunter]

Salesman,

" Feeling un-PC with that inline but need a reliable hunting muzzleloader? Check out our new Titanium frizzened flintlocks. Recreate the past with our new rifles."

:rotf:

 

[davy]

Salesman,

" Feeling un-PC with that inline but need a reliable hunting muzzleloader? Check out our new Titanium frizzened flintlocks. Recreate the past with our new rifles."

:rotf:

I thought about using them new-fangled doodads such Titanium frizzens n dee-pleeted uraniums ... but I wuz afeered it would mess with the steel plate in my head .. so I now I feel much bitter!

Now I guess I need ta get back ta werk in tha lead mine! :hmm:

Davy

 

[bill22222002]

my friend and I checked out the one web site lind He says that is what his frizzen looks like. It may well be depleted uranium. if it is hazardous material the damage has already been done but it really throws the sparks. thanks for replies

 

[Deadeye]

I read an article on using Magnesium for 1/2 soling a frizzen. This is the same stuff they make the little fire strikers with. It said it was only necessary to make a hacksaw cut across the frizzen and solder a small piece in. It apparently is frowned on at shooting matches and it was said that a whole frizzen of it would make so many sparks that you'd be disqualified. It is apparently safe to use.

 

[paulvallandigham]

The magnesium flint " shoes" were popular " fixes" for old, worn out frizzens, but lost their popularity in the late 1960's. You can still find used guns with this metal welded or soldered to the face of the frizzen, and it does throw sparks. A frizzen properly made of cast steel, hardened, and then tempered will throw all the sparks you need. Some of the older frizzens were made out of iron, or soft steel, and case hardened. Once the casing was cut through, they would not throw good sparks.