Using lead for jaw?

[ncmtmike]

Can someone tell me how they "form/fit" the lead to hold the flint in place? :hmm:

 

[bpd303]

I hammer a round ball to about 1/16th thick then trim it with a pair of shop scissors. Wrap it around the flint and clamp it down.

 

[BrownBear]

Take one of your lead balls and pound it down into a sheet about the thickness of a popsicle stick. Fold it over the flint and clamp it down into the jaws real good. Use your pocket knife to trim away the excess.

If you're like me after trying it, there's one more step. Remove the lead and toss it into your scrap lead pile for remelting, and replace with leather. I'm just as happy with leather, and I have a whole lot of scrap.

Big difference for me is all the jimmying around with lead I had to do every time I changed flints. Other guys love the lead, and they're welcome to it.

 

[ncmtmike]

Thank You,,,,,Mike

 

[Silky921]

I agree with this one. I tried lead for quite some time because it was supposed to be better. Had to fiddle with it too much so I switched to leather and it works great. However I've seen other who are happy with lead. Alot of shooting these guns is just figuring out what they as "individuals" like.

 

[Billnpatti]

Somer swear by it and some swear at it. Be that as it may, there is at least one lock manufacturer who won't honor their warranty if you have been using lead to hold your flint in their lock. I am not sure but I think it has to do with the added inertia from the mass of the lead possibly doing damage to the lock. Maybe it does and maybe it doesn't. I don't know. :idunno: I have tried both lead and leather and I prefer leather.

 

[wattlebuster]

LEATHER :thumbsup:

 

[dikman]

I am not sure but I think it has to do with the added inertia from the mass of the lead possibly doing damage to the lock.

:rotf: Yup, that itty bit of lead sure weighs a lot, and has to travel a long way before it stops. If they reckon it can damage one of their locks then they must be pretty flimsy locks.

 

[thecapgunkid]

OK, so you hit a nerve less than a week after I signed up.

Being a Cordwainer ( shoemaker) I kind of backed into my choices of leather to keep my flints firm. Aside from the fact that I have a great rifle now, all my guns get anywhere from fifty to maybe eighty pulls out of a flint and up to a hundred when I knapp & tap in the jaws.

Leather will shape and mold itself far better than lead with less muscle. Unless, of course you're a lead guy, in which case I get accused of blowing smoke.

Anyway, here's how I do it. I'll take a scrap of thick deerskin or elk...not the commercial split stuff but the seconds and discards that several vendors show up at rendezvous with because it's irregularities are so much better than the milled and split and curried uniform stuff off the retail shelf.

If you gotta use cowhide, take it off the belly where it stretches. Look for thr frizzy, soft ends that won't work on any other project. You don't want it too thick,so five ounce is OK. Stiff is bad, pliable is good. Cut strips about as wide as your flint. starting at one end, fold the strip over the flint so that it barely clears the flat or the top ridge of the flint and barely intrudes on the taper of the flint. Eyeball it cause you don't need the caliper.That's a good length to cut...just a whisker too long top and bottom.

Take a hole punch about as wide as your top jaw screw and punch dead center on the leather. When you seat the flint, push it as far back as you can and make sure the flint edge evenly lines up with the frizzen face.

When you seat the flint, if you gotta tighten so much that the top jaw starts to angle, then the flint is too thick OR you did not punch the hole in the leather. I get fussy and pick out flints that have a flat behind the bevel, but that's just me.

I have found that, after about thirty shots or so, when my flint has been seated a while and lived through lock cleaning, a tap or two with my brass knapper while the flint is seated will double its life. The leather will mold to the flint and cock jaws this way.

Hope this helps

The Capgun Kid

 

[Pete44ru]

I tried lead because it was supposed to be better.
Had to fiddle with it too much, so I switched to leather and it works great.

+1 . :thumbsup:

I got better ignition with leather than a (thin) lead wrap.

 

[George]

I mostly use leather, but have used lead, and never had any problems with either.

Spence

 

[Wes/Tex]

That's two of us Spence...both work, I use what I got on hand. Don't know what all the hubbub-bub is all about! Somewhere along the line folks seem to have quit having fun with black powder firesticks! :wink:

 

[Joel/Calgary]

One point that nobody's raised yet: Militaries often preferred lead because a soldier could pre-fit a lead cushion/holder to his spare flint, greatly expediting a battlefield replacement.

Yes, I realize that some folks do the same nowadays with leather, gluing it to the flint, but I cannot recall ever reading of this being done in historical documentation.

Regards,
Joel