Took my smoothie out today for the first time in about a year. Old age and arthritis, and other problems wont allow me to move to well any more. This gun has never failed me in the past. It's an early Virginia smooth bore. This was my first build, I bought it from Jack Garner. It only cost $400 so that should give you an idea of how old it is. It has an early Virginia lock by Jim Chambers. I tried Skychief's load, first time with 1F . I took about 3 tries to get it to fire, I used a brand new English flint from Track. I noticed that there was at least a quarter inch of space between the edge of the flint and the frizzen at half cock. This fired reliably last year, now it was taking 3 to 4 tries to get it to fire. I prime with 3 f like always, and I notice that the edge of the flint is chipping. One time when it didn't fire I noticed tiny flint chips in the pan with the prime. Is it time to reharden the frizzen? The worst part of this is that the pattern at 25 yds. makes the squirrels in my back yard in trouble!
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Flints are variable with respect to hardness and life. Never judge the frizzen by one flint. Flints chip all the time, some chip more, some less, also depends on your mainspring/frizzen spring tensions. Try at least two more flints, if the sparking is still poor, it is possible the frizzen was case hardened and it is wearing off. If a frizzen is hardened throughout, it never goes soft unless you put some high heat to it.
Flintlocklar
Brokennock
Cannon
Did you try putting a spacer, like a match stick or round toothpick, behind the flint to move it closer to the frizzen?
My large Siler on my TVM Early Virginia will stop igniting the pan if the flint wears down to be too far grom the frizzen even if the flint is sharp.
My large Siler on my TVM Early Virginia will stop igniting the pan if the flint wears down to be too far grom the frizzen even if the flint is sharp.
It seems as if your flint has lived out its life while your gun was put away. The chips from the flint are indicative of the flint failing. Do try moving the flint closer to the frizzen and knap a sharp edge or try a new flint.
I put 2 new flints in and moved them closer, no help.
I have the similar smoothbore from Garner, but not a kit. I have the Siler lock. You have a Chamber's lock. That should still be a good lock. Probably not a flint issue. Time to do some tests on the frizzen. Is the face smooth or does it have ridges where the flint is gouging into the face of the frizzen? Do the file test. Does a file slide across the face of the frizzen or does the file try to cut into the face? You may need to reharden the frizzen.
Do you oil the frizzen screw and grease the frizzen foot. The frizzen could be too hard to flip open. That would slow down the hammer and chip flints. I put a mirror finish on the frizzen spring and polish the foot then grease it.
What happens when you dry fire it?
hanshi
Cannon
My smoothbore has a Chambers Colonial Virginia flint lock and will singe your eyebrows. I use a larger flint than the ones I use in the Large Siler. If this is the first time you've run into this problem I doubt it's fault of the lock. Flip the flint, sharpen it and see what happens.
Thanks to all that replied. I finally put my glasses on and grabbed the magnifying glass, and checked the frizzen. There were some waves in the frizzen from top to bottom. I took out my HC Dremel tool with a sanding drum on it, and lightly smoothed out the frizzen. I then put on a polishing fob and loaded it with rouge and polished it. I am now back to normal. It sets off 1F prime. Thanks All.
