What should frizzen face look like?

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Well a spare frizzen requires sending the lock to Chambers so they can fit the frizzen to the lock.

With 7/8"x1" flints they are still quite a ways from the frizzen face, but they are close to 90* on the face.

 

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

[/url]Bevel up by janowiak.steve, on Flickr[/img]

 

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

[/url]frizzen goove by janowiak.steve, on Flickr[/img]

 

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

[/url]bevel shimmed by janowiak.steve, on Flickr[/img]

 

[Stumpkiller]

Your flints are too long. At 1/2 cock they should have 1/16" to 1/8" clearance from the frizzen.

 

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Oops! no. Those are not pictures of the lock at 1/2-cock. You can see my hand holding the tension - these pictures show the angle at 1st contact with the frizzen.

 

[gunsmithscott]

The bevel down pic looks like the best set up to me. How is the lock sparking? The groove don't look that bad to me. If it sparks good, leave it alone.Try different flints both bevel up and down. I like the flint to strike fairly high on the frizzen. A piece of leather under the flint will raise it to obtain this. if needed. When the face on the frizzen does get too ruff, a gentle trip on the grinder will restore it to smooth again.

 

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

This is a new frizzen. Less than a year old with maybe a couple hundred shots on it.

 

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Hmm. When I look at the bevel down picture it looks like it is hitting too straight-on. However, maybe there is something to be gained by striking higher up on the frizzen. The higher striking point would give the cock more leverage to open the frizzen.

 

[gunsmithscott]

And a longer "scrape", more chance to make sparks. how does it spark now? sparks are the whole story, I dont care if it hits high low or sideways if it sparks good and shoots fast. Long flint life is good but they aint that expensive.

 

[M. De Land]

I think in general though if your breaking flints up quickly you won't be getting the full spark generation possible that some lock tweaking could produce.

 

[Twisted_1in66]

I agree with MD, pressure flaking will give you more control and a better edge than percussion flaking. However, the real trick to getting your flint to work correctly, stay sharp, and last a long time is to get it to strike the frizzen at the correct 55° to 60° angle, which slices along the face of the frizzen. Too shallow of an angle (45° or so) and you will constantly be crushing the edge of your flints. Too big of an angle (about 70° or so) and you will be slamming the top of the flint against the frizzen, which breaks huge chunks off the bottom of your flint (ask me how I know...).

To see how yours is hitting, just hold onto the cock; pull the trigger; and slowly and gently lower the cock until the flint contacts the frizzen. Now look at the angle that it is striking the frizzen. Adjust the flint by moving it forward or backward and flip it either bezel up or down to get the correct angle. Do whatever you need to do to get that 55-60° angle.

Once you have that angle you will no longer get the flint bounce referred to earlier, which usually breaks flints pretty quickly. AND, you won't have to be constantly be knapping your flints. Once you get that correct angle the flint literally knaps itself as it hits the frizzen.

Go get that angle set correctly and you will eliminate most of the problems you are experiencing.

Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:

 

[Twisted_1in66]

One other thing I might mention about "knapping" your flint. Paul V. long ago posted on how to "hammer the flint". On the rare occasions that I do need to knap the flint, I use his method as outlined below.

Ӣ Holding onto the cock, pull the trigger and slowly lower the flint to the fizzen.

Ӣ Holding the cock in place where it strikes the frizzen, open the frizzen so that the flint is hitting it at the very bottom edge where the face meets the bottom. You may have to move the cock back a little bit to get to this point.

Ӣ Now, holding the frizzen in place with your thumb. Pull the cock back and squeeze the trigger

This method will have the entire edge of the flint hit the very bottom edge of the frizzen and will knap a perfectly even edge along the whole thing in about 2 seconds without ever needing to pull out a tool to work the edge.

I rarely need to do this because I set the angle of my flint correctly to begin with, but in the rare occasion I need it, this is the simplest and best way to sharpen your flint.

Special thanks to our departed member Paul Vallandigham who passed on both of those pearls of wisdom to us many years ago and made my flintlocks much more reliable than they were before he shared his knowledge.

Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:

 

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Twisted,

You'll see thumbnails of the flint-to-frizzen contact on page 1.

It looks pretty straight-on. both bevel up and bevel down.

Ignition is reliable, but a tad slow. I had a Pedersoli Kentucky that seemed instantaneous. This one, not-so-much. The touch hole is in the sunset position, and it is a White Lightning w/ a 1/16" hole

 

[M. De Land]

I have never been as satisfied with sharpen the flint using the lock and back flaking as I am with pressure flaking using a sharp copper in a handle.
I don't like stressing the cock and frizzen with the back pressure and I don't like wearing the frizzen face any more than necessary.
It does not produce as much sparking either in both my flint guns as does pressure flaking.
The main reason it works is not because it is knapping the flint edge very much but rather because it changes the direction of the strike curf ( surface texture) on the frizzen face.

 

[Dean2]

My Chamber's Roundface lock develops a groove where the flint makes initial contact pretty quickly.

Is this normal wear? Or is this an indication something is amiss?

My frizzen looks like the flint hits and then bounces a bit before contacting again.

There is a lot of good info for fixes and work arounds but to me the best fix would be to send the lock back to Chambers and get him to fix/tune and set it up so it works perfect. Give him a call and discuss your problems. They have excellent customer service and stand behind their products. Even as the second owner I am sure they will make it work perfectly for a very reasonable price.

 

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

I may have to try somethig more drastic, or just put up with it. I tried some 3/4" square flints and they barely protrude from the jaws. I also tried some 3/4 x 7/8 inch flints and they don't open the frizzen all the way.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Consider adapting the frizzen as my drawing.
It gives an easy start for the flint and then resists more allowing the flint to shave.
They often are made with out this consideration! It ain't black magic!

B.

 

[Pete G]

I may have to try somethig more drastic, or just put up with it. I tried some 3/4" square flints and they barely protrude from the jaws. I also tried some 3/4 x 7/8 inch flints and they don't open the frizzen all the way.

I use the 7/8" flints in that lock with no problems at all. When you say that the frizzen doesn't open all the way do you mean when testing the lock with a dry fire, or after actually firing? A lot of locks will hang when dry fired, but never have a problem with live fire.

 

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

...When testing the lock with dryfire.

Perhaps the recoil of the gun is enough to throw the lock open?