What size flint

[Sharp Shooter]

I am sure this was asked before but I could not find it. What size flint to you use for your lyman GPR? 3/4 or 5/8?

 

[rich pierce]

Us a flint the width of the wide part of your frizzen on any flintlock.

 

[Russianblood]

I am sure this was asked before but I could not find it. What size flint to you use for your lyman GPR? 3/4 or 5/8?

3/4". I use the 3/4" x 3/4" English flints from TOTW in mine.

 

[Birddog6]

I guess people do them differently.

My Silers frizzen widths vary some, (depending on the guy building them & his finish work) from roughly 7/8 to 15/16" wide and that means using a flint that wide would mean a flint 15/16 to 1" in length. IMHO, that is way too long for a large Siler, L&R Classic, Ketland, or for a GPR. These locks would generally use a 3/4" flint. Same way on a L&R Classic I have here, the frizzen is 15/16 wide but the lock uses a 3/4" flint. You just reposition the flints now & then to keep them from tracking all in one spot.

Flints are measured by the Width, not by the length. A 5/8" flint is 7/8" long, a 3/4" flint is 7/8" long, a 7/8" flint is 1" long, etc. Unless you order square flints, TOW used to have some 3/4 x 3/4" once & I bought some one time for the GPR's, don't know if they still do ot now & I have used them in GPR's.

But normally on my Lyman GPR's I used 3/4" flints & I would cut a notch in the jaw leather so the flint was backed into the jaw screw. Generally knapped them one time or they would stick & then did good & this shortened it a tad. You can use a 5/8" on them by moving the flint out a tad or using a thicker leather on it. And now & then just move the flint about to keep it from tracking.

Some of the Germanic locks & old style Colonial locks used large flints & they were as wide as the frizzen, but they had a completely dif geometry to the lock & also a much larger lock than a Siler or a GPR lock.

The old way of measuring the flint length was to put the hammer on half-cock, install the flint & close the frizzen & the flint edge should be just off touching the frizzen face to 1/16" from the face of the frizzen. However, now you have so many dif locks avail. & dif. geometries on them now this is not a set practice anymore.

As I said, dif. people do it differently, this is just how I see it.
:thumbsup:

 

[ShortBus]

I use TOTW 5/8" x 3/4". When I use the 3/4" square the edge chips off the side of the pan. The 5/8" square is kinda short it works OK but doesn't leave you much to knap once the front edge wears.

SB

 

[rich pierce]

I guess since I knap my own, using flints the width of the frizzen gives me the best result. I can make them as long or short as I like. Birddog is correct, too long a flint would be trouble.

 

[Birddog6]

In my above is stated incorrectly. Should say a 5/8" flint is 3/4" long, etc.

Rich, I didn't think about making your own flints. I have done it & not real consistantly I might add, but if you made them you could make them any width you want, should you be skilled enough to do so. I need to try that again some day, just to give it a better shot & see if I can do it.

Keith

 

[Sharp Shooter]

I got the 3/4" so I should be good.

Thanks

 

I agree with you rich pierce. Too long and the flint is going to whack against the priming pan and shatter.

 

[mmahlock]

Go to the Track of the Wolf ammunition page and select the caliber of flinter you have and follow that link to flints, scroll down the page and there is a graphical set of instruction on selecting the proper flint. Because of variatons in lock geometries I'd recommeding getting one based on these instructions and one a larger and smaller and if the indication is for a square flint get one the same size but rectangular. Try them out and pick the one that works the best. :thumbsup: