Traditional Muzzleloading Association

Shooting Traditional Firearms and Weapons => General Interest => Topic started by: Stormrider51 on May 26, 2011, 05:04:55 PM

Title: Making your own flintlock flint
Post by: Stormrider51 on May 26, 2011, 05:04:55 PM
I can find books and videos galore about knapping various arrow or spear points from flint but nothing about turning out a flint for a flintlock.  Can anyone point me in the right direction?  We have plenty of flint (chert) in my part of Texas.  It seems only natural to make my own flints.

John
Title: Re: Making your own flintlock flint
Post by: cb on May 26, 2011, 07:49:49 PM
The Circle of Mechanical Arts 1813 has some info - starts on page 398
http://books.google.com/books?id=6_oGAA ... nt&f=false (http://books.google.com/books?id=6_oGAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=circle+of+mechanical+arts&source=bl&ots=KgWDXKp8Qz&sig=81w_Vfp5tRnhTVTsKMrUYXq3VsM&hl=en&ei=7eXeTe_iNZTUtQP4zri6Bw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDwQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=flint&f=false)

Making Your Own Gun flints...
http://www.onagocag.com/gunflnt.html (http://www.onagocag.com/gunflnt.html)
Title: Re: Making your own flintlock flint
Post by: Captchee on May 26, 2011, 08:43:24 PM
Quote from: "Stormrider51"
I can find books and videos galore about knapping various arrow or spear points from flint but nothing about turning out a flint for a flintlock.  Can anyone point me in the right direction?  We have plenty of flint (chert) in my part of Texas.  It seems only natural to make my own flints.

John

 look for
Memoirs of the Geological survey, England and Wales
The manufacture of Gunflints  By Sydney B.J Skertchly ,F.G.S
London 1879

 very good book IMO  . full of tool drawings, discriptions of the processes as well as 10 or 12 pages of diffrent  type and grades of gunflints.
 i seem to recall its also part of the historic arms series  so ToW probably has it
Title: Re: Making your own flintlock flint
Post by: Stormrider51 on May 26, 2011, 09:43:58 PM
Thanks Guys!  That should get me started.  The range where I shoot is covered with flint shards.  I'll pick up some this weekend and start experimenting.
John
Title: Re: Making your own flintlock flint
Post by: cb on May 26, 2011, 11:35:40 PM
The book that Capt Chee noted is available free at the link below and is also downloadable.....
http://openlibrary.org/books/OL22888555 ... age_of_pal (http://openlibrary.org/books/OL22888555M/On_the_manufacture_of_gun-flints_the_methods_of_excavating_for_fling_the_age_of_pal)æolithic_man_and_the_connexion_between_neolithic_art_and_the_gun-flint_trade.
Title: Re: Making your own flintlock flint
Post by: rickevans on May 27, 2011, 07:34:13 AM
Thanks for that link CB.
Title: Re: Making your own flintlock flint
Post by: Rasch Chronicles on August 11, 2011, 05:26:54 AM
Thanks for sharing the links fellows, much appreciated!

Best regards,
Albert “Yes, I am still in Afghanistan!” Rasch
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles™ (http://http)
Extreme Wild Boar Hunting, Chronicles’ Style!!! (http://http)
Title: Re: Making your own flintlock flint
Post by: FlintSteel on August 11, 2011, 02:07:09 PM
Quote from: "Stormrider51"
Thanks Guys!  That should get me started.  The range where I shoot is covered with flint shards.  I'll pick up some this weekend and start experimenting.
John

It's been a couple of months since you posted this. I was wondering if you were at all successful making any gunflints.

If yes would you post some photos for us to see :happy
Title: Re: Making your own flintlock flint
Post by: Stormrider51 on August 11, 2011, 02:24:19 PM
Not successful as yet.  I've managed to reduce some flint into smaller chips.  The biggest problem is that I need a larger nodule than is usually found around this area.

Storm
Title: Re: Making your own flintlock flint
Post by: FlintSteel on August 11, 2011, 07:48:17 PM
I have one piece of chert that I picked up at my daughter's house several years ago. The person they bought the house from was a rock collector and had a couple. I took the largest it's about as big around as a cantelope and about 4" thick. I wanted to see how you did before I attacked mine.
Title: Re: Making your own flintlock flint
Post by: Indiana on August 11, 2011, 09:38:19 PM
You'll probably have better luck if you heat treat that flint before you try knapping it.
Title: Re: Making your own flintlock flint
Post by: Captchee on August 12, 2011, 11:08:31 AM
Also remember that   the English flints  and French flints we see today were done with purposeful tools  and look completely different the spal “spelling sorry “ flints .
Also remember that these folks were working with very large  mined  chunks of flints . Not  nodules
Title: Re: Making your own flintlock flint
Post by: Stormrider51 on August 12, 2011, 12:02:00 PM
Yeah, and the chert we have around here isn't the same quality either.  The fist-sized chunk I have is shot through with impurities.

Storm
Title: Re: Making your own flintlock flint
Post by: greyhunter on August 12, 2011, 01:02:13 PM
Hey Storm, the Backwoodsman mag had an article about knapping and the author describes how to knap beer bottles ( the bottoms) into arrow heads. Good for practice and functional too.
Title: Re: Making your own flintlock flint
Post by: Rasch Chronicles on August 16, 2011, 04:40:59 AM
Champagne bottles bottoms are good too I have heard said.

BTW, I remember Dixie Gun Works (30 years ago) used to sell raw English flint nodules. I've looked but I haven't found any on the net. Has anyone else seen any?

Best regards,
Albert “The Afghan” Rasch (http://http)
Traditional Methods of Waterproofing Fabric (http://http)
?O??? ????!
Title: Re: Making your own flintlock flint
Post by: Buzzard on August 16, 2011, 08:27:56 AM
Stormrider; i would offer that the first books you read are those from DC Waldorf. There are several and The Art of Flint Knapping may be the one you want. As far as material is concerned, good quality flint about your only option. Hornstone and some of the better cherts will make a functional gun flint. Generally, the whiter the stone is, the harder it is, leaning toward a quartz type structure. As opposed to flint where the blacker it is, the harder. Obsidian and the glasses, while sharp as all heck, cannot be used for guns as they very brittle and would be destroyed at the first drop of the hammer. Conversely, they make the sharpest, best broadheads. As you've already found out, finding good quality material is always a problem, unless ya live near Flint Ridge, Ohio or some other known flint deposit. Chert can be found almost anywhere east of the Rockies, but the quality very's widely. You can check any piece you find on a fire steel before investing the labor to make a gun flint. I'm sure our forefathers used anything available and weren't the least concerned about longevity, as long as it fired. Throw it away, make another! Hope this helps a bit, Good luck, Buzzard
Title: Re: Making your own flintlock flint
Post by: Captchee on August 16, 2011, 09:13:39 AM
Quote from: "Rasch Chronicles"
Champagne bottles bottoms are good too I have heard said.

BTW, I remember Dixie Gun Works (30 years ago) used to sell raw English flint nodules. I've looked but I haven't found any on the net. Has anyone else seen any?

Best regards,
Albert “The Afghan” Rasch (http://http)
Traditional Methods of Waterproofing Fabric (http://http)
?O??? ????!

 i bought one from dixie about 10 years ago ,. wighed about 5lbs  but was  really oddly shaped . about the only thing it was good for was making  flints for fire starting .
 i did get a couple  gun spalls out of it though