Flints

[Hanshi]

I have a modest supply of flints of various sizes to fit all my flint locks.  Primarily I have white chert, English black and a few amber and miscellaneous ones.  I picked up several lbs of very old flints some years back.  They were available for order in 5 lb bags.  I split them with a friend.  Most were either pieces of flint or huge ones for some archaic locks.  These could be either broken to size or even used, as is, in my colonial smoothbore lock. 

I keep all my used and used-up flints for various reasons.  Anyway, I had a few I got years ago that were mostly, well, "lousy".  One of them gave only 5 shots and I had to cuss and pamper just to get THAT!  I've also had the occasional flint that would self knapp and give so many shots I quite counting as they began to approach 100 shots.  Average is 30-40 shots before they need knapping and an additional 20 (+ or -) after knapping.

Wake up and tell me about YOUR flints, flint experiences, etc!

[beowulf]

only flins I`ve had trouble with are the cut agate flints ! lucky to get 20 shots out of one !

[Dogshirt]

The rock is optional when tightening barbed wire. 

[Hanshi]

Fence work with a gun, you mean. 

[Hanshi]

The cut/sawn "flints" are worthless IMO.

[beowulf]

The cut/sawn "flints" are worthless IMO.

would pretty much agree !

[Patocazador]

I've gotten the best and the most sparks out of the French flints. The English blacks do OK on the sparking end but rarely last through 40 shots. The French last almost 100.

The white chert are cheap but just so-so on sparking and longevity.

[hotfxr]

I find the flints in the sparkers I use to light the welding torch work the best. Silver solder a piece of file onto the frizzen, and let it make sparks.   




Hmmm, come to think about it, that's not a bad idea.

[Hanshi]

I find the flints in the sparkers I use to light the welding torch work the best. Silver solder a piece of file onto the frizzen, and let it make sparks.   
Hmmm, come to think about it, that's not a bad idea.

OMG!  You're doing it again! 

[DandJofAZ]

He's just period correct for 2020.  It's been that type of year.

[hotfxr]

They had files way back when. Y'all are just jealous that I thought of it first! 

[Hanshi]

Now there is the file that the FBI has on me, but using it to start a fire is out of the question.

I have a few amber flints and they seem just as good as the black ones.  The white ones are also excellent.

[DandJofAZ]

As a kid we scrounged flints off the ground.  They were fine for our needs.  Didn't even know you could buy them and wouldn't have used our hard earned cash for them if we had.