Lock/ frizzen questions

[utseabee]

     I have a Davis early Germanic lock that really seems to eat up flints. This lock is about 10 years old. It sparks well for about 10-12 shots. I am thinking my frizzen may be too hard or soft, not exactly sure as it hasn't always done this.. The frizzen is scored right where the flint hits it. It often breaks chips out of the flint and it leaves pieces in the pan if you spark it. Once the flint gets a little shorter, sometimes it won't push the frizzen over. I use Fuller's English flints, so I am pretty sure they are not the problem.
     I am looking for advice on how to fix this issue. Can I just get the frizzen dressed up or should I have a new frizzen fit to the lock? Should I send it to someone who works on locks and have it gone over? Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks
John

[bob in the woods]

Brad Emig at Cabin Creek offers a lock tuning service

[n stephenson]

Someone wrote a thread last week about flints breaking due to frizzen slap, where  the frizzen rebounds and hits the top of the flint , breaking the flint off. This might be what your experiencing?        Nathan

[JCKelly]

Someone, maybe one of the lockmaker's sites, has high speed photography showing the frizzen rebound striking the flint.

Someone else on this site suggested, I think, extending the top part of your leather to protect the top of the flint during rebound.

Bevel up or bevel down? I'm about the last guy here to know about flint lock geometry, but I do know that different design of locks perform differently with bevel up vs down.

The very last thing resort, IMHO, would be to have someone work on the lock.

[retired fella]

You might try dressing the frizzen  face with a Dremmel and stone.  This may smooth out the action.  That would be my first step.  If that doesn't work try bevel up/down on your flint.  You indicated that you got good spark so I suspect the rough surface of your frizzen face is the culprit.

[EC121]

If you slide your thumb down the frizzen surface, does it feel like it is being hooked by little pieces of metal?  If so it is too soft.  Also the rock should slide down the frizzen face at an angle.  It shouldn't hit too close to 90deg. or you will get the groove quicker.  The groove will form, but it will take longer if the flint doesn't slide or the frizzen is hard.  Also the frizzen should pop open at about 30-40deg.  Polish the spring and frizzen nose on a stone and grease or oil them before shooting.

[utseabee]

Thank you all for the input. I had the rifle up to Dixons today and he told me that it wasn't too soft. He aid that I could have it dressed up, but it wouldn't hurt to have someone that tunes locks take a look at it. Apparently, these locks and the parts for them are getting scarce right now. I guess Pete Allan made this lock for Davis and his stuff is tuff to get now.

[heinz]

The lock films are at Larry Pletcher's BlackPowderMag site. Well worth watching

[EC121]

I talked to the Davis rep at the CLA show.  Some of their locks are made from Allen castings which aren't available right now.  You can look at Davis's website and tell which ones aren't available.

[Ky-Flinter]

Hi John,

Take a look at this discussion on frizzen rebound breaking flints.  This could be your problem... or not   

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=43370.0

-Ron

[Darkhorse]

 Mr. L.C. Rice once walked me threw tuning a new lock. First thing was to go thru some checks looking for a problem. One of the checks was the hammer. He wanted the flint pointing straight down in the center of the pan after the shot. If it wasn't then it had to be heated and bent. In your case the flint could be too close to the frizzen for a normal arc and hit too high.
In any flintlock it should not matter whether the bevel is up or down it should cut steel and throw sparks. If not then you got something wrong.

[utseabee]

Thanks again for all the advice. I think the flint is catching in the groove that is cut in the frizzen and breaking. I have tried putting  a longer piece of leather in the jaw and also tried switch  from bevel up to bevel down and neither helped. I was going to try dressing up the frizzen myself , but I will be taking it to Brad Emig this week instead. There are no parts available for this lock right now, so I will let a pro do work on it. Can't hurt to have it tuned up anyway. If I can find one of these locks for sale, I'll just go ahead and buy it so I have the spare parts. No one has these locks in stock now, so that might be a tough one.
Thanks

[utseabee]

Brad Emig at Cabin Creek offers a lock tuning service

    I took the lock to Brad Emig. What a difference that made! Now, I want to take all my locks to him and have them tuned. I definitely recommend his work. Thanks again for the advice.
John