Relearning an old lesson

[JEH]

45 plus years ago when i started the flintlock game all I ever used for flints was broken chert arrowheads picked up around west central Illinois. Years went by and the collection grew and i bought amber and black English flints by the dozens. This winter I whittled up a little halfstock .40 out of parts laying around. The L&R lock I used will eat a flint after 4 or 5 shots. So i got to remembering the early days and scrounged around the farm for some chunks of chert. Whacked out a few and can shoot the thing most of the afternoon. Just food for thought if your flintgun is giving you issues.

[Daniel Coats]

Very interesting, chert must have been what I found back in the mid-1970s that worked so well for so long in my flint rifle out here in Colorado. I looked it up just now and the light color makes me think all the more it was chert.

"Chert and flint are microcrystalline varieties of quartz. ... The only difference between chert and flint is color: flint is black or nearly black and chert tends to be white, gray, or pink and can be either plain, banded, or preserve fossil traces."