Odd problem with new flints

[Ky-Flinter]

I've always used hand-knapped black English flints, 3/4 wide x 7/8 long, but since prices have gone up, I've been looking for alternatives.  I bought a dozen hand-knapped "red Texas" 3/4 wide x 7/8 long flints to try.  My lock is a deluxe Siler in a rifle I shoot matches and hunt with regularly for the past 5 or 6 years.

I installed one of the Texas flints and dry-fired the lock.  The frizzen opened about 1/4" and the flint hung up on the frizzen, as if the flint was too short.  I tried another of the Texas flints with the same result.  Then I installed the same sized English flint and she operated perfectly, shower of sparks, frizzen snapped open smartly.

I'm at a loss.  I repeated the test several times, making sure the flints were the same dimensions, mounted the same, etc.  Could it be the Texas flints are harder/softer, sharper/duller than the English causing them to "bite" into the frizzen?

-Ron

[OldMtnMan]

How much did you pay for them? I'm paying $1.66ea for Tom Fuller flints.

[P.W.Berkuta]

To me it sounds like the red flints are not as hard as the black flints -- since the frizzen has not changed in hardness or geometry the red flints must be soft and slowing the cock down ?

[smylee grouch]

Will changing the angle of the flint, thin xtra leather on top or bottom or bevel up/down improve the action?

[Daryl]

I would think soft flints would not spark, nor would the drag and stop the frizzen.  I have had some of Rich's while chert flints stop the friggen, digging in the frizzen - easy to see if they are digging in- they leave a burr where they stop.  
The frizzen actually worked quite well with English flints, but would hang with the harder chert flints.

Taylor re-hardened and tempered my frizzen - now it's dangerous to shoot in the bush unless it's raining - hard.  LOL- just kidding - but what a shower of sparks now. No digging in of the flints - any of them - wonderful spark shower right to the floor and fizzling, dancing around in the pan.  L&R Durr's Egg Lock.

[EC121]

I also had a soft frizzen that would let the Texas flints hang in it.  Due improper hardening during manufacture, it had the carbon burned out of the steel and needed replacing.  After that the flints worked fine.

[Ky-Flinter]

Thanks all for the responses.  I'll try the Texas reds again and check for burrs.  The frizzen is as it was received from Chambers.

-Ron

[David R. Pennington]

I am a cheapskate. I have been reshaping old dull flints with diamond bench hones. Good winter evening activity. I like English black 1st and French amber second. I used a piece of local Kanawha black flint in one of our matches a while back. It will work but not as good as English.

[bgf]

Ron,

Probably not the issue, but try the Texas flints upside down relative to whatever you do with the English.  Might be slight difference in geometry. I'm interested in trying those flints, too, so I hope they work.

The late ketland on my chunk gun went all summer with two or three flints and very little trouble, including two or three bonus table matches with the lighter 40 Cal. Barrel.  I would start with bevel up as chamber's usually prefers, then switch to bevel down when it starts hanging or not sparking quite as well.  That lock is fantastic!