Flash Hole Chamfer Tool

[James Wilson Everett]

Guys,

I have had a dream of making a flash hole chamfer tool just like the one used in the Colonial Williamsburg shop.



Or like the one from JHAT.



While these are really nice tools I felt that life is just too short to make a copy!  So, I thought that there must be a more simple way to do this job.  I found that there is a very simple and easy to make tool to chamfer the flash hole from the inside of the barrel.  Here it is:







I simply bought a Dremel tool steel cutter bit as shown (they came two in a pack).  Cut the shank down and epoxied it into a spring steel holder with a simple handle.  I also ground off the very sharp tip of the cutter.  It works easily by inserting the tip of the cutter into the interior of the flash hole and wriggling it back and forth - simple.  I can get about a 90 degree swing with the tool.  As with a file, push on the cut direction and relax on the return direction.  It only takes a minute to cut a deep chamfer on the flash hole.  The tool will fit into a bore as small as 0.410.

When planning to chamfer the flash hole I must position the flash hole (and the flintlock) about 1/10 inch forward from the breech plug face so as to not have the chamfer cut into the breech plug seat.  I normally put the flash hole very close to the breech plug face, but now I put it a bit more forward - does this make sense?

Jim

[Greg Pennell]

Now that’s one of those why didn’t I think of that, palm to forehead moments...simple, elegant solution, James!  I’m gonna have to make a new tool now.  And your reasoning makes perfect sense...I do the same thing when installing a vent liner.

Greg

[Craig Wilcox]

Jim, you came up with this at just about the right time!  I have a pair of pistol barrels that are about ready for touch-hole drilling, and this would look MUCH better than the insert that we normally use. Thank you!

I even already had a pair of the conical Dremel cutters!

[Bob Roller]

Perhaps this sort of an operation is WHY vent liners came into use to begin with.
I have made 3 flintlock guns,one rifle and 2 pistols and I made vent liners from
bearing grade bronze and they worked fine.As an experiment I made one from
Titanium and it burned out quickly.The special tools to me are extra and uneeded
work.
Bob Roller

[conquerordie]

That's a great solution. Going to make one myself. Thank you for the idea.
Greg

[voltigeur]

it's a good idea, but I wonder when is the life of the flash hole, when to put a flash hole insert when it is too large ?

[sa_handforged]

Great post Thank you Jim !

[BOB HILL]

Neat tool, Jim. I like simple.
Bob

[Bob Roller]

Neat tool, Jim. I like simple.
Bob

I would think that a taper from the OUTside in will work as well and the High end English guns had  self priming locks.These apparently relied on compression of air to force powder from the main charge into the pan.These top quality locks were made by lock makers who were not about to surrender to the oncoming impact sensitive fulminates that could,would and did put them out of work.They did leave us with some superb relics to admire and try to copy.IF the cap sales are now the focus of greedsters the flintlock may well become the muzzle loader of choice.
Bob Roller

[Robert B]

That is a great and simple tool.  I have a very strong, some may say crazy, interest in the original tool.  I have been making and selling the tools below for several years.   

The one without the handle is the (Williamsburg Master gunsmith) Richard Sulllivan model intended for use in a vise.  Richard owns two like this.  I have made these tools and sold probably 40-50 here on this forum and at the annual CLA shows for the last few years.  They are not easy or quick to produce in my manual machine basement workshop.   I also make the involute gears which are drilled and tapped for set screws.  I have no current plans for making any more it just isn't worth the effort for what I can charge for them.  I'm certainly not trying to sell them here, but I thought I would show what I believe to be the only ones perhaps ever produced in any numbers in the last couple hundred years.  Several people have built one or two and they know it isn't easy.  Ron Scott got me interested in this tool many years ago and I took up the challenge of developing it with the above two examples capable of working comfortably in 45 caliber and larger barrels.

 

[David Rase]

Here is my copy of the Williamsburg coning tool.  I made this one 20 some years ago.  I would like to make a new cutter that is a bit larger one of these days.
David