Flint source ?

[Scout]

Awhile back I remember someone posting they had flints for sale. I don't recall who it was.

Any suggestions? I am getting low and I'd like some flatter ones this time around if someone knows a source. 3/4s for a large Deluxe Siler.

Thanks,
Skip

[Stormrider51]

I've had good luck with the Fuller English flints from Track.

Storm

[billd]

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=270.0

[4ster]

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=270.0

My last flint purchase was from Mr. Pierce in the above link.  It was very easy and the flints came sooner than expected.  He wants to make sure his flints work for you.  My rifle is sporting one of his flints right now, and it works better than other flints I've tried.

Steve

[The other DWS]

ditto the above, great flints, even better service, and a good selection of sizes.  and It keeps the $$ in the family so to speak

  I have not checked lately, but one of the major vendor (TOTW maybe and others) had a bunch or original english flintlock era flints from that Nepalese (I think) military warehouse cleanout.  As I recall they were mostly in the larger sizes.  Not sure they actually spark any better than Rich's modern made flints.  But its nice to have an authentic flint in a rifle at least for display.
   However bear in mind that, according to Hamilton, the black English Brandon flint production did not take off until turncoat French POWs started working it and taught the english how the French-style flints were made.   If that is the case the Black Brandon flints probably would not be appropriate in a pre-1800 context.  (obviously I'm overly detail-obsessed about some things , but flints fascinate me;D)

[rich pierce]

Some of the original English and French flints from that warehouse in Nepal are of the spall type. If they all date to within 50 years or so of each other, it shows that both blade and spall types co-existed in the same timeframe.   Spall and blade flints have often been found together at colonial forts and other sites as well.  I appreciate Hamilton's work and research but have some skepticism about the English not knowing how to make blade flints until taught by some Frenchman.  Certainly French blade-style flints were known by the English, and I have a good many French as well as English spall type flints from that Nepal warehouse, so both English and French flints are found in spall and blade varieties.  Since I make flints I have found that the rock dictates whether I will make a spall or blade flint.  It is almost impossible to work flint and not learn how to strike a blade.  If there is a good core with suffiicient thickness, blades are east to strike.  As a core gets worked down, I make a flint any way I can, and the last few are spall types.  If the English did not know how to strike blades, it is something they forgot, as neolithic tools from England exhibit blade technology.

Spall flints fell out of style by 1800 or so as near as I can tell, though stockpiles of hundreds of thousands of English and French flints probably existed from earlier times, and contained some spall types.  I am guessing some old stock got sent to Nepal.

[Gene Carrell]

I have had  good luck  with english  black flints;  however, my  experience with Rich's  flint  is much better  with many flints  lasting  for over 100 shots and they cost less.

[The other DWS]

Rich, I agree, and I'm sure Hamilton would too, that ANY historical conclusion is subject to revision as new data is brought to bear on the topic.  My "hands on" experience and research is based on upper midwest and lower Canadian stuff. Mostly published "dig reports" and some personal evaluations of private collections.   Most of this covered the colonial frontier era and the later fur trade.
  I have been more than a bit puzzled about that specific conclusion of Hamilton's as well.  It might require further research and it might wind up being more along the lines of "commercial/industrial scale exploitation of the Brandon resource (black blade type) did not develop until England was blockaded from continental sources in the Napoleonic Wars" or another bunch of qualifiers and weasel words.

In the sites I am somewhat familiar with, spalls, mostly of the French tan/amber type flint far outnumber the prism blade type up to and through the revolution and somewhat later.    I think you are correct in that national armory held large stockpiles of older type flints (spalls) as a vital resource in case of war conditions and trade blockages, that were "dumped" onto allies and commercial trade as the more desirable (2-edged) flints became available

[hammer]

Hi, I too have read Hammond as well as the results of research within the extensive East India Company records.  This confirms the change from spall to blade seems indeed to have phased in around 1800.   And the critical factor of the blade coupled with the unique availability of the superior black flint in unique large block form mined in the Brandon, Suffolk, region was that vast numbers of standard sized flints could be manufactured efficiently and at low cost.   The large blocks allowed longer blades to be struck off and more of them: you get more flints per blade and more blades per block.   The EIC alone required many millions per annum.   And the English military likewise.   It was just not possible to achieve this by the spall method which was also dreadfully wasteful of material.   The scattered local flint sources still supplied the local shooter but the military contracts, by necessity, quickly switched exclusively to the Suffolk producers.   
I have seen no original source for French prisoners having taught the English their methods.   My own suspicion is that blades were known to the English but that the random nodule sizes in the scattered flint mines, each producing only modest quantities, did not justify intensive blade production or the concentration of the special skills.  That seems only to have come about with the rediscovery of the 'pavement stone' at Brandon and the need for mass production as a result of the escalation of the French Revolutionary/Napoleonic Wars.   And was just co-incidental with the arrival of large numbers of French prisoners.   Just MHO of course.     

While you guys over the pond can still get 'Tom Fuller' flints, unfortunately for us in the UK, since Tom retired, his successor no longer supplies locally.   But for UK shooters we thankfully have a new superb source of top quality black Brandon flints in Will Lord whose web site is www.beyond2000bc.com.   Beautiful flints and a first class service. 



   

[Daryl]

I don't mind having white 'flint's in my firelocks. It's just if I stand in one spot and fire to many shots, the flint sparks melt the snow around me making a hole so I'm standing in water. They're also bad for burning the rubber on my boots.
Too much, Rich? 

[BrownBear]

That link doesn't work for me, Hammer.

[Standing Bear]

http://www.beyond2000bc.co.uk/

[Bill of the 45th]

Troy Roope, has lots of black English in stock at Stonewall Creek Outfitters.  www.stonewallcreekoutfitters.com

Bill

[Stormrider51]

I don't mind having white 'flint's in my firelocks. It's just if I stand in one spot and fire to many shots, the flint sparks melt the snow around me making a hole so I'm standing in water. They're also bad for burning the rubber on my boots.
Too much, Rich? 

Must wear out frizzens on a regular basis, too.

Storm

[rich pierce]

I don't mind having white 'flint's in my firelocks. It's just if I stand in one spot and fire to many shots, the flint sparks melt the snow around me making a hole so I'm standing in water. They're also bad for burning the rubber on my boots.
Too much, Rich? 

yeah, that might have been a little over the top.    

Troy Roop at Stonewall Creek Outfitters gets my vote for English flints.  Very uniform, finely made.

[Scout]

Thanks to all for the sources and interesting info.

Skip