frizzen bounce back

[david50]

have a lock that when fired the frizzen is bouncing back and hitting the flint,is there anything to be done about it...thanks!

[trentOH]

You can replace the frizzen spring with a stronger spring. It's a balancing act between the maispring and the frizzen spring.

[LH]

There's about 49 ways to attack that problem,  but trentOH iz rite.  Somehow,  you need to get the ratio of how fast the hammer is slamming down to how strong the frizzen spring is,  wider apart.  Weaker mainspring or stronger frizzen spring.  Changing the shape of the frizzen toe or bending a hump on the spring is doing that in a roundabout way.  Probably the simplest way is to hold the frizzen spring in a pair of needle nose vice grips,  heat up the end of the spring where the frizzen toe cams on it and when you get it red hot,  bend upwards on it with a pair of flat nosed pliers.  Buy yourself a spare spring (which you should have anyway) before you start cranking on the one in your lock.  Chances are the spare spring will stop the problem without doing anything so,  you'll most likely cure the problem one way or another. 

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I had this problem on my Chambers Late Ketland lock.  This lock has a powerful mainspring, and it throws sparks like a cutting torch.  But the frizzen does not open very far, so that the heel, that is to say the edge where the frizzen meets the pan cover, is not very far away from the flint in the fired position.  The frizzen spring does not have enough tension to stop the frizzen from bouncing back and breaking off the flint.  So I did two things.  First, I made a new rolled for the frizzen spring, so that the toe of the frizzen has farther to ride to get back over the roller, and I heated the spring red and spread her leaves a little, also to increase her tension against the toe of the frizzen.  Of course, I polished, hardened and tempered the spring again.  The result in this case anyway, was that I no longer get smashed flints.
The bottom line is as Trent has said:  the mainspring and frizzen spring have to be balanced.  There are locks that are perfect right from the manufacturer, and there are those that need tuning.  It's all part of the fun.  So enjoy the ride!

[Pete G.]

Look at your lock closely and decide if you can find a way to make the frizzen come to rest at a further forward position. The further it has to go the further it has to come back. I had one of the late Ketland locks that would either break the flint or knock it out of the cock. After removing some of the metal on the bottom front of the frizzen toe and rolling it upward a bit the lock is much better behaved. Cycle the frizzen slowly by hand an study what is actually going on. It is surprising how far back these things can rebound. You can dry fire the lock and watch it closely and never see the frizzen bounce back, but the evidence proves otherwise.

[AsMs]

I had the same problem.  The lock was a Davis Colonial.  The frizzen was snapping the flints every time.  Mentioned the problem to a friend and he told me he read something about it in Muzzleloader magazine.  Told me to take the scrap of leather that holds the flint in the cock and slide it right up to the edge of the flint.  The leather acts as a cushion.  Does not effect the sparking and I have not broke a flint since.  A simple low cost fix.

AsMs

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

I had the same problem.  The lock was a Davis Colonial.  The frizzen was snapping the flints every time.  Mentioned the problem to a friend and he told me he read something about it in Muzzleloader magazine.  Told me to take the scrap of leather that holds the flint in the cock and slide it right up to the edge of the flint.  The leather acts as a cushion.  Does not effect the sparking and I have not broke a flint since.  A simple low cost fix.

AsMs

I agree this is maybe the simplist fix.

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

AsMs,
Welcome to the forum

[Hungry Horse]

 I was given an old flintlock years ago that had seen heavy use over probably a hundred years. Getting to examine a piece of antiquity that hasn't been modified by a modern "gunsmith" is a rare pleasure. The springs all seemed to be original to the mechanism. The toe of the frizzen had been greatly reduced, and reshaped, by some long gone previous owner. After experimenting with it for some time, I found that the frizzen foot was reduced to allow the frizzen to travel farther forward on firing, to prevent bounce back. A simple fix by some backwoods gunsmith. Many modern locks don't open as far as genuine antiques of the same period. This bounce back problem has been addressed by gunsmiths in various ways since the flintlock was first invented. In a flintlock its all about geometry.

                     Hungry Horse

[david50]

i usually cut a small hole in my flint leather so that the back of the flint actually rests against the cock screw. i changed out the flint with one a bit longer and replaced the flint leather but did not cut a hole in it,this seems to have fixed the problem.

[LH]

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=20663.30

[Hungry Horse]

David50:

  While your centering that hole in the flint leather, wrap it around the flint, and take a shouldered punch and notch the flint so it straddles the bolt in the cock. It will never turn sideways again. I've been doing it for years. It keeps the flint in place when you are knapping it as wall.

                          Hungry Horse