Flints, Knapping Vs. EZ Lap Diamond Stone

[fdf]

I was listening to a couple of guys talk about refurbishing used flints.

One guy said he napped them and the other one said he had a better way.  He said he used a EZ Lap Diamond Sharpening store (embedded with diamond chips) to resurface the edge/face of a flint.

I have  knapping hammer and I have no idea what to do with it.

I found my above mentioned stone and tried a large and small flint, kind of like knife sharpening.  In short order the edge of the flint looks like it was cut by a machine.  The face of the flint surface is smooth, even, straight and sharp.  It only took a short time on each flint.

Anyone else do this on used flints?

To be honest is seems awful easy and mistake proof compared to napping, especially when you do not know how to knap.

fdf

[SCLoyalist]

If you're in the woods or anyplace it's not convenient to carry an EZLap stone, a knapping hammer or knapping awl will touch up the edge pretty quickly.   Here's a link that shows how to do it:
 
http://www.muzzleblasts.com/archives/vol4no4/articles/mbo44-3.shtml

I've never tried the EZ Lap method, but at the price of flint these days I may try it.  I assume you've tried your flints and get decent sparks?   

SCL

[Roger Fisher]

I have a couple of such diamond files/stones.  They do work although it seems the knapping gives a sharper edge than does said diamond file/stone.  Takes a while and my clumsy fingers have a slight problem holding the flint to sharpen with the dia.   Never tried it in the lock.   I simply knapp with a knapper that is wide enough to cover the full edge width at the same time.. gives a pretty straight edge except that flint that decides to be stubborn...  seems more important and usefull to use that dia stone to flatten those spalls that have an uneven hump that causes the flint to mount in the jaws lopsided. 

[Daryl]

A 'filed' edge will not have the sharp molecular level 'break' as given by knapping. i suspect in a shot or two, the edge will self-knap to just such a level.

I've used the green stone on the grinder to level such flints as Roger spoke of, those with an offside lump.

When a flint stops sparking, if you take the time to look the edge over, you'll usually see one spot where there's a hard spot that is gliding down the frizzen and not sparking. This will also show on the face of the frizzen. Knock off that one spot and the flint continues to spark well.  Knapping the entire surface is mostly a waste of flint life.

Allowing the flint to contact the frizzen, see where it's touching- that's the spot that needs knapping, not the whole edge.  Sometimes it IS the whole edge that needs it, but moslty it's only one spot.

[Bill of the 45th]

Thanks to Roundball, about three years ago I bought a bag of 1000 BEF's, and have 200 French amber for my two fuzee's, plus a few dozen from Rich Pierce in odd sizes(I think he took my name in vain doing those small ones).  So it's simple as I get on average 75 shots per flint, I just change them out, though I do occasionally touch them up with a brass hammer.  At 62 I think I have a lifetime supply.  Field Knapping is easy for me, maybe I come by it naturally.

Bill Knapp

[fdf]

"The way I do it at the range for example is to have the empty rifle laying on the bench on its belly """(or a towel draped across the pan and vent if its loaded), bring the hammer back to full cock""".

"or a towel draped across the pan and vent if its loaded), bring the hammer back to full cock"

With the above recommendation, working on a flint lock with the hammer at full cock and loaded , I am glad I do  not shoot next to you or on the same range.

This violates all the range rules that I have been around.

fdf

[Bill of the 45th]

fdf, that's fine, I'll shoot next to Roundball any time.  First off his rifle would be pointed safely down range, and secondly he would be doing it because he had a worn flint that wasn't sparking, and he's using a brass rod that doesn't spark anyway.  How else are you going to clear the gun short of using CO2, or a ball puller which I consider less safe.  At the Sgt York shoot there were 18 failure to fire, all were cap guns, the flints that failed to fire were quickly resolved with a quick Knapping.  There were almost 200 shooters.

Bill

[fdf]

"How else are you going to clear the gun short of using CO2, or a ball puller which I consider less safe." 

All I asked was a question and I get  lectures,  "How else are you going to clear the gun short of using CO2, or a ball puller which I consider less safe". 

What does your above comments have to do with diamond stones?? 

"The time I spent answering your post was about trying to help you learn how to knapp a flint"

Again, I simply asked a question, not on how to knap a flint,  if I wanted to know how, I would have asked how to knap a flint..

I guess this is not a site for a person to learn from, only rude answers come forth by some .

fdf

[Harnic]

fdf, Roundball's tutorial on knapping a flint in a loaded gun is both correct & quite safe (as long as safe muzzle control is maintained of course) and is acceptable anywhere I've shot.  In fact a range officer who admonished anyone knapping safely as Roundball described, wouldn't keep his job long in these parts.  I think you came on a bit strong & the reaction to that was equally strong.  I would add to our friend Roundball's tutorial that brushing the prime from the pan is always a good plan, both to prevent any unlikely sparks from discharging the gun as well as courtesy to others to your lock's side as those flakes of flint propelled out of the pan by the charge would be painful at best!  Safety is paramount in our sport & the technique presented here is sound.  I hope you don't take any of this as "lecturing", I can say with all certainty it is offered freely from our collective experience.

[Leatherbelly]

   Roundball,
     Good post,good explanation on knapping. I do it much the same. Try a piece of copper rod,say 1/2" if by chance you have some. I have one 1/2"by 2 1/2" with a turnscrew as a handle.I like the way copper nibbles the edge.I put my left forefinger under the edge and strike downward lightly as you do.

  fdf,
   If the EZ lap works for you that's good.I've never tried it.Here on this site we strive for "period correctness" and knapping your flint on a flintlock go hand in hand.They did it "back then" so we carry on the tradition now. Roundball  and Bill are being helpfull, don't twist this around.

[Harnic]

Good suggestion LB!  I too use a copper rod & it works VERY well.  I think the soft metal deadens the light taps more & gives a lot more control.

[MikeC]

"How else are you going to clear the gun short of using CO2, or a ball puller which I consider less safe." 

All I asked was a question and I get  lectures,  "How else are you going to clear the gun short of using CO2, or a ball puller which I consider less safe". 

What does your above comments have to do with diamond stones?? 

"The time I spent answering your post was about trying to help you learn how to knapp a flint"

Again, I simply asked a question, not on how to knap a flint,  if I wanted to know how, I would have asked how to knap a flint..

I guess this is not a site for a person to learn from, only rude answers come forth by some .

fdf

Great way to make friends.   

Roundball I do it the same way.  Stones don't produce the edge you get from a simple few seconds of light tapping.

[Dale Halterman]

I do it the same as Roundball, except I use the bottom of my brass pan charger instead of a brass rod.

Dale H

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Knapping the flint on your firelock is easy and necessary to get sure-fire reliable and fast ignition.  We have all had times when we needed to make a good shot, but neglected to check the flint, and had a hang fire that cost us a buck or trophy or just honour and recognition.  I had Daryl take a series of pictures this morning of me knapping the flint in my little .40 Peter Berry styled rifle.  You can tell by the scars on both hands that I have a lot of experience with sharp stuff...and I got them one at a time too.  Daryl has a dandy right across the pad of one of his thumbs when he thought ( or wished he'd thought) that he'd wipe the dust off a freshly knapped flint in his trade gun.

The first shot is of the tool I made to service this rifle.  It consists of a length of 1/4" drill rod forged into a turnscrew (fits cock's top jaw screw, lock and tang screws), and a two inch length of copper bar.  I turned down the end of the rod and drilled a corresponding hole through the copper, and then silver soldered the two together.  No need to get fancy, though there's room for doing so here.  I made one similar and polished it, then engraved it with the date for my blanket prize at our local shoot a couple weeks ago.  One end is filed to a blunt chisel to concentrate the energy of the blow on a small area of the flint - the other is full.  I use both as the spirit moves me.






To knapp the flint, I support the butt of the rifle at belt height under my adequate belly, and hold the rifle near the cock supported underneath with the middle, ring and little finger of my right hand - I'm left handed.  The muzzle does not rest on anything, though that is a possible option with a very heavy rifle or musket.  With my thumb I bring the cock just past the half cock position.  This is important.  If you rest the cock in the half or full bent position, sooner or later you will break the nose off your sear or the half cock notch off the tumbler.  You would be delivering a blow, small as it is, to the steel on steel - recipe for damage.  With the pad of my first finger I support the underside of the flint.  This too is important, because you will achieve thinner and longer flakes with less of a blow this way, rather than just crushing the edge of the flint.  Here you can see that the hammer falls only about 3/4".




For the purposes of this demo, I knapped the flint all the way across, though it seldom needs this.  As Daryl pointed out, there is usually just a small nubby that is keeping the sharp flint from scraping the frizzen, and that's all that you need to take off.  For the hunting flint, spare no expense, and do the whole edge.  In the picture I have given the flint a tap on the outside corner, and removed a nice long thin flake from the underside of the flint.
$#@*, I have to run...I'll continue the description a little later today.

[rich pierce]

In my experience sawn or filed flints do not self-knap as much as knapped ones do and are more likely to round than to self-sharpen.  My unsupported theory is that small, even macroscopic (for old guys) irregularities in the flint edge cause small spalls to be knocked off in actual use of the flint, revealing a new pattern of forward edges, and this is how flints can wear in length and remain sort of "sharp".  I think we've all seen flint dust or specks in the pan of a rifle that was dry fired.

[C. Cash]

D. Taylor and Daryl , awesome tutorial there....thank you!  It's funny how much info is out there in books/net/mags, yet this is the only place I can readily find such a photo tutorial of someone knapping a flint.  Very little on this process to help newbies, so again many thanks.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I probably don't have to add much in the way of a lecture to the pictures...they speak 1000's of words.  You can see the flakes that I've driven off the bottom of the flint, and how sharp the new edge is.  In fact, you cannot make a new thin edge unless the old one is rounded over.  If you try knapping a thin edge, you'll just crush the edge and make it worse.  I used copper rather than brass since copper delivers its energy into the stone more slowly that brass, which can cause crumbling rather than flaking.  That is my experience anyway.
I've never had any success with sawn or ground flints...they do not spark (or cut) like a knapped edge.

[Daryl]

I will add something --- note the angle Taylor is striking the flint's edge. This causes a long flake to drop off the lower surface, not a short crumbly one.  Too steep an angle will promote short flakes and or crumbling,which allows the edge to dull more quickly and won't give as sharp an edge as a longer flaked edge.

[hanshi]

Yes!  Great tutorial.

[Pete G.]

This seems like a whole lot of effort to accomplish a simple task. I generally just use the back of my knife to tap on the top of the shiny spot. Even that effort is not required on my Jim Chambers Golden Age lock. When that lock misfires it is because the flint has worn down enough that the cock screw is hiting the frizzen. It took me a while to realize how the screw was getting marked up, but eventually it finally dawned on me.

Looks like fdf may have gotten miffed and left us. Can't say that I'll miss him.

[rich pierce]

Most discussions wander and it's a good thing.  We learn a lot and often much more than the original question addressed.  It's not a service we offer- answering a question.  It's a discussion.  I got to see another of Taylor's rifles, learned a couple of different approaches to knapping a flint in a lock, and some things about range etiquette and practice.  Good discussion.

[Daryl]

RB and Rich hit it perfectly, although I don't see this thread as deviating from the original topic.  I think Taylor's idea was a great one, with the photos - good thing he had such access to such an incredible photographer .

[Harnic]

good thing he had such access to such an incredible photographer .

*cough, sputter, choke*

[Roger Fisher]

Gotta tell ya, Ol Taylor screwed up a perfectly good $1.50 ($1.75 in Canada) Engllish flint to show us how to do it.   !

It did remind me to support the flint and hammer w/my thumb to avoid stress on the lock half draw notch.  I was getting careless there...

And probably reminded ol Daryl (again) to wipe the flint with your thumb away from the edge rather than towards the edge

[Daryl]

Not sure about wiping the flint with my thumb. Tried that today and had to reach for yet another bandaid. Good think I buy them by the 'Gross'.