General discussion > Black Powder Shooting
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
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