touching up flints

[recurve]

If you hammer a flint in your lock you may break or round your tumble edges.  Steel is hardness of 6 ,flint/chert 7  flint(yes all those little hits add up) steel may give before flint.   take the lock just past half cock held with your thumb (not resting on half cock notch, your safety, the way Mr Dixon showed me) and then re edge.  Or better yet replace the flint with a sharp one and pressure flake the older flint for a new sharp edge.
                                      the sparks are steel shaved off the frizzen by the flint/chert

I use a leather pad attached to wood and an antler with copper wire hot melt glue on one end

 or place the flint in a vise(padded) and use a small punch on the edge
held in the tumbler half or full cock (those are square notches and need to be square for safety, hammering  will round or break the edge off)
 
you can also use a diamond file or stone (diamond hardness of 10, flint7) but if you grind protect your lungs the dust is deadly(thousands of micro razers cutting lungs)  and I use glass workers gloves when knapping (lots of Band-Aids)
also it's very bad for your eyes flakes and dust cuts ,SAFETY GLASSES are a must . I only knap with a breeze,or fan blowing left to right blowing micro flakes away or with m95 mask

[recurve]

[recurve]

[recurve]

If you don't think your tumbler will break/round just ask Chambers
 I know of 2 , An Allen Martin customer asked Allen at the 18th century show 2024( while I was talking to Allen )"why doesn't my lock hold at half cock anymore?" I asked if he knapped the flint at half cock ? his reply was" Yes of course." so Allen sent him to see Barbie at the siler table
another flinter on the other web site just had to replace his tumbler (last week) for the same thing (chambers sent him a new tumbler, great customer service) !

     YOUR TUMBLER IS YOUR ONLY SAFETY ON YOUR RIFLE OTHER THAN YOU

[recurve]

If any of you come the Kempton gun makers fair and have flint/chert we can try to make you a gun flint(or 2) if it's good flint/chert(some is to brittle and may shatter)

you can resize a flint like I do in the video

[MuskratMike]

Here is a simple tool I use for touching up my flints. You can buy these at any muzzleloading supply store. It is a brass wedge removal tool for your half stock rifle. I cut a small notch in the end and it is ready to knapp. The knurled end makes gripping them very easy.

[smylee grouch]

At one time I had a short section of a broken course file that I could lightly run across the flint edge and get another 6-8 shots off after using it.

[Daryl]

These work surprisingly well.

Hammer support is vital during the prying motion against the edge.
This is using a tool/screw driver Taylor made using a piece of rectangular copper for the hammer nose.



This tool is used in a rocking, prying motion. It actually is amazingly simple to 'touch-up" the flint.

[Don Steele]

I’m a big fan of Diamond tools to reshape flints. A while back I bought an inexpensive set of Diamond files and began using them on my flints. Correctly Using a file puts very little pressure on the internals of the lock. Let the tool do the work..!
The flint in this image was dressed as needed with one of those hand files. I also picked up some Diamond surfaced Dremel accessories to speed up the process and in some cases make gross reshaping, such as removing humps on less than ideal gun flints.
Hope this helps.

[recurve]

diamond files and stones work very well(YOUR LEATHERMAN TOOLS HAVE ONE ) and small diamond files can be found in the wife's fingernail section of Walmart(good in you possibles bag) and larger ones at tool places

don't breath the dust

[Hawg]

Knapping is something I need to learn how to do. The few times I tried didn't work out so well.

[recurve]

large learning curve and waist first several pounds of flint was made  into sharp gravel  you tube helps keep at it pick a safe place to knap no kid/pet zone


when I demo I need to put down heavy ground covering to collect the sharps and popup to protect my viewers





my gun flint shaping work area (iced in right now)  I sit and knap blades as in video

[Dennis Daigger]

I’m a big fan of Diamond tools to reshape flints. A while back I bought an inexpensive set of Diamond files and began using them on my flints. Correctly Using a file puts very little pressure on the internals of the lock. Let the tool do the work..!
The flint in this image was dressed as needed with one of those hand files. I also picked up some Diamond surfaced Dremel accessories to speed up the process and in some cases make gross reshaping, such as removing humps on less than ideal gun flints.
Hope this helps.

Don,
Can you explain exactly how “Correctly using a file” for flint touch up is done?
Thanks,
Dennis

[Daryl]

Yes - I am curious as well. The flat or straight edge hitting the steel will be more even, compared to the toothy strike of a napped flint.
The flat, even strike will penetrate less deeply than the spikey - toothy edge, but will also less likely to be damaged, as more of the surface of the flint
is being struck, thus reducing the striking force. Getting complicated.

[JEH]

I use diamond files to rework flints after they are removed from the cock. Flint in one hand and file in the other. You can salvage most of them for range work. Hunting flints are always new ones.

[Bill in Md]

Recurve, thank you for the tutorials....Very helpful!!!

[Don Steele]

Dennis,
The best technique I’ve found is to pass the file left-to-right on both the top of the rock and along the bottom edge as well. Not trying to create a new, different bevel… just using the file to keep the bevel  edge even, not “ pitted “ or gouged. Minimal pressure is all that’s required. Let the tool do the work, your hand just guides it. Filing a flint to maintain its utility in the lock removes much less material than knapping, but it is slower.

[smylee grouch]

Don Steele,s  method is kinda what i did with my old course file. I would lightly run the file downward across the top edge, you can feel and hear a faint chatter as the file was chipping minute chips off the edge.  It was a quick fix if you are on the line with a couple of  shots to go on a target/

[nemovir]

So we should replace with a fresh flint each time it stops sparking and reknap at home to prevent damage to the tumbler ?

[Darkhorse]

I don't use a new flint for hunting as I've had too many break the first few times I've used them. I find a good looking flint and shoot it a few times then save it for hunting. Before use I knap it good and sharp. Good ones might stay in the rifle all season.

[recurve]

No  you don't have to replace the flint every time
 BUT YOU MUST NOT ROUND OFF YOUR TUMBLER

the best way is replacing the flint but that's not passable always , SO  hold the cock out of battery( just past half cock ) so you don't hammer the safety part the half cock notch.  It feels weird at first but it will prolong you lock part and maybe save you from an unexpected hammer fall
                                                                    (BANG) when you don't want it like in a cabin   :'(

[Daryl]

Knapping a flint in the jaws of the cock.
Holding the cock back from 1/2 cock with the thumb, while the forefinger supports under the flint while the flint knapping hammer strikes the edge of the flint.

[Stoner creek]

You’re knapping left handed. I’m completely useless left handed. 

[Don Steele]

Daryl…Thanks for the great visual of knapping in the lock, with support.
I’m left handed… works for me..! 

[Daryl]

Taylor's hands - reverse for a rightly-handed person.
Apparently all people start out left handed as babies, but the more intelligent are able to drop that handicap and become right handed - or is it the other way around?