Frizzen Surface Texture

[silky]

Couldn’t find info on this…

Should the face of a frizzen be as smooth as possible, or is some roughness beneficial in giving the flint a little more to bite into? I’m polishing a lock now and want to use the right abrasives.

Thanks.

- Tom

[JeffG]

I am far from an expert, only a well travelled operator. The frizzen should have a working surface, clearly showing roughness of use and contact. To me polishing the strike face of a frizzen would be counter to its use.




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[Daryl]

Smooth to start, seems to me.  It will get vertical scratches with shooting. If polished, it won't stay polished very long so no use polishing it.
IIRC an 8" grinder makes the perfect angle(& finish) on most frizzens.
The "Indian made" musket I had, had cross grooves cut on the frizzen's face. Ridiculous. I ground those off smooth and then it sparked very well.
The rougher the surface, the harder it is on flints.

[recurve]

an 80s build frizzen

[smart dog]

Hi,
You want it as smooth as a pane of glass at least at the beginning.  As it wears the resulting texture won't hurt very much until the face gets really wash boarded and hollowed out.  Then grind the face flat again. With a smooth face you are presenting the maximum practical amount of steel to the flint. That changes as you shoot and in some cases scarring on the face may coincide with the serrations on the flint giving you a lot of spark. But you cannot predict that and in many cases the scaring won't coincide and you will get less spark.  It is best to start with a smooth face ang go from there.  I fix peoples sparking problems all the time by just grinding the battery smooth.

dave   

[silky]

Alright, sounds like smooth is the way to go then. Thanks for weighing in, guys.

Dave, I’m actually working over an L&R Queen Anne lock, using your write-up as my guide. I want to get good at lock work so I bought that one specifically so I could follow along. With the goal being “learning through challenge,” I guess I lucked out! It has a three-position sear, weak frizzen spring, and a pan-frizzen “fit” you could mistake for a coin slot on a pay phone. But I’m really enjoying it and learning a ton — thanks for putting it together. The frizzen will be smooth, too!

[smart dog]

Hi Tom,
Good for you!!!   Good luck and don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

dave