Tuning a flintlock

One thing in his article that I did not agree with is that a good flint is only good for about 12 shots.

I have had pieces of English flint go for 10 times that many shots.
 
I've had one flint that lasted over 100 shots. Of course, I had to reset it a couple of times, but it's one of those "luck of the draw" things where you sometimes get a real good flint that has good internal integrity and sometimes one that flakes apart after a few shots.
 
A few years ago I bought a bunch of English flint from Mountian State. I shoot a lot and I still have a lot of it left.

On a good lock that has the proper angles on the frizzen and hammer a good piece of English flint will always last a long time.

Out of ten flints you may find one that is not so good. You can useally look at the flint and tell if it is right before you put it in your hammer.

Also I have found that lead will hold the flint much better than leather.

I take a ball and beat it flat on an anvil. Just cut a piece to wrap around your flint and tighten it down good and it will not come lose.

The only time I use leather is if I have a piece of flint that is too short. A piece of thick leather will bring it out closer to the frizzen.

You will also notice that you will have much quicker lock time if you wipe off the frizzen and flint between shots. A real dirty flint and frizzen will not spark so well.

A clean pan will ignite the priming powder better. On a dirty pan if some of the sparks miss the priming they will stick to the dirty powder residue on the pan. On a clean pan the sparks that miss the powder will bounce around and possibly hit the priming.
 
One thing not mentioned is the location of the flash or touch hole. Most of the flintlocks made today by reputable makers will work pretty good, but a poorly located flash hole will spoil the best of these. The hole should be the proper diameter and it should be positioned so that it is a window to the flash pan, not a drain to it. Generally speaking the hole should be in line with the top of the pan, or maybe even a bit higher. Try this and you'll see that even a cheap flintlock will go off a lot more regularly.
 
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