are a real problem for me. I purchased a flint pistol Harper's Ferry model and have had trouble getting consistent ingition. Trouble is with the no sparks which I assume are the result of a bad flint.Who makes the best flint for purchase? Where? What should I look for?

What can I do to make a bad flint work? I want a real shower of sparks. Using 4F BP. Nothing more disapointing than a non-spark trigger pull.

Is a difference between target flints and hunting flint? Are english flints the best?

HELP...please!

I've had good luck with English flints, but your problem could be a soft frizzen or poor lock geometry. Try Dixie Gunworks or Track of the Wolf for flints.
http://www.dixiegunworks.com/default.php?cPath=22_99_315&osCsid=ea989c5954c633d4894cbb127cdefb4b

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/categories/catList.aspx?catID=2#29

While there are a fair number of flint shooters here, the Muzzleloading Forum has some real experts. Check them out.
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/fusionbb.php?

Bye
Jack

My flintlocks perform well with English or German knapped flints. The local gun shops carry them and they are very reasonable. All the best...
Gil

The current issue of Muzzleblast magazine has an interesting article by the Bevel brothers on flints. They went through an English flint mine, and discussed the various differences between English gray and black flints, the French amber flints, and then did a test of a number of different types. You might want to try to find a copy of the new Muzzleblast just for that article.

That test basically said that there wasn't really a big difference between the number of strikes they got between the English grays and blacks before that had to be reknapped. The blacks lasted longer, but not by much. The French ambers produced a somewhat better shower of sparks, but didn't last as long as either the English grays or blacks before they had to be reknapped.

I'd go along with Jack's post about the problem possibly being either the frizzen, or the geometry of your lock. Same thing with Jack's suggestion of checking with either Dixie or Track of the Wolf for new flints.

All...thanks for the information. Since I am new to flint shooting, I have another question. What is "knapping" a flint? How is it done? What do you use to do it with? What is the objective?

As you can tell I am really a newbe to flint lock shooting.

Thanks again.

Knapping a flint means knocking off chips to shape or sharpen it. Sometimes I'm successful, sometimes I end up with some useless gravel.

This thread maay help you setting your flint.
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/192717/post/257541/hl/bevel/#257541

Bye
Jack

The National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association has published some articles and a book on knapping flints, but I couldn't find a reference for you. Muzzle Blasts magazine is their member magazine. You could try contacting NMLRA directly for more info.

NMLRA
P.O. Box 67
Friendship, IN 47021
Phone: 812-667-5131

Well, I'm like Jack...sometimes a winner, sometimes a gravel pile. Because of my lack of knapping skills, I have given in to some modern technology to improve my primative success. I put a masonry grinding wheel on my grinder and re-bevel my flints. This works but the first couple strikes on the frizzen after grinding usually throws pieces of flint off, sometimes the flint shatters to oblivion too.

I've had cut agate flints run for 50+ shots and others made one or two before crapping out, pot luck on these. Black english seem to last the longest overall but I've had these crap out in a few shots too but not as often as others. Brown amber from finland or iceland...sorry, don't recall off hand, maybe neither of these is right? Lasted a long time but didn't throw a whole lot of sparks but just enough to fire the pan everytime, have not seen them in years though.

I'd go with the other on saying your frizzen hardness or lock geometry is the likely cause. Face of the frizzen should be hard enough that you cannot cut it with a file. On the other hand, if you get it too hard too deep, it'll break.

Here's a place for flintknappers. I'm sure someone there would know how to knap flints. Mostly they do arrowheads and knives and such. I asked about the best flint for flintlocks once and one of the guys mentioned blue Coshoctan flint from northern Ohio. If you already belong to a yahoo group becoming a member wont be any hassle. Otherwise you would have to register and all that nonsense.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheTarp/

I don't know anything about amber fllints but here's a link. I've only used German Agate "milled" flints

http://www.horstguns.com/page8flints.html

The August issue of Muzzle Blast magazine from the NMLRA has an article in "Stump The Experts", by the Bevel Brothers, on knapping flints, starting at Page 53. If any of you can find a copy of the magazine, it might be interesting. It's really too long to paraphrase here, but it tells how they do it.