Cruzatte said:
Thanks, Gus. I stand corrected. Much appreciated.
You are most welcome.
I think I first learned of Flint Wallets on my first trip to Colonial Williamsburg in 1975 while visiting the Saddler's Shop and taking notes on as many items they were making as possible. Not sure if they were mentioned in Sketchbook '76 as well?
Though I can't document this, I suspect they were more common for the military than civilian use for much of the 18th century - though that is just speculation on my part.
I imagine a civilian going out just for a day's hunt would have checked to ensure the flint in the top jaw was sparking correctly before he loaded his gun and if not, either he knapped the edge to ensure it did or replaced the flint then. Unless the civilian was going to take a whole bunch of shots while hunting, he may or may not have carried an extra flint, though an extra in the Shot Pouch would usually have sufficed for most period day hunts if the first flint broke.
I also recall reading that during inspections of local Militia, they were required to have at least one or two extra flints when they stood inspection, but I can't place my hands on that documentation right now.
I have seen flints severely chip or break years ago when shooting the Northwest Trade Gun Aggregate and one time I ran that shoot at Friendship for a couple days. Since once the competitor crossed the line and could not go get a replacement flint, most competitors had at least one replacement flint on their person. The idea of not being allowed to "re-cross the line" to get something one forgot, was to replicate what would happen during the period if you forgot something when in the wilderness.
Actually from the two days of Volunteer Running the Northwest Trade Gun match, I learned quite a lot in my early years of shooting flintlocks. Though the rules did not require it, when I ran the Match, I stopped competitors and reminded them once they crossed the line, they could not go back for something they forgot. So I always suggested they do a final check of their gear before they crossed the line. Most of the competitors really appreciated that extra warning/suggestion.
Still, I saw what happened to others when Murphy got to dancing on them during such matches. Some forgot some important things and lost points because of it. One guy forgot his throwing knife, so he had to forfeit his three knife throws. I whispered to a brand new shooter before he crossed the line and asked how he was going to compete with knife and tomahawk? (He looked down and much to his embarrassment, he had forgotten both, so he went back to camp to retrieve them before he crossed the line.) Some things broke and I saw some ingenious fixes at times. One guy forgot bird shot to shoot the three clay pigeons and he wound up shaving pieces off a ball with a knife to shoot with. He actually hit one clay pigeon of the three that way with his own modified version of "buck and ball."
The most remarkable thing that happened those two days was when Doc Andy Baker showed up to shoot. Doc Baker was a Gynecologist in civilian life and often commented he wasn't an outlaw biker, but rather as he said, "I are a real Mountain Man." Doc was much respected both as a person and for his period knowledge and shooting skills. Yet this day, Doc Baker looked in REALLY rough shape. I asked him if he really felt good enough to shoot and suggested he might want to wait a few hours or till the next day. He informed me that if he was going to shoot the match, he had to do it then, but he did grin and commented he had had a little too much of "passing the jugs" the night before. Well, it turned out that was probably the worst Doc Baker had done in that match for years and my heart went out to him. I offered my condolences and with a twinkle in his eye, his reply was, "Well, it seems today I could not hit a bullseye at two feet even if it had hair around it...." Took me a few seconds to get the joke and when I did, I almost broke up laughing then and many times since.
Gus
