Where do you guys get your flints? (In America)

Well, is this just a coincidence? Last night I became a Forum Supporter. When I went through the few hoops to join, Paypal became the method of payment. So I joined Paypal and paid with my credit card. I got an email from 7 Global Community Solutions noting my payment and an email from Angie thanking me for my support. Tonight my wife just happened to be looking online at our credit card statement and noticed charges to several pizza place in Los Angeles for around $150 to $190 each. She called the credit card company immediately and canceled the card and has to call again in the morning. In other words we got hacked, moments after I joined Paypal. Again I have to ask, is this just a coincidence and we got hacked somehow else or have my misgivings about Paypal been proven true?

I generally get my flints from Track of the Wolf, sometime I can get them locally, but that is down under.

John Shaw said:

Well, is this just a coincidence? Last night I became a Forum Supporter. When I went through the few hoops to join, Paypal became the method of payment. So I joined Paypal and paid with my credit card. I got an email from 7 Global Community Solutions noting my payment and an email from Angie thanking me for my support. Tonight my wife just happened to be looking online at our credit card statement and noticed charges to several pizza place in Los Angeles for around $150 to $190 each. She called the credit card company immediately and canceled the card and has to call again in the morning. In other words we got hacked, moments after I joined Paypal. Again I have to ask, is this just a coincidence and we got hacked somehow else or have my misgivings about Paypal been proven true?

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That stinks. Very sorry you got hacked. I guess it can happen and your experience proved it. FWIW, nothing like that has ever happened to me. I guess they must look at my bank balance and figure it's not worth their bother.

John Shaw said:

Well, is this just a coincidence? Last night I became a Forum Supporter. When I went through the few hoops to join, Paypal became the method of payment. So I joined Paypal and paid with my credit card. I got an email from 7 Global Community Solutions noting my payment and an email from Angie thanking me for my support. Tonight my wife just happened to be looking online at our credit card statement and noticed charges to several pizza place in Los Angeles for around $150 to $190 each. She called the credit card company immediately and canceled the card and has to call again in the morning. In other words we got hacked, moments after I joined Paypal. Again I have to ask, is this just a coincidence and we got hacked somehow else or have my misgivings about Paypal been proven true?

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I have used Paypal, including international payments, for years with no issues.

I get them from Daniel Crandall in Moscow ID. He is on Facebook.

As I said in your other post, unless you posted your Paypal number and your password for the Paypal account on the forum, there is no way anyone reading or hacking the forum could know what it is.
Even if they hacked into our deepest, darkest areas like the Conversations or your private information you gave the forum when you signed up, they wouldn't find your Paypal information or your credit card number because, we don't have it (Unless you posted it to someone in a Conversation).

By the way, thank you for becoming a Supporting Member.

The most common way to get your info compromised is to let someone you don't know hold onto your card.

I've worked hundreds of Identity Theft cases over the years. Handing your credit/debit card to a waitress, bartender, gas station attendant, hotel manager, etc and let them walk away is the most common way to get got. I carry cash for meals, etc. I've asked to watch the motel clerk run my card. No issue when i do that.

I have seized 2 "Skimmers", about the size of a pack of chewing gum. One waitress kept it in her apron and every customer who paid by card got their info stolen. She then went to the public library to get online and sell the data... funny thing was the money went into a PayPal account... lol.

It even happened to me... a few years ago there was a local gas station who didn't have pay at the pump... we stopped and i told my wife to take the card inside while I filled up. I went inside and my wife was in the restroom... she came out, i asked where the card was, she pointed to the 20 something behind the counter. He gave me back my card while my gut clinched.
2 days later I got a call from the bank... they'd stopped payment due to suspicious activity. Several large items had been shipped to a derelict industrial complex in DFW and a waiting flatbed truck took the items and forged a signature. I called the local PD, they said it happens daily, there's no cameras and no chance of a follow up.

The only good news is if you sign the affidavit at the bank you should get your money back... but it sucks.

The takeaway...
DON'T LET YOUR CARD OUT OF YOUR SIGHT.

I'll give a great vote for Stonewall Creek outfitters.
Their prices are competitive and I have been very happy with the flints I received.
Mostly French amber but I did buy a dozen black English flints.

John Shaw said:

Well, is this just a coincidence? Last night I became a Forum Supporter. When I went through the few hoops to join, Paypal became the method of payment. So I joined Paypal and paid with my credit card. I got an email from 7 Global Community Solutions noting my payment and an email from Angie thanking me for my support. Tonight my wife just happened to be looking online at our credit card statement and noticed charges to several pizza place in Los Angeles for around $150 to $190 each. She called the credit card company immediately and canceled the card and has to call again in the morning. In other words we got hacked, moments after I joined Paypal. Again I have to ask, is this just a coincidence and we got hacked somehow else or have my misgivings about Paypal been proven true?

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Just from past experience, might be a virus on your computer. If you are not running a top end virus and internet protection software, you may be get mimicked as you type. Hackers find MANY ways to get to you. My son loaded a cheap off the internet virus program, only to find out it was not really a virus program, but a key reader that send his info to the bad guys. I have used Paypal for 20 years or more. I have changed cards several times, changed banks a couple of times. NEVER had an issue with Paypal.

The last batch of the Fuller English flints I got about a month ago were horrendous- I'm not sure I would get them again even though i have had good luck in the past. I've ordered the French flints from several sources mentioned and they seem to be knapped better overall. One source I don't think has been mentioned is Jedediah Starr trading. They sell the English, but touch the tops up using a grinder themselves if needed.

I personally would pay double for flints if it would result in better overall quality. I do question if any of the current "knappers" even know the final use of their flints- I mean actually have fired a flintlock or at least have a couple of locks to try out themselves. There is often times a disconnect between makers and end users.

Two of my local sports shops have them on the shelf. When Im in there I will sift through the stock and pick out the best couple or so and buy them.

I usually add several flints to any TOW order. I now have a bag with about 4-5 dozen flints...somewhere

Darkhorse said:

I get most of my flints from Track of the Wolf. I give them a description of how I want my flints to look, example: Flat on top, no obvious inclusions in flint. And that's what they mostly send. Unless one breaks I'll get around 40 shots out of each one.
I haven't ordered from these folks but I might next time I need some.
http://www.neolithics.com/gun-flints/

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Yep, just tell them what you want & they do a good job to hand pick for you. I always ask for flatter, thinner, and especially No Humps & they comply. I've only gotten a couple that weren't what I wanted & a quick e-mail to Customer Service & they promptly sent out replacements.

AZbpBurner said:

Yep, just tell them what you want & they do a good job to hand pick for you. I always ask for flatter, thinner, and especially No Humps & they comply. I've only gotten a couple that weren't what I wanted & a quick e-mail to Customer Service & they promptly sent out replacements.

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That's good to know. I'll remember to do this when I reorder from TOTW. I think they may have saved all the humps for me. LOL

Rick

Go to Etsy.com, search for 'flint rock'. You can find big nodules or boxes of flint spalls at a rate around $40 for 15 pounds. Georgetown flint seems to spark pretty good. Some I ordered came in the form of spalls maybe 2X3 inches, quarter inch thick, so they have to be taken outside and worked down in size (requiring a railroad spike driven into a stump for an anvil and maybe a masonry hammer). A small flat rate postal box (5X8X1-1/2 or thereabouts) holds about 40 oz of spalls. 5 oz of spalls should produced, considering production waste, 10 flints; i.e. around 30 flints per pound of rock. Cost per flint is somewhere just less than a dollar.

Sometimes a flint seems to spark forever, and other times its service life is only around 20 shots. I figure if I buy a Track flint for $2.50, it represents centuries of skilled craftsmanship and heritage, and if it breaks on the first shot, or only lasts 10 or 15 shots, I feel like weeping. If my crude homemade flint only lasts two relays at a match, well, it was just a piece of rock.