Which Flints Produce the Best Spark?

muzzle-loader said:

We are currently conducting some research regarding muzzleloader flints and we wanted to see what you all thought. What types of agate have you found to produce the best spark and durability?

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The best flint is the flint correctly fitted in a good quality lock with a correctly hardened frizzen...
I never did use any agate, but french blond and black Englishes flints : for me the Frenches blond more than the Englishes just because the French "blonds du Berry" are cut not far from my home and therefore much cheaper than the English flints, for the rest it works just as well even if they are a little less durable than the Englishes...

Material from Flint Ridge (near Gratiot and Zanesville, OH) is very beautiful, and it will spark in a good lock; but flint in the New World is geologically newer than European flint, which sparks even better and lasts longer. Flint Ridge material makes gorgeous projectile points. There is a small park near Gratiot with a hiking trail and some ancient excavation pits. The flint is not to be taken from the park, but there is a nearby farm where people can dig out flint for a very modest price. The park at Flint Ridge is worth a visit.

deerstalkert said:

i spent a week in Flint Michigan one day, does that count?

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Don’t drink the water.

david w said:

Flint Ridge State Memorial - Wikipedia

https://www.goknapping.com/

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thank you. know I know the rest of the story! toot.

Redlemur60 said:

Ive been using jamestown tx. Chert
30$ 20# works just fine ! And knapps well! Nap?knap?
Ok sparks better than ISpell

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HEY, at least you are trying!

sharp flints spark best

La Loop posted a bit of French issues during the Fand I war. On average about one flint twenty rounds or less.
Did they dress their own flint, or shoot till one coach and change/discard?
Most of us will get better out of a flint then that. Especially on a big fusil/musket lock
Even early rifles might be fit with a big Queen Anne lock.

I aquired, petrified wood .im trying that too!

I have a friend who has a sharpening stone made from petrified wood and it is very very hard . should make a good flint .

I get good results from English black and French tan flints.

Upon receiving a bag of a dozen the flints are sorted into three piles:

Good- thin, flat, even across top and bottom. Save for hunting and match shooting.

Okay- thicker, maybe a bit uneven on top and bottom. Use for training.

Ugly- steep, almost blunt edge, edge retouched on bottom, pointy or uneven top, serious rocker on bottom. Glue on bits of leather to even out top, maybe a bit of leather under the rear edge to adjust angle. Diamond file, mizzy wheel in Dremel, or tile saw for extreme cases.

I like to glue leathers on the flints. Simplifies changing flints on the firing line. Cut leather, punch hole in middle, attach with contact cement.

Check tightness of jaw screw after first few shots with a new flint- the leather will compress. Check jaw screw from time to time.

I get best results with the sharp ones.

Loyalist Dave said:

didn't GENTELMEN JOHNNY, tell his woman, that I will be home for supper? or something like that? well OOPS! what happened? those DAMM YANKEES had a surprise for him!

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Couldn't care less about a solo battle, when it comes to which flints are the best.
It will one day be academic....,
There is sooo much flint in the UK that they also use it for building materials.

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LD
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I wanna buy that wall!!!

Go out and Knapp a building.

Have tried others , but French and British are hard to beat.

toot said:

There is sooo much flint in the UK that they also use it for building materials.
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I wanna buy that wall!!!
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Most of the flint used in walls and for ships ballast was rejected as not being suitable for gunflint making , the flint "scraps" left over from gunflint making was used on roads , flint was what is now known as a strategic material and was hard to mine and was not wasted if it could be made into gunflints

OK! now I know the rest of the story. I don't want to buy the wall now! LOL!.

Cutfinger said:

I wanna buy that wall!!!

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Most of the flint used in walls and for ships ballast was rejected as not being suitable for gunflint making , the flint "scraps" left over from gunflint making was used on roads , flint was what is now known as a strategic material and was hard to mine and was not wasted if it could be made into gunflints
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When was that determination made though?
I ask as for a good part of the 18th century the English knapping wasn't so good, even into the beginning of the 19th century. So I wonder if the stuff wasn't "good" for flints, or was it "not good for how we make flints", but later the English flint knapping became and remains quite good. So perhaps the rejected material would work now?

LD

A lot of pieces of flint not suitable as gunflints were made into strike-a-lights for fire making etc .
There is a Museum here in NZ which has a brand new English strike-a-light set from the late 1700's - early 1800's . It is wrapped in paper and bound with string ,with a label printed on the outside . Other than the label they have no idea exactly what is inside , or what the contents look like. They will not open the wrapping to find out , The two books I recommend for information on the history of mining flint and making gunflints are "The Manufacture of Gunflints " by Sydney Skertcherly 1879 and "Indian Trade Guns" by various authors , Pioneer Press Union City Tennessee

The best flint is the kind you find where you live: Get to know what type/what it looks like and take time to look. Then learn to chip and fit

Clean, dry ,sharp, flints with no visible cracks or inclusions , that fit both your frizzen and cock , it doesn't matter where the flint came from ,what it is called , what color it is , who made it etc .Just that it works .