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Rev War gunspalls vs flints

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rattinox

Pilgrim
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As far as I'm aware, most of the musket "flints" found at Rev War encampments-both British and American- were gunspalls, not nicely knapped flints as we know them.......

True or false? I've heard from the warring parties on both sides :surrender:

Any commentary and/or wisdom would be appreciated!!
 
This I know....The British and French used both methods. However the French used the spalled method primarily, especially on the larger flints, as was done sometimes by the English, but the English mostly used the knapping method we see used today. I forget the proper names assigned to the two different methods. Someone(Paul, hint, hint :grin: ) can chime in on the proper nomenclature. Below are pre 1800 1 1/4"-1 1/2" French and English flints.
frenchEnglishflints005.jpg
 
Logically, there should be a mix of gun spalls and gun flints (the flints as we know them today). The French learned how to flake the flints long before the British solved the process around 1780 (possibly from French POWs) so there should be more flints at French sites and sites of French supplied forces and more spalls at British sites. As an example, Fort Frederica was an English fort on St. Simons Island (Georgia) which was active from 1736 to 1749 when the garrison was withdrawn. The site remained a trading village until 1758 when it was destroyed by a fire and not rebuilt. Recovered by excavation were 278 spalls and 113 flakes. Since the English flint nodes are much larger than the French nodes, English production rapidly outstripped the French once the French method of production was mastered in England. Hamilton devotes 25 pages to the history and techniques for making spalls and flints in his book "Colonial Frontier Guns" which gives a good overview of the subject.
 
Thanks!

I've read "Colonial Frontier Guns" by Hamilton(?) many times- fascinating info.

I got hooked on those gorgeous French amber flints for my .58 cal smoothbore "Partisan Musket"- very reliable, at least on my lock.
 
Hamilton spends 25 pages going over the differences in the English and French methods and results for producing gun flints.
I will try to be shorter (the way I type using only 1 or 2 fingers will force brevity anyway). Per Hamilton, "there are two basic types of gun flints: those made from flakes struck from prepared cores, and those made from spalls struck from nodules or cores."
Without getting into the how of making flints, the French system is much more efficient in the use of raw flint nodules and is used to produce most of the flints that we use today - generally a somewhat lopsided trapezoid when viewed from the side. In this system, several individual flints are produced from a "lame" or blade of flint struck off of a core. Until they learned the secret of the French system. the English produced spalls, struck one at a time from the nodule. These gun-spalls are typically wedge shaped when viewed from the side and sometimes have a rounded shape at the rear when viewed from the top. The French system generally produces a rectangular outline when viewed from the top. After about 1780, the French system seems to have become more or less universal.
 
I have my own theories about spall versus blade-derived gunflints not directly matching with those of the venerable and appreciated Hamilton. Things to consider: At sites dating from 1760 through 1820 it is not uncommon to find both spall type and blade type musket flints together in various ratios. This goes against the idea that one type is early, and another late, though it is true that spall flints disappear for sporting guns in the late flint period.

The proposal that French knew how to make blades and the English did not: Contrary to this hypothesis, there are plenty of French spall flints, and plenty of English blade flints mixed in with English spall flints. I have never bought the idea that the English did not know how to make blade flints; that is was a French trade secret. Since Cro-Magnon times, all cultures have known how to make flint blades.


I obtained a lot of original English and French flints from Nepal where they were found in a warehouse and spall and blade flints are both present in good numbers. These likely date to post 1800 based on the history of the region.

There is no doubt that from certain types of cores, using the blade technique is more efficient. But when a core is small or nearly exhausted, a spall flint can still be obtained after no more blades can be struck off.
 
sniper68 said:

3 of these are spall flints; the rest are blade-made, even when their backs are rounded. That someone would round the back of a blade-struck flint is interesting to me. More work. Does it mean folks were used to the spall type and expected that? Or just a stylistic preference?
 
Perhaps the mixture is simply the result of wanting to use up all of each flint nodule - when too small to strike off blades, then make spalls & keep the trash heap from growing too fast. Particularly in France where the nodules are smaller. :idunno:
 
This is very interesting to me as i'm trying to learn to make my own. Thanks to all of you, and please keep this information coming. :hatsoff:
 
One theory is that the English moved Heavan and earth to get flints from the French as they were better than the spalls this would explain the mix, untill the Brits figured out and made their own,It would seem that if you had six or seven of these laid together that a light bulb would go on pretty quickly, I cannot see generations of the Brits not catching on. how early are there any British decriptions of the process compared to the French records?, I can see the spalls being an early mainstay due to the simplicity of manufcature and less demanding raw material requirements
 
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